[ECC-Council] RE: [chapter-delegates] Suggestions about new membership system

W. Majewski wladek at majewski.pl
Sun Mar 6 15:16:49 PST 2005


Hi all,

> Of course, same problem. All files send through the chapter-delegates
> mailinglist are corrupted.

I am sorry for troubles.

Both files are available at:
http://www.isoc.org.pl/2005/membership/membership_20050305.sxi and
http://www.isoc.org.pl/2005/membership/membership_20050305.ppt
Both are just a first draft.

Also the raw text version is below. Soon the more verbose version will 
be available here: http://isoc.org.pl/wiki/index.php/MemberShip
All of you are invited to contribute your own suggestions, additions and 
  comments. Wiki requires registration but everyone can create account 
for himself.

rgds

Wladek

==========
SLIDE 1:
Members and Chapters
Władysław Majewski
ISOC Poland, president

SLIDE 2: *Member's contributions*
  Participation in debates regarding goals and tasks
  Personal engagement in tasks' implementation
  Leading by example
  Promotion of ideas
  Marketing of goals and tasks
  Contribution of members' special abilities
  A monetary contribution (local and global fees)

SLIDE 3: *Members' rights and expectations*
  Admirable and trusted leadership
  Clear message about mission, goals and tasks
  Clear, stable and followed rules and procedures
  Right to speak, to be heard and to be answered
  Open debate about goals and performance
  Reliable and transparent financial governance
  Open disclosure of conflicts of interest
  Proper representation

SLIDE 4: *Global membership*
Contributions
+ Participation in debates
? Engagement in implementation
? Leading by example
+ Promotion of ideas
+ Marketing for goals and tasks
+ Contribution of special abilities
+ Local fees and donations
- Direct global fees and donations

Rights and expectations
? Admirable and trusted leadership
? Clear message
? Right to be heard and answered
? Open debate
- Transparent financial governance
+- Representation (indirect only)
- Disclosure of conflicts of interest

SLIDE 5: *Organizational members*
Contributions
   Participation in debates
? Engagement in implementation
   Leading by example
   Promotion of ideas
   Marketing for goals and tasks
? Contribution of special abilities
- Local fees and donations
+ Direct global fees and donations

Rights and expectations
   Admirable and trusted leadership
   Clear message
++ Right to be heard and answered
   Open debate
   Transparent financial governance
++ Representation
   Disclosure of conflicts of interest

SLIDE 6: *Proposed individual paying members*
Contribution
   Participation in debates
   Engagement in implementation
   Leading by example
   Promotion of ideas
   Marketing for goals and tasks
   Contribution of special abilities
- Local fees and donations
+ Direct global fees and donations

Rights and expectations
   Admirable and trusted leadership
   Clear message
? Right to be heard and answered
? Open debate
? Transparent financial governance
++  Representation
? Disclosure of conflicts of interest

SLIDE 7: *Chapters*
Tasks
   Local activities and projects
   Leadership by example
   Marketing of goals and tasks
   Promotion of standars and ideas
   Local debates
   Political lobbing for standards' implementation
   Direct contact with members
   Local internet services and membership management

Expectations
   To be asked, heard and answered
   To be invited and included into global and regional projects
   Clear rules for grant application and common projects
   Leadership for multinational projects and activities
   Organizational, technical, marketing and political support if needed 

and requested – see next slide about the principle od subsidiarity

SLIDE 8: *The principle of subsidiarity*
Nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which 
can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization.

http://www.acton.org/publicat/randl/article.php?id=200

SLIDE 9: *Back to reality*
Some specific
practical proposals
membership and fees

SLIDE 10: *Membership management*
Single point of contact and user interface for global and local 
membership management

Basic local task
- Local language, address and title formats
- Local personal contact with members including newsletters and messages
- Knowledge about member's contributions, achievements and social position
- Participation in local activities
- Fees collection by local bank in local currency = lower transaction costs

Global services should be subsidary to local
- A database interface is a primary way of data exchange in both directions
- Centralised user interface for members feasible only as a last resort

SLIDE 11: *Unified membership status*
- No separate “local” and “global” membership
- Personal activity is a most important contribution
- Chapters know their members (and their record)
- It is reasonable to require:
   - some experience – for example one year of “associate” status
   - some personal contribution
  to grant full voting membership
- Fees are complementary to personal activity and cannot subsitute for it

