On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 10:06 AM, joseph seddon <
life_is_bitter_sweet(a)hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>>
I've advised Mike on this in detail, but I'll put a summary here. If
>> this committee is going to be negotiating with WMF before we've spoken
>> to a lawyer, then we want to have nothing to do with it.
>
> Thomas, who is "we"? As far as I know, WmUK was one of the many
chapters
that
mandated the committee, so I am not sure whether "we" is "you
personally" or whether the board's opinion has officially changed.
I mean WMUK. Strictly speaking, I should have said "we *should* want"
or "it would be in our best interests to".
_______________________________________________
Speaking as a board member (but not the whole board), I felt it was in our
best interests to be
part of the combined efforts of the chapters to deal with the multiple
issues associated with the
new agreement. It is simply not an option to try and work unilaterally
whilst the other chapters
are working on producing a refined version together and as a whole. There
is nothing stopping
us from seeking legal advice and I believe steps are being taken towards
that, but I have to whole
heartedly disagree that we should have nothing to do with this commitee.
If, following legal advice and the work being done by the commitee (which
we have a representative on),
there are still issues with the chapters agreement, we can follow these up.
We arent required to renew our
agreement for some time so we have some breathing space. Lets work as both
a chapter and with the commitee
in smoothing over this chapters agreement.
May I also say that the Committee is a very nice venue to share and compare
legal advice received by chapters in a confidential setting? WmCH for
example has mandated a lawyer to review the agreement and we have already
received a first analysis with quite a lot of detailed comments (from a
Swiss perspective, of course, but many of them globally applicable) -- and
we have sent these comments on to the committee or are just about to do so.
Best,
Michael
--
Michael Bimmler
mbimmler(a)gmail.com