[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

Tue Jul 10 17:11:08 UTC 2007

I already forgot who it was but someone raised a very good point:  
What to do about the District of Columbia? It shares so much of it's  
area with Maryland and Virginia. You almost have to do it regionally  
there.

Which leads to a second point: is membership in one state or regional  
chapter going to be made exclusive from membership in another one? Or  
will that be left up to the chapters to determine (i.e. WM Montana  
may require you to be a montana resident, WM Arizona may not)?

-Dan

On Jul 10, 2007, at 12:48 PM, Delphine Ménard wrote:

> On 7/10/07, Casey Brown <cbrown1023 at comcast.net> wrote:
>> ChapComm says the US is too big and we must split up into state-level
>> chapters.  Can we please get someone from ChapComm to say these  
>> things so
>> that I don't have to keep regurgitating what I've been told? :-/
>
> When I discussed with  Andrew (Whiteknight) about this, I suggested
> that "Wikimedia Philadelphia" was a bit vague and didn't define an
> area of action.
>
> Basically, the explanation in the bylaws draft was that the chapter
> would operate  (and I quote)
>
> "in the greater Philadelphia area (which includes portions of
> Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware)".
>
> I pointed out that this would prevent any other chapter in the area to
> "claim" that geographical region. If I am not mistaken, US states are
> pretty independant when it comes to legal stuff, and a non profit in
> FL does not have the exact same obligations/rights as in PA. But I may
> be mistaken.
>
> After reading all the reactions, I still stand on the fact that the
> chapter should be called by the name of the state in which it is to be
> incorporated. However, I see no reason why a chapter could not "claim"
> to work on a broader scale and reach out further than state borders,
> and this I told Andrew at the very beginning, who agreed that having
> three chapters for the "greater something or other areas" operating in
> the same states might be confusing in the long run.
>
> I believe there are lots of Wikimedians who don't pertain to a "city"
> or a "region" that could be covered with names such as "The Greater
> Philadelphia area" and might feel left out of the Wikimedia "real
> life" bunch altogether.
>
> This said, if I am utterly wrong in my assessment, I am ready to be
> convinced otherwise.
>
> Delphine
> -- 
> ~notafish
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>
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