Talk:Wikimedia Chapters Association/Place of registration/Geneva
Purpose of this page[edit]
Just a quick question: Is this about registering the WCA in Geneva, or is this about where a potential office of the WCA would be? I agree that we should register the WCA someplace, and that we should do so asap (and I do not care where this would be); but when it comes to the potential place of an office (and I am not saying that we need an office, and if we need one, I am not saying that it could / should not be in Geneva), this should be left to the coming SG and not be deceided by the WCA delegates.--Pavel Richter (WMDE) (talk) 10:49, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
- Hi Pavel. This is an assessment of Geneva as a place of registration only. At Wikimedia Chapters Association/Place of registration, the high priorities are quite clearly about registration only. However one of the middle priorities is "Cost of doing business: Cost of renting offices, costs of labor, cost of services (legal, financial, auditing, administrative)" which rightly indicate that the assessment regarding the place of registration needs to include suitability for having an office. Even if the SG sets up their operational office in a nation other than the place of registration (for all I care, it can be in their shed), there will still be a need for the WCA place of registration to have an "office" of sorts (a postal address, a phone number, filing paperwork, etc) - even if it is a virtual office, there will be times and tasks when virtual doesnt work, and local labour costs become a factor.
- Also, while we hope that the SG stays in that position for a decent period of time, they are not being given a job for life, and with any luck WCA will out-live the SG anyway. While WCA may be happy to let the first SG set up the main operational office in a nation other than the place of registration, this may not be appropriate for the second SG.
- I think there is a need to start a separate discussion about the place of office, and more importantly set out clearly the powers and duties of the SG, such as whether they responsible for deciding the place of office, with or without consultation of the WCA, etc. The Charter mentions "powers and duties" but does not describe them and Wikimedia Chapters Association/Secretary-General contains some responsibilities, but does not contain sufficient detail. If we dont discuss it now, there will be a painful discussion and a mad panic when we have an SG and the chapters dont all agree on what power they have. A discussion at Talk:Wikimedia Chapters Association/Secretary-General would be very helpful, followed by a resolution to codify the powers they will have on day one. John Vandenberg (talk) 12:12, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you John for this explanation. If I understand this information on the main page correctly, than the cost of incorporating in Geneva are near to nothing, right? In that case, why don´t we just incorporate there now, and let the SG review this decission later? If he has good reason to change it, that should not be a big deal, either.--Pavel Richter (WMDE) (talk) 12:29, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
- This assessment of Geneva is fairly convincing, and it would be lovely to finalise this decision quickly.
- However I would like to also see an assessment done for Brussels, and I would like that public assessment to be fact-checked by WMBE. (the initial assessment done for Geneva appears to have been wrong and locals were the ones who could see the problems.) The assessment of Brussels shouldn't take long to compile as it has been a focus of several groups. I'll do it tomorrow if nobody beats me to it.
- I vaguely recall there were two other cities assessed by an external consultant, but they dont appear to have become a focus by the WCA as I havent heard much about them since. If the assessment of those other locations was very negative, it would be good to at least summarise why they have been eliminated. John Vandenberg (talk) 13:13, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you John for this explanation. If I understand this information on the main page correctly, than the cost of incorporating in Geneva are near to nothing, right? In that case, why don´t we just incorporate there now, and let the SG review this decission later? If he has good reason to change it, that should not be a big deal, either.--Pavel Richter (WMDE) (talk) 12:29, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
Cost of living[edit]
One of the issues we talk about is the cost of living in Geneva, which is admittedly quite high. I wish to share a few thoughts on the subject.
- The cost of living is of concern for the employees, and their salary usually reflects the higher cost of living in Geneva.
- We should only be concerned about the cost to the employer (which will be the WCA) and to the entity which we set up. The total cost to the employer is quite low here in Geneva, and that is what we should be concerned about. Quite a few international companies have their corporate headquarters here in Geneva, or elsewhere in Switzerland, due to very advantageous tax laws.
- The Geneva government has a service (the CAGI mentioned elsewhere) who will actually help NGOs so that they can also take best advantage of these tax laws.