[Foundation-l] International Wikimedia structure

Mon Jun 21 20:11:02 UTC 2004

On Monday, June 21, 2004 9:07 PM
Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- Arne Klempert <wikipedia at klempert.de> wrote:
>> The following points are important to me:
>>
>> * There should be as clear as possible a separation between projects
>> and chapters because all projects are international and should
>> remain widely self-determined.
>>
>> * Chapters should not primarily spend their money for projects in a
>> certain language but on all projects, as far as legally possible.
>>
>> * There should be no sub-chapters on national level (i.e. Wikimedia
>> Austria as a sub-chapter of Wikimedia Germany). Each national chapter
>> should be directly assigned to the Foundation. Exceptions could be
>> meaningful for regional chapters, which could be subordinated to the
>> national chapters.
>>
>> The bylaws of Wikimedia Germany consider these principles. I would be
>> glad, if future chapters would do this likewise.
>>
>> We should create an international organization to promote *together*
>> all international projects and not create an accumulation of single
>> organizations, which primarily promote "their" projects.
>
> Wow! I'm very impressed with the amount of thought that went into
> Wikimedia Germany's bylaws.

Thank you. We discussed the bylaws for about six months, but the
principles above seemed so important and logical to all people involved
in the preparation for Wikimedia Germany, that we didn't need to discuss
them at all.

An English translation of the German bylaws can be found here (still in
progress):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vereinssatzung/Englisch

-akl