Chapters and Regional Groups
From Open Knowledge Foundation
Regional groups and chapters are how the OKFN organize activity on a geographical basis - complementing the sectoral basis of Working Groups.
Contents |
Guiding documents (please note: still in draft stages!)
What is the difference between an OKF local group and an OKF chapter?
Each regional space is unique, but if organised under a common body/banner.
A local group is an informal group of people who are interested in open content or open data in a given geographical location. This could be at local, regional or national level. It could be a small group of people who meet for coffee or a drink, or it could be a bigger network who run open knowledge events and projects. Local groups are legally unincorporated, and usually organised using a public mailing list.
A chapter is a legally incorporated organisation dedicated to promoting open knowledge. It will have a legal partnership with the OKF Central (in the UK), statutes governing its activities, and an executive board with at least one representative from OKF Central. OKF chapters may have their own bank account, funds, and may hire people and take on paid projects. They are also legally and operational independent from OKF Central.
Anyone can set up a local group and this is a fairly straightforward process. Setting up a chapter is a bigger commitment, and usually a chapter will grow out of a local group.
Setting up a local OKF group
- Gather together relevant stakeholders interested in open knowledge
- Start a basic OKF national mailing list on lists.okfn.org ("okfn-{2-digit-iso-code}") for them to talk to each other about open knowledge issues. As far as possible, conversation about setting up the chapter should take place on the mailing list.
- Organise some meetups - formal or informal - such as a workshop or hackday for people to get together, talk and do something.
Setting up a local OKF chapter
Stage 1: Assessing the community maturity
- Start a local group (see above)
- Organise an informal event or meetup to discuss an OKF chapter
- Depending on the level of activity/interest, we can then make a rough plan/roadmap for the chapter
1. to 3. are basically an 'incubation period' to evaluate the level of interest in your region or country for establishing such a chapter, and to get a sense of how active a chapter might be. As we're a community driven organisation, this is really important for us.
Appoint a Coordination Group
This is the group of people who will oversee the activity of the group in its early stages and help it grow. In practice, the members of this group often go on to form the advisory board of the chapter but there is no obligation to do so.
Stage 2: Setting up a legal entity
If desired we can investigate setting up a legal entity. The suggested process for setting up a chapter contains the following steps:
Putting together a chapter proposal
- Create a page on the wiki (stub: http://wiki.okfn.org/Chapters/[Country Name Here]
- add the category tags 'Chapter' and '[Country name]'
Things to include
- People outline, who will be involved in the day to day running of the chapter?
- a strong coordination group
- possible candidate for a chapter lead
- possible candidate for a community coordinator
- candidates for the board
- Evidence for the maturity of the community (how regularly do events happen? how active is the community with/without the organisational efforts of the local group
- Project outline: which projects / topics will the chapter focus on. There is no obligation for every chapter to take on every project. It is far better to focus on a narrower range of opportunities and to do them well!
- Sustainability plan (2-3 years)
See also proposal documents being drawn up by other areas: http://wiki.okfn.org/Chapter
Getting what you need for the chapter from the OKF
Once the chapter is approved
- Fulfill legal criteria
- Set up a website
- Designate Chapter coordinator
- Create an advisory board
- Create an announce
- Call for participation
Working with other groups for the greater community
Resources
- Example of a Memorandum of Understanding: OKFN-DE
OKF Admin
Before first local meetup
- Make sure meetup is added to: http://www.meetup.com/OpenKnowledgeFoundation/
- If you don't know how to do this, see: http://wiki.okfn.org/Events_Guide/Local_Meetups
After the first local meetup
- After first local meetup has taken place, please add details of the chapter to : http://labs.okfn.org/spreadsheet/
- Set up okfn.org email addresses for meetup organisers
