[chapter-delegates] New Membership Level

[James M Galvin]

As before, I do not want to discourage people voicing their opinions and 
concerns, but I would like to make a few comments about what has been 
said over the past day or so.

I am concerned that some people believe that we have some expectation of 
the Chapters with respect to the availability of the new membership 
level.  So, I want to say clearly that the new membership level is a 
benefit that ISOC is offering and it is completely separate from the 
benefits that Chapters offer.  In fact, we do not expect Chapters to 
actively sell ISOC memberships.  Certainly you should make your members 
aware that it is there and point them to the ISOC web site for details, 
but Chapters should focus on growing their own membership.  Likewise, our 
principal focus is growing Chapters and their membership.  We recognize 
that supporting Chapters is essential to ISOC's success.

For example, the membership system is about supporting Chapters, not 
supporting paying members.  It has many other benefits but at the top of 
the list was the need for Chapters to be able to manage their 
memberships.  Chapters have been asking for this since before I became 
VP.  It simply would not have been possible to have tens of thousands of 
Associate Members (Chapter Members) without it.  Thus, having it is 
unrelated to the new membership level.

A few people questioned how many members ISOC had when the survey was 
done.  In fact, ISOC's membership had increased more than five times by 
the time the survey was done.  As I recall we had about 10,000 members, 
all of whom were free members at that time.  By then we were down to 
about 100 people who were donating money.  So the survey was 
overwhelmingly available to people who had not previously been ISOC 
members and were not paying money.

Nonetheless, I fully expect we will do the survey again some time soon. 
I believe it is appropriate, if not essential, to do the survey every 2-3 
years to make sure that we are in touch with our members.  We are at a 
little bit of a disadvantage right now because we are only now, 2 years 
later, able to offer the response to that first survey.  Clearly we need 
to respond much more quickly than that and we will in the future.

Finally, a few people have called for ISOC to withdraw the new paying 
membership level.  While I appreciate your passion, since that is what 
makes Chapters so successful, and I understand your concern that Chapters 
will suffer if members join ISOC instead of Chapters, let me just 
reassure you that growing and supporting Chapters and the Associate 
Members that go with them is a top priority of ISOC.  Chapters are the 
means with which ISOC members act locally in support of a global mission. 
We need and want the free membership level so that Chapters can continue 
to do the job they are doing without being burdened by an ISOC fee.

Jim


----------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription
manager: <http://lists.isoc.org/unsubscribe>