[chapter-delegates] New Membership Level

[Narelle Clark]

> From: James M Galvin [mailto:galvin at elistx.com]
> Sent: Friday, 4 March 2005 8:28 AM
> 
> 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.

This "new" membership class poses a few problems for our
chapter (Australia). Our board is yet to discuss it so
the following points are my assessment of the sorts of
things that our chapter will have to wrestle with.

- what are the benefits of this paying class?
As yet, it seems that this class is to get the
benefits that existing members are not properly
getting - voting access, standards participation -
mainly for us due to the tyranny of distance, or
mailbox overflow when our nominations disappear.
I rather liked the list of specials someone
came up with as an alternative to making
voting exclusively paid (sheesh folks!).

- will our members see this as another example
of the rest of the world paying for the US 
Internet access?
The fibre links across the Pacific have been
paid for by the people on this side of the
Pacific. Thus we pay for US access to content
in Japan, China, India, Australia, the Pacific
nations etc etc. Now we are to pay for the
privelige of participating in standards
development? Hmmm.

- will consideration be given to better
chaper representation in this new way?
I'm still wondering.

- why the name change?
With existing members turning into "associate"
and the "new" ones becoming [real] "members"
it is difficult to not to see a dubious intent.

- how does this fit with our own charge?
Our chapter currently charges an approximately
equivalent fee, with student and pensioner rates.
I assume we will have to recognise the ISOC
members as local members with a nominal local
fee on top. This represents a loss of revenue
for us.

- why no chapter consultation?
This seems to have been a less than diplomatic
approach IMHO. The free membership approach was
a sudden and underconsulted change also if my
memory is correct.

- why not a 'capitation fee' from the chapters?
We could possibly have funded some amount as
was done in the past.

- why such a large fee?
An Australian joiing both the local chapter and
this new class will be paying something of
the order of an IEEE fee. Only Internet
professionals are likely to do that, and many
of them will have to look at the comparative
benefits and join the better value one.

- who joins what?
An Australian wanting to join ISOC may do that
and ignore the local chapter (which happens
now) but will we be informed of people
joining this new class? With this paid class
there is now competition for members with
our chapter.

- status of chapter members vs ISOC members
The international affiliation is very important
to our chapter members. Is there going to be
a cost effective way for chapter members to
join this new _special_ class and get what
they want ISOC for? Is there a genuine way
for our members to participate in Internet
standards development, when frankly it's hard
enough now?

These are just a few issues on top of the other
ones people have mentioned. I also personally
agree that the fee is a massive impost on
many people!


All the best


Narelle
vice-president at isoc-au.org.au

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