The board seems to have cultivated a mostly apathetic membership, which
nicely preserves the status quo and thus the board has little to gain from
actually members what it's doing beyond the legal requirements. One of the
many reasons I'm glad I'm no longer a member. I never begrudged the
membership fee, but legal membership implies a level of responsibility I'm
not comfortable with considering how little scope the membership has to
change anything. But I enjoy reading the highly sanitised reports that
confirm that the deckchairs are in order on the Titanic.

As for membership and the wider community, the latter is inherently a more
ephemeral group. It's unrealistic to expect that all or even the majority
of them will become members of the organisation. Those who want to get
involved in the politics and the decision-making (to the extent that it
doesn't interfere with the status quo) will always be a subset, and having
a large and healthy community with interests broader than those of the
chapter is a good thing. The charity and company limited by guarantee can
be part of a broader ecosystem.

Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
+44 (0) 7507 536 971
Skype: harry_j_mitchell

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Lucy Crompton-Reid <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Gordo, you're right that the volunteer community is larger than the member
> base, and we really want to change that! I will be presenting an (early)
> draft communications strategy to the board in June, and one of the issues
> we will be looking at within the wider strategy is membership. Cheers, Lucy
>
> On 13 May 2016 at 09:13, Gordon Joly <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On 13/05/16 03:38, Rex X wrote:
>> > Yes, I said that. So what's the answer to the question I asked: how
>> else would
>> > you do it?
>>
>>
>> By encouraging the wider community to become members, so that they get a
>> vote at the AGM.
>>
>> The volunteer community is much larger than the membership of the
>> registered charity, and that body does indeed influence the activities
>> of WMUK.
>>
>> But I am not happy with non members influencing change at the level of
>> Articles of Association. Non members become members who then get a vote
>> on these matters.
>>
>> Wider engagement? How would I do it? Well communications strategy and
>> policy is always a good place to start.
>>
>> Gordo
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Lucy Crompton-Reid
>
> Chief Executive
>
> Wikimedia UK
>
> +44 (0) 207 065 0991
>
>
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
>
> Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The
> Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
> Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent
> non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility
> for its contents.*
>
> _______________________________________________
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