> So a group of chapters, reacting against a perceived effort to centralize > the movement, create a brand new central body with an extensive (and > apparently, expensive) bureaucracy? Are there really a lot of people that > think this is a good idea?
Yes, there are lots of people that think this is a good idea. Currently, there are 3 things not happening, which are causing us problems: 1) There's not really anyone to help chapters develop. If you have a group of Wikipedians who want to set up a chapter, there are lots of challenges but not many resources to help you do it. The resources there are are quite informal. And once you're going, there's not a great deal of help in offer to help you grow and get more active. 2) Equally, there isn't really a very good way of assessing chapters' performance. There is an element of formal regulation in that if a Chapter doesn't stick to the Chapter Agreement is could be de-chaptered. And for chapters with a strong membership base and good links to the project communities, there is a very important role for oversight by members/communities. But apart from the tripwire of the Chapter Agreement, and the important but fairly uneven scrutiny of different memberships, there isn't really a mechanism for review and feedback - which is actually part of the same problem as 1). 3) Finally, there are problems of communication between the Wikimedia Foundation and the Chapters.There is no good mechanism for sounding Chapters' views corporately. When the Foundation asks "What do chapters think about X"? they find that half-a-dozen people will argue at length on an email list, without necessarily being representative of anyone, and probably without proposing anything useful. Communication fragments, gets heated, and becomes unproductive quickly. If we can find solutions to these three problems, it will be well worth the investment. Obviously setting up a new body is not guaranteed to succeed, and there are lots of details to be worked out, many of them important - but it is worth doing. Chris (Wikimedia UK board, speaking personally) _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
