Hi folks, I can probably comment this, as a member of both Wikimedia Russia and a Tatar language-specific UG. On top of participation in Wikimedia Language Diversity initiative on meta, I am also contemplating and working towards starting a territory-specific UG for my region + an incubator UG for more language-specific UG in the languages of Russia.
Wikimedians of Russia seem to see the matreshkas of (1) "global conference - regional conference - topic-specific conferences" & (2) WMF & affiliates general meeting - national chapters - UGs" as natural structures, each addressing different tasks, having different priorities, whilst cooperating in various projects. * Wikimedia Russia legal requirements (in-person quorum for decision-making, etc.) doesn't allow us to accept into membership all members of all our regional, language or topic specific UGs. So our chapter is evolving towards a mixed confederation status, selectively welcoming some members from various groupings around Russia (which themselves can't be neither cells nor branches of WMRU). * SPB is not purely a city, but a one of 85 provinces (read states) of the Russian Federation (like my home Republic of Tatarstan, neighbouring Republic of Bashkortostan with its Bashkir Wiki-grandmas, or a city of Moscow). * Once we will spin out UG MSK, we will complete transforming Wikimedia Russia into a collective entity for join tasks, working on national-level advocacy & other projects. * We currently have 5 existing UGs, have two more filed & at least one more at the preparation stage - as this is a good way to engage locally or topically interested public into Wikimedia universe. regards, farhad -- Farhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan / Wikidata:Q34036417 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
