[Local-chapters] Membership: Local Chapters vs Foundation

[Eugene Alvin Villar]

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 7:57 PM, Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 12:22 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > 2010/2/2 Henk Hoff <toffehoff at gmail.com>:
> >> 1) The membership of the LC and the Foundation are completely separate.
> That
> >> means that the LC (and it's members) can *not* vote for board members or
> >> other OSMF membership votes like the last vote on the license change.
> That's
> >> only for OSMF members.
> >
> > Just because they aren't elligible to vote on foundation issues
> > doesn't mean they shouldn't be consulted on issues that are likely to
> > effect them, adversly or otherwise.
>
> I don't believe that LCs should vote for leadership, but in areas
> where LCs have a stake, like licensing, they should have a role. Maybe
> that's a special LC committee, or the ability to vote separately, but
> the LCs have an important role here.
>

Well, consider that even though the Wikimedia Foundation is not a membership
organization, there are 3 community-selected members of the board of
trustees. These board members are elected by the editing community at large
(with certain low-bar voter eligibility requirements). In addition, there
are also 2 chapter-selected trustees selected by all the local chapters.

Since OSMF is a membership organization, OSM contributors can opt to join
OSMF if they want to. But most won't. And for those who don't, I'm guessing
that they will rather join a local chapter instead. This is inevitable. Just
some food for thought.
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