Documents from the chapters meeting

I agree with this. I think outreach in general -- both internally and externally -- is a great role for Chapters to play. The German Wikimedia Chapter gave birth to the idea of Wikipedia Academies, and they could play a great role in distributing swag as well.

I guess I'm still not clear on what it is that Chapters do. My understanding is that they were just meet-ups for active volunteers. I wasn't aware that they had more/different responsibilities than the rest of us online folks.

My understanding is that there has been growing interest in better utilizing chapters. This would be maximizing on the areas where they have been successful already, and looking for other ways that they would enhance WMF.

I suggest reading the Chapter reports for a snapshot of their activities.