Wikimedia Taiwan/Status Report for the Set Up

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

The Wikimedia Taiwan page was been created on Meta in February 19, 2006 for the set up process and list the To-Do things for the registration of the local chapter of Wikimedia Foundation in Taiwan. According to the law to register a national association in Taiwan, following documents need to be submitted to the Taiwanese government for registration:

  1. An registration form.
  2. A bylaw draft to register the local chapter.
  3. Name list of the co-founders. We need at least 30 people as co-founders according to the law in Taiwan.
  4. Copies of the national identification cards of the founders.

So we created the following pages on Meta for the registration of the local chapter:

  1. Wikimedia Taiwan/申請書 -- for editing the registration form.
  2. Wikimedia Taiwan/章程草案 -- for editing the bylaw draft.
  3. Wikimedia Taiwan/發起人名冊 -- for Taiwanese Wikipedians who are willing to be the co-founders to sign their names.

To finish these documents, we have made many discussions since February 19, 2006 till now.

The Official Name[edit]

First we need to decide the official name of the local chapter, so we hold a vote event for the name-decision process in late March, 2006:

  1. March 22: create the voting page (Wikimedia Taiwan/命名投票).
  2. March 22 to 26: discuss the voting rule.
  3. March 27 to April 9: nominations for the official name.
  4. April 10 to 30: vote for the name.
  5. May 1: count the votes and announce the official name.

And according to the result of the vote, the official English name of the local chapter in Taiwan is Wikimedia Taiwan, and the official Chinese name is 中華民國維基媒體協會 (which literally means "the Wikimedia Association of the Republic of China").

The Draft Bylaw[edit]

The second thing we need to do is to write down the draft to register the local chapter. Since the beginning in February 19, 2006, we had discussed and edit the draft for about 4 months, and finally we made the final revision of the draft in Taiwanese Wikipedian Summer Meetup in June 24, 2006. We have listed what we have done in this period below (related information please check Talk:Wikimedia Taiwan/章程草案):

  • February 19, 2006: page on Meta created.
  • First vote for the draft:
    • April 16: draft planning started.
    • April 16 to 29: draft editing and discussion.
    • April 30 to May 10: vote for the draft.
      • Result: not passed because the draft is not accepted by some voters.
  • Continue the discussion of the draft:
    • May 2: User:Sangye suggests to continue the editing of the draft and stop the vote.
    • Draft discussion continued until June 24, the date of Taiwanese Wikipedian Summer Meetup.
  • Meeting for Draft Voting: the process is been recorded in Wikimedia Taiwan/第一次籌備會議.
    • The meeting was been held in Taiwanese Wikipedian Summer Meetup.
    • The draft is been discussed based on the information written in the talk page of Wikimedia Taiwan/章程草案.
    • Sent a modified draft to the Taiwanese government for the registration of Wikimedia Taiwan.
    • October 16: translated the draft bylaws into English.

The Name List of Co-Founders[edit]

According to the law in Taiwan, we need at least 30 people to be the co-founders for a national association. Due to this reason, we had created the Name List of Co-Founders page on Meta in February 19, 2006 for Taiwanese Wikipedians who are interested to sign their names. In April 3, User:Essolo signed his name as the 30th co-founder on the page. Then we start to do the paper work for the name list and collect the copies of the national identification card of these co-founders since June 24. The paper work and the collection process is been finished in September 7, 2006.

What's Next[edit]

Now the required documents were ready and User:Mingwangx had submitted the registration form with the documents to the Taiwanese government in September 8. According to the registration rule, the Taiwanese government should notify us the result in 2 months and we should be able to get the permission to set up Wikimedia Taiwan before November 11 if no exceptions.

Once we get the permission, we need to have the following meetings:

Expected Date Name of the Meeting Tasks
November 11 (Sat.) First General Membership Meeting and First Meeting for Preparation
  1. Election for Board of Directors.
  2. Election for the Chairman.
  3. Organize a committee to set up Wikimedia Taiwan.
  4. Choose dedicated people or employee(s) for Wikimedia Taiwan (if needed).
  5. Verification for the draft bylaws.
  6. Make the rules for membership.
  7. Make name list for members (required by the Taiwanese government).
  8. Write manual for membership rules.
  9. Make working plans and budget list for Wikimedia Taiwan.
  10. Discuss the set up issues of Wikimedia Taiwan including the date and the place for the Meeting for Set Up.
November 25 (Sat.) Second Meeting for Preparation Discuss issues for the set up of Wikimedia Taiwan.
December 2 (Sat.) Meeting for Set Up and First Meeting of Board of Directors
  1. Approval for the bylaws.
  2. Decide where the office of Wikimedia Taiwan will be located.

And we need to submit the following documents to the Taiwanese government within 30 days after the Meeting for Set Up:

  1. The record of the First General Membership Meeting.
  2. The record of the First Meeting of Board of Directors.
  3. Bylaws approved in the Meeting for Set Up.
  4. The annual working plans.
  5. The annual budget list.
  6. Brief introduction and name list of directors.
  7. Brief introduction and name list of dedicated people or employee(s) (if any).
  8. The copy of the contract for the office.
  9. 2 pictures of the Chairman for the certification document.
  10. Name list of members.

We also need to contact the Chapters Committee of Wikimedia Foundation for further co-operation and helps. (Update: contacted the Chapters Committee in September 30 and continue to discuss with the committe for set up issues)

And then the set up process of Wikimedia Taiwan is finished.