Sorry, but this was really intended to go to the list, rather than
just one individual. The reply function currently only seems to be
replying to the one person.
gerald lists wrote:
> I saw that you have registered the domain name "wikimedia.ca".
>
> I thought that you might be involved (or want to be involved) in the
> formation of a nonprofit "Wikimedia Canada".
>
> I'm trying to put together an ad-hoc group to start the legal part. Would
> you be interested in being part of this group?
It's good to see people taking an occasional interest in this idea.
Last year I started a series of pages related to the by-laws, hoping
that it would get some sort of response. I made a point of starting
with the membership section of the by-laws because I knew that it would
be one of the most difficult ones. Putting the ideas into a language
resembling legalese is not difficult, but knowing what ideas people want
to put into the by-laws is.
I have no problem with the Foundation's policy that a national chapter
should be membership based, but just who will be a member for legal
purposes still needs to be defined. In some respects there is a
romantic attraction to having every Canadian who contributes to either
the English or French Wikipedia treated as a member, but that would be
totally impractical. Membership can be based on making a positive
statement that one wants to become a member, perhaps accompanied by a
membership fee; this would also need to be accompanied by a section
about when memberships terminate.
Another possibility is to have a smaller membership that is co-equal
with its board of directors. This would create a situation comparable
to the one used by WMF now. Unlike WMF I know of no provision in
Canadian law that would allow for a corporation without members as is
allowed by Florida law.
It has been a while since since I last set up a federal corporation, but
I expect that the cost of doing so should not exceed $500. There is no
requirement that the incorporation be done by a lawyer, except for
facilitating a name search and reservation.
Ec
Hi everybody.
Just a few points.
1. Is it necesary that we work through a lawyer (or
law firm)? Isn't it possible that we can do all the
technicalities ourselves?
2. I too agrre that the incorporated entry should be
on the federal level- just one note, will there be a
physical center, or office of some kind, or legal
address at least? And if yes, then where does everyone
think it should be located?
3. Thirdly, I can do my best to volunteer and be on
the board, if need be, so you can count me in.
Regards, Emil Jabbarli.
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> 1. Re: Initial group announcement (gerald lists)
> 2. Re: Initial group announcement (Nicholas
> Moreau)
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>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:57:52 -0400
> From: "gerald lists" <geraldablists(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-Canada] Initial group
> announcement
> To: wikimedia-ca(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Message-ID:
>
>
<8e0ed1e00704171157q5f3ba29dy3beec73b2a5bf339(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hopefully we now have all 10 people on board the
> list, as well as some from
> before.
>
> Welcome, all.
>
> The next steps are contact with legal entities
> (lawyer(s)?) to find out what
> > needs to be done to get this happening from a
> legal viewpoint. I want to get
> > some guesstimates about the cost of the process,
> so we can start to pencil
> > together a budget for this process.
>
>
> Ok, I've contacted one law firm on this, and their
> "ballpark" figure was
> about $1000. So, to be safe, let's guess this is
> $1,200. I will contact a
> few other firms, to make sure this is a reasonable
> guess.
>
> We should also think about a couple of "vision"
> points ... what Wikimedia
> > Canada wants to do, what we want to achieve. There
> are already a number of
> > great ideas on Meta about this, and I have some
> too.
> >
>
> One vision point which has already been discussed is
> community benefit.
> After all, the WMF's goal is to bring knowledge to
> the masses for free. And
> that is pretty special.
>
> Now we have to draw up a bit of a timetable, and
> plan what has to happen
> when. All initial 10 people I approached have a
> flexible commitment to
> moving this forward, but we should start soliciting
> for people who may want
> to be on the board. The board isn't going to be that
> much work -- I guess a
> few e-mails and possibly a conference call in a
> month. If you can spare an
> hour, or know someone who can commit to that in a
> month, I think that should
> be great for now.
>
> >From reading the various bits, it seems like the
> best way to pursue this is
> as a Federal non profit. We have to make sure that
> makes us nonprofit in all
> Canadian jurisdictions.
>
> Here is what has been started, so far:
>
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Incorporation
>
> Let's see if we can come up with the needed bylaws.
> I will be looking for
> some examples, if anyone has some references feel
> free to add them.
>
> Thanks,
> Gerald.
>
Hi,
I'd like to announce that we've reached the magic number of 10 people who I
set out to recruit. Thank you to all that responded, and I'm still trying to
make sure everyone is subscribed and on the mailing list.
This initial group will be the people to get the ball rolling, and discuss
the bylaws and general policies once Wikimedia Canada is up and running.
Membership to this group isn't closed now that we've reached 10, but my
feeling is with 10 people we now have enough to start mapping out the
process.
The next steps are contact with legal entities (lawyer(s)?) to find out what
needs to be done to get this happening from a legal viewpoint. I want to get
some guesstimates about the cost of the process, so we can start to pencil
together a budget for this process.
We should also think about a couple of "vision" points ... what Wikimedia
Canada wants to do, what we want to achieve. There are already a number of
great ideas on Meta about this, and I have some too.
I welcome any suggestions, advice, or comments on what we need to do, and
how it should get done.
Thanks,
Gerald.
Hi all,
There are 100 participants on the WMC webpage, but not much real noise in
almost a year.
I'm here to make some noise. :)
I have some ideas and goals for the Canadian chapter, and that might help us
move forward. I don't want to trample on others though, so I thought I'd
solicit ideas first.
A brief intro from me... I'm from Wikiversity, and geographically located in
Toronto. I've left a few comments on meta already, as well as have started
to make inquiries about how to make this a reality.
Please, feel free to chime in.
Thanks,
Gerald