Re: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 8:57 PM, Andrew wrote: > I should note I have been misquoted here - my exact wording, as can be seen > on the wiki, was "has to be resolved by the committee". Determine means make > up. Resolve means to form a resolution or to decide. A decision requires > inputs - as we discovered in our first meeting over the weekend, the more > complete the information / picture the committee has, the better the > decision it can make. Public debate can and should take place on public > issues - indeed, it proceeded quite well last week in this location - and > can bring out points of view, links, documents, or outside information etc > that is useful to everybody. That all then serves as input to internal > discussions. > Understood. > The purpose of my post at that time was to combat a perception I was getting > from some places that either consensus on the wiki or mailing list was a > suitable way to determine a chapter position. As several people have pointed > out, we're a non profit organisation dealing with outside entities and we're > expected to be responsible and to communicate clearly with one voice. That > one voice is the resolution mechanism. It is important for us to be taken seriously for there to be one voice but issues such as this do require input and at the moment there doesn't really seem to be a mechanism for this. Regards, Nathan ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance
I should note I have been misquoted here - my exact wording, as can be seen on the wiki, was "has to be *resolved* by the committee". Determine means make up. Resolve means to form a resolution or to decide. A decision requires inputs - as we discovered in our first meeting over the weekend, the more complete the information / picture the committee has, the better the decision it can make. Public debate can and should take place on public issues - indeed, it proceeded quite well last week in this location - and can bring out points of view, links, documents, or outside information etc that is useful to everybody. That all then serves as input to internal discussions. The purpose of my post at that time was to combat a perception I was getting from some places that either consensus on the wiki or mailing list was a suitable way to determine a chapter position. As several people have pointed out, we're a non profit organisation dealing with outside entities and we're expected to be responsible and to communicate clearly with one voice. That one voice is the resolution mechanism. That being said, a chapter position if one is developed doesn't bind any member to the position that results - Adam got it about right in his closing paragraph above. The key thing is that people don't say "Wikimedia Australia says blah" when Wikimedia Australia has not passed a resolution and put it on officialwiki to that effect. I cited the precedent of Phorm optout for that. That is a Wikimedia Australia position - it's official, anyone can see that, there is no debate on what WMAU's position is, even though members may hold their own view and are perfectly free as individuals to advocate for it. cheers Andrew 2009/12/21 Nathan Carter > On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 4:25 PM, private musings > wrote: > > I also recently asked on the WMAU wiki about how an > > 'official chapter position' might be formed (on the ISP filtering stuff), > > and andrew responded that the official chapter position would be > determined > > by the committee > I don't agree that the official position should be determined solely > by the committee, it needs to be done in consultation with members and > endorsed by the committee. When we made a submission for the > Australian Digital Future Directions inquiry we asked the members of > the organisation for their input and views. It is important for this > consultation to be done on issues such as this. > > Regards, > Nathan. > > ___ > Wikimediaau-l mailing list > Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l > ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 4:25 PM, private musings wrote: > I also recently asked on the WMAU wiki about how an > 'official chapter position' might be formed (on the ISP filtering stuff), > and andrew responded that the official chapter position would be determined > by the committee I don't agree that the official position should be determined solely by the committee, it needs to be done in consultation with members and endorsed by the committee. When we made a submission for the Australian Digital Future Directions inquiry we asked the members of the organisation for their input and views. It is important for this consultation to be done on issues such as this. Regards, Nathan. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance
Hello, Shouldn't this be on the members list? When I go onto Google I can search this list. It's not hard, and it may not be desirable either. When the chapter adopts a position it takes responsibility (Legal, ethical, whatever) for that position. The chapter is a legal entity which is separate from the people in it, so would not normally take a position. The best model for this is to have a central place which decides and can consider the implications, something members may not be well placed to do individually although they can of course offer their ideas and thoughts. For example the government of the day is making this proposition, but we also have to deal with and negotiate with the government of the day on other issues and "joining the revolution" may endanger projects which are steaming along, I am not saying that is the case but just giving an example. I for one as a member trust the committee we have elected to make those decisions. As I understand it but correct me if I'm wrong, any member can go out into the public arena and advocate for his or her opinion and make submissions and be active (I know I certainly plan to!) but that is "Adam" or "Privatemusings" it is not "Wikimedia Australia" and what we say does not reflect on it, what it says doesn't reflect on us either. best (and merry Christmas), Adam Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:25:26 +1100 From: thepmacco...@gmail.com To: wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance G'day all,see http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Billabong#chapter_governance I saw a post on the UK mailing list ( http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2009-December/005004.html ), and I sort of felt that it raised some questions in relation to how we do things down here - I also recently asked on the WMAU wiki about how an 'official chapter position' might be formed (on the ISP filtering stuff), and andrew responded that the official chapter position would be determined by the committee... obviously some sort of structured discussion space (or the more open behaviours of the UK committee?) would offer greater transparency, and I see them as quite desirable - what do you think? Also - merry christmas to everyone, I'm sort of throwing this rock in the pond and running, 'cos I'll be off-wiki until the new year now, so season's greetings and festive merriness and all that to one and all, and maybe see you for Wikipedia Day in January :-) cheers,Peter,PM. _ If It Exists, You'll Find it on SEEK Australia's #1 job site http://clk.atdmt.com/NMN/go/157639755/direct/01/___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
