Wikimedia Chapters Association/Resolutions/11. Open up for all Wikimedia Affiliates

Purpose

The WCA wants to open membership for Thematic Organisations. There will also be one Council Member appointed by all User Groups.

State

Voting is finished. The resolution was accepted.

Resolution statement

Wikimedia organizations are defined as Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations, as they are recognized by the WMF Affiliations Committee.

In the Charter, the term "Wikimedia Chapter" (or "Chapter") is generally changed to "Wikimedia Organization" (or "Organization").

In the Preamble of the Charter, the last sentence

we, the Wikimedia Chapters, hereby establish the Wikimedia Chapters Association and adopt the following Charter.

is changed to

we, the Wikimedia Organizations (chapters and thematic organizations), form the Wikimedia Chapters Assoctiation and adopt the following Charter.

To Article B3, the following sentence is added:

The Wikimedia User Groups are invited to jointly appoint one Council Member.

Conditions of voting

As this is a proposal to change the Charter, a majority of 2/3 of the votes in the Council is is necessary.

The quorum will also be 1/2 of Members. As of 1st July, 2013 the quorum is 13.
Abstains count to the quorum.
Voting will close on July 7th, 2013 @ 23:59UTC

Votes

Pro

Markus Glaser (WMDE) --Mglaser (talk) 22:32, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Kirill Lokshin (WMUS-DC) 23:52, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
ZvD (WMNL)Ziko (talk) 15:34, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I don't believe there's going to be a flood of thorgs, it's just showing they're welcome. --Oop (talk) 20:42, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Pharos (talk) 03:38, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
PierreSelim (talk) 09:43, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Laurentius (talk) 09:57, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Fæ (talk) 15:05, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
--Charles Andrès (WMCH) 07:16, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
-- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 15:09, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Manuel Schneider (WMAT) --Manuel Schneider^(bla) (+/-) 20:29, 5 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Shabab Mustafa (WMBD) --Tarunno (talk) 18:54, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Chuq (talk) (WMAU) 22:45, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
--Millars (talk) 16:03, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Contra

not on this stage. while the WCA itself don't really functioning --Itzike (talk) 06:38, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
~ (WMMK) --brest (talk) 07:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC) We need to focus only to chapters.[reply]
1. Please, could you explain why? Thank you--Arnaugir (talk) 21:19, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  User groups and groups connected with some thematic field can be easily included in chapters activities, locally or at international level. --brest (talk) 07:48, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  So you are against Thematic organizations and User groups itselves. But once they have been approved, don't you think it's nonsense to keep them out of a body which is trying to coordinate the organizations? Anyway thanks for your answer.--Arnaugir (talk) 10:18, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  IMO WCA should be focused only to chapters.--brest (talk) 11:25, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I believe that we need a body that will speak for the chapters as a specific stakeholder group -- Obradovic Goran (talk) 20:32, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Abstain

Zuirdj (talk) 21:54, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Observing

The following groups are not Wikimedia chapters:

Wikimedia LGBT wishes to join the community of Wikipedia organizations when we are more developed. We support this proposal. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:31, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
From Wiki Project Med. Seems a little strange not to allow thorgs to be members? Should be open to all organizations involved in Wikipedia outreach in an official capacity IMO. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:48, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Amical Wikimedia has been recognized as the first Thorg almost one month ago. If you take a look at Wikimedia Thematic Organizations you can read there that the aims of the Thematic Organitzations and the Chapters are absolutely the same, the only difference being its scope. I can see no reason to deny us (the Thematic Organizations, current and future) from joining the WCA since we are all working towards the same goal, we have the same interests and we can learn and share experiences the same way other types organizations, like Chapters, do. --Arnaugir (talk) 21:08, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

AFAIU our potential new members are rather different in their nature. While Amical Wikimedia could represent a national culture nearly the same way as most of chapters, Wiki Project Med consolidate wikimedians by their profession and Wikimedia LGBT by their individual preferences, particularly sexual orientation. If talking about "common interests" and "the exchange of knowledge and experience" we could expect it in case of Amical Wikimedia, partialy for Wiki Project Med for those chapters who has significant medical projects, and none for Wikimedia LGBT as far as smb`s sexual experience is not smth that could be a subject of chapter`s activity. This makes a question difficult. --A1 (talk) 09:13, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some Chapters do have LGBT related outreach and projects as part of their planned activities. Rather than just a question of individual sexual orientation, "LGBT" is a topic of political, cultural and historical interest, consequently there are LGBT archives, libraries, museum exhibitions as well as societies and charities (such as Stonewall or the It Gets Better Project) who may be interested in a partnership and programmes beyond a local geographically limited chapter. As this is slightly tangential to the resolution, if you wish to discuss further, I suggest raising a question on Talk:Wikimedia LGBT where group members would be happy to help. --Fæ (talk) 11:06, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is true that thematic organization may be very diverse, more than chapters. It is possible that for some of them joining the WCA is not interesting; it is even possible that, after some time, we realize that the thematic organizations are more interested in something like a "Wikimedia Thematic Association" on their own (but I don't think it's likely). However, we don't know that yet, while we know that there are at least three organization (one recognized thematic organization, one in the process, and one user group) that have stated their interest. So, let's open the WCA to any Wikimedia organization that is interested in its aims. - Laurentius (talk) 11:58, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]