On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Nathan <[email protected]> wrote: > Suppose the Hong Kong chapter had initially declared itself the Chinese > chapter - would that forever preclude the creation of other, separate > chapters within the geographical territory of China? That presents a > first-past-the-post incentive, and might encourage prospective chapters to > describe themselves in as broad a way as possible.
This is a good question, but maybe the better one is "is there any incentive for a chapter to be defined over a larger geographical area as opposed to a smaller one?" Would WMNYC have any kinds of benefits if it had declared itself to be WMUS instead? I think the answer is "no". In this case, WMNYC is a community-oriented chapter that defines itself primarily through it's outreach activites. Even if it accepted members from California, those members wouldn't be able to participate in any of WMNYCs activities. Distance can create a huge barrier to entry. Being larger may mean you can accept more applications, but not all of those members will be able to fully-participate. I'm in Philadelphia, and even though I'm not too far away I still find that I can't participate in many activities because of the distance. This may mean, in the future, that I need to pursue a different venue for participation, either through the creation of a local section of the larger chapter, or splitting away and forming a new chapter entirely (and the mechanisms for that course of action are as yet unclear, if they are even possible). I would say that there is no benefit in defining an area larger then the chapter can reasonably support. If you cannot accept, manage, and involve members from your entire geographical area in a reasonable way, then your stated area is not an accurate depiction of your region of influence. Chapters that claim to support a larger area then they can reasonably handle create a detrimental situation: Potential members in outlying areas are disenfranchised and have no recourse to form their own separate chapter if they need to. Chapters should only form on the national-level if they have nation-wide volunteer interest, activity, and support. We should be hesitant to accept national chapters who cannot support membership from their entire area, or national chapters composed entirely of volunteers from a small population center. In many cases, subnational chapters should be the preferred way of organizing because it's a more realistic use of volunteer capabilities. --Andrew Whitworth _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
