Wikimedia Chapters Association/Establishment of the Chapter Council Steering Committee

WCA – index Edit
Action Teams Advice Chapters Exchange Peer Review FAQ Research Survey 1 Voice Chapters Portal WCA Journal WCA Glossary of the Wikimedia movement WCA Chapters Manual Points of Contact Statements Presentations General and rules Members of WCA Council Charter Resolutions Elections Coordination Meetings Tasks History

Hello all,

Last Saturday was an important day for the Wikimedia movement where twenty-five chapters expressed their desire to join the new Wikimedia Chapters Association and another seven expressed their support, subject to proper conditions being met.

The Association was founded after much discussions, accepting or rejecting amendments, in an open discussion through consensus decision making. After deciding on the Charter the assembly chose to have a committee of four members to lead the process of creating the Association. This committee will consist of Damian Finol, Frieda Brioschi, Craig Franklin and Tomer Ashur, and will work voluntarily until Wikimania 2012 where it will pass its mandate to a chosen paid Secretary-General.

The committee held its first meeting on Sunday making the following decisions:

1. In light of the multilingual nature of our movement, the committee will publish its resolutions in Esperanto to aid in translating into other languages.
2. The committee will hold an open process via Meta Wiki, email, IRC and other communication means so it could receive as much input as possible from anyone.
3. The committee is to build an infrastructure for the Association. The most urgent issues are:
   1. Selecting the country to register - it was decided the committee will publish a draft for the criteria of choosing the location. The committee will then receive inputs from the community for the criteria and provide those to an external firm specialising with registering international organisations so they can recommend possible locations.
   2. Suggesting a Secretary-General - The committee will present a draft for the job description of the Secretary-General from comments from the community then publish it in order to recruit for the position. The decision will be made online before Wikimania 2012 by the elected Council Members of the member Chapters.
   3. Construct an open, transparent decision making process for the work of the committee and the association.

You can find the Charter signed by the Chapters on: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA_Charter. The committee members hope that everyone will engage in the process of building this important organisation.

We declare our commitment to the success of the Association,

Frieda Brioschi, Craig Franklin, Tomer Ashur and Damian Finol
Facilitators of the establishment of the Wikimedia Chapters Association