Chapters meeting 2009/Preparation/Wikimedia Russia

Quick facts

The Russian Chapter was fist discussed on June 16, 2005, approved by Wikimedia Foundation on May 24, 2008 and registered by the Russian Federation on November 21, 2008.

There are currently 12 (founding) members in it, three of which are active on the Wikimedia RU projects, and two active non-members.

Budget: currently minimal budget is quite tiny, about US$2000. (Founders' total fee exceeds it, it is about US$2500). Depending on the actual activity, we may need up to US$40000 (and we are going to find per-case sponsors).

Principle

The Chapter is just a servant to the community. Therefore, the formal membership in the Russian Chapter currently doesn't influence the user's ability to participate and control the Chapter's activities. There are wikimedians, who are not members of the Chapter, but do quite many things related to the Chapter, and on the other hand, there are wikimedians-members of the Chapter whose actions are limited by participation in the General Meeting and quite occasional comments in the mailing list.

The formal structure is intentionally minimal to avoid any financial and time-related overheads. It is currently consists of the General Assembly and the Director (who is responsible for any and all operational issues). Like in Wikipedia itself, groups are formed on per-case basis by will of any person, independently of the formal structure, and the main Chapter's task is to provide support which allows to avoid any formal obstacles.

Headache

Everything takes more time than it should.

Tasks

We are close to make an agreement with Russian Internet-money operator (Yandex-money), which will allow Russians to donate Wikimedia (Paypal is not Russia-friendly, so currently there are almost no donations to Wikimedia from Russia).
We are establishing contacts with museums, universities and libraries (we have good relations with Ushinky library).
We are preparing a third annual Wiki-Conference.
We are now in negotiations with a publishing, with a TV channel that are going to use Wikipedia articles.
We are discussing how to initiate changes in Russian copyrights laws (free licenses, freedom of panorama issues).
There are also some operational tasks like protection of trademarks (anti-cybersquatting measures) and interaction with the outer public and press.

Expectations

To learn experience of other Chapters, primarily in order to avoid making the same mistakes.
To share our experience.
To execute trademark/etc agreement.
To meet good people again :-).