The allegations in your comment are false:

1. It is false that other countries have to make do without the Foundation’s help. As you are no doubt aware, the Foundation has been supporting Wikimedian activity through chapters in a variety of ways, including substantial funding through the Wikimedia Grants program, and more recently, through funding entire annual plans for chapters. The Austrian chapter, for instance, will receive 131,000 Euros from the Foundation this year.

2. The Foundation never committed to spending money only in the Global South. Also, one cannot just throw money at the Global South to make progress. Where a Wikimedian community simply does not exist, for example, there are fewer opportunities to spend money effectively. So even as we spend money on Global South initiatives, we remain committed to supporting our community and volunteers throughout the world, including Europe and the US.

3. The chapters agreement certainly does not put chapters “under financial control” of the Foundation. It merely formalizes the relationship between chapters and Foundation — granting trademark permission, specifying mutual duties, etc. The (related, but quite different) questions of fundraising and fund dissemination are, indeed, being debated in our movement right now, and we share the chapters’ voiced wish for a better arrangement. You are welcome to join that conversation. (But please try to do a better job of assuming good faith before engaging others in it.)

4. It is not true that there is no one to watch over the Foundation. The Foundation is formally subject to both the Audit Committee and an external auditing firm (KPMG). More importantly, the Foundation is committed to transparency, and constantly solicits and integrates community feedback about its programs and actions. All our grantmaking, for example, is done in public, on Meta pages.

Finally, let me reiterate that this position was created not because of the Foundation’s initiative (indeed, it was not included in this year’s annual plan), but expressly as a response to a need voiced by the GLAM practitioner community in the US.

I hope the above helps put this in better perspective. If you still feel very angry, perhaps you can be more specific about the negative results you perceive in this new role.

Unbeleavable! Once more the Foundation acts as USA-chapter. This is impossible and inaccaptable! Every other country has to see, what it can reach, but the United States can take everything they want out of the big Foundation pot. Especially in a time Sue Gardner thinks, the “Old world” country are so far and her “Global south” needs more money an unbeleavable development. Miss Gardner, do you think the USA is “Global South”? Or do you think, this applies only for the other countries – the countries in the old Europe?

With the chapters agreement the chapters should be under financiel control by the foundation. But who watches the watchmen? Who watches the “big chapter”, that’s not a chapter, but acts like one? Dear Foundation, did you never learn? What do you think, how long the authors in all the other countries will accept this?

To Lori Byrd Phillips – this is expressly not against you!

As country chapters get organised and start to finance projects (Wikimedia Germany with Wikidata; WMUK with QRpedia, WM India with oral Citations for example) WMF will need to give some thought to the position of the USA.