SLIDE 12: *Basic fees*
Required
- to periodically confirm a will to maintain membership
- can be waived in case of verified hardship
Locally affordable
Should cover cost of:
- Membership management (local is cheaper)
- Marketing and promotion of membership (local task)
- Members' benefits (local ones are cheaper and more desirable)
- Collection and handling of fees (local is much cheaper)

SLIDE 13: *Premium fees*
Required for premium benefits (local and global)
- Conference discounts
- Printed materials, CDs and DVDs
- Personal promotion
- Advisory and consulting services
- Honorary titles and social benefits (meetings, dinners etc)
Possibility to monetary support chosen projects
No voting privilidges for sale

SLIDE 14: *Fees distribution*
Fees should be left to chapters
- Virtually all costs related to fees are local
   - No need for an employed “global membership director”
   - No need for a rented global “membership management system”
- Incentive for chapters to promote and maintain membership
- Chapters depend on fees; for global ISOC fees are a marginal source
- Local management of fees in local banks and currency is much cheaper
- Fees can used by chapters as their contribution for projects. It is 
important in case of grant applications
- Fees can be used to fund regional cooperation of chapters
If international money transfer is necessary - it is cheaper and easier 
to do it three or four times a year between chapter's and ISOC's account

SLIDE 15: *Chapters and representations*
- Voting members of chapters should have voting privilidges equal to all 
other individual members
- ISOC BoT should specify minimal requirements for status of voting 
chapter's member
- Seperate representation of chapters reflects chapters' organizational 
knowledge, competence and position in their respective communities. It 
should not replace and substitute for representation of individual members

SLIDE 16: *Organizational members' fees*
- Each organizational member of global ISOC
   - should contribute to at least one chapter as its organizational member
   - Pillar/project chosen by donor should get up to 50% of contribution
   - Other half of contribution should be used for needs chosen by ISOC

Organizational members of chapters should be able to get some 
recognition on global level (including info on chapter's page on 
isoc.org) for reasonable additional fee no exceeding 50% of required 
local contribution

Complimentary membership given to organizational members should be equal 
in rights and requirement to standard ISOC and chapters' membership

SLIDE 17: *Organizational membership*
- ISOC is no more dependent only on organizational members' contribution
- Need for separate class of membership and representation for org 
members is reduced
- Organizational members should have voting power primarily by votes of 
individual ISOC members recommended and supported by them
- Organizational members should be able to influence projects supported 
by them

SLIDE 18: *Services for members*
- Responsibility delegated to chapters if possible
- Outsourced only if no available from internal resources, chapters, 
volunteering members or contributing organizational members
- No fixed costs on global level
   - No dedicated staff
   - No rented management system

SLIDE 19: *Plea*
Please restart the whole process of defining individual membership from 
scratch
- Let enough time for position presentation by all affected parties and 
for debate
- Work hard and openly for compromise
- Ensure that all proposed terms and solutions are well understood 
before decision is declared and implemented

Restart is cheaper than another schizm

SLIDE 20: *Some additional
  suggestions and remarks*

SLIDE 21: *Projects and grants*
Clear and stable rules for:
- Soliciding of proposals
- Requirements for proposals
- Prefferences for proposals
- Evaluation of proposals and choice of experts
- Evaluation of project performance

No single dollar for project chosen by discretionaly decision of ISOC 
President or staff

SLIDE 22: *Participation in debates*
No policy declared without global debate. Prerogatives and tasks of  VP 
for policy include initiation and moderation of debate. No more 
“software patents” policy declared without previous debate.

Rules for topics identification and scheduling
- Time for translation of position documents and local debate
- All parties invited to present their position
- Limited number (4-6) global debates each year
- Each debate summarized by moderator
- Each debate should lead to published position or applicable practical 
proposals

SLIDE 23: *Promotion and marketing*
- Promotion of open standards
- Translation of standards
- Canon of promotional and explanatory documents which must or should be 
available languages
- Standard ISOC leaflets ready to translation
- International RSS feed with editing access for trusted members from 
several regions, countries and cultures

SLIDE 24: *Leading by example*
ISOC needs examplary internet communication competence and facilities
- Accessability
- Standard compliance
- Distributed content management and information distribution system

No more “we lack a competence to effectively distribute our own policy 
document” drama

SLIDE 25: *Leadership*
ISOC President, VPs and BoT members must:
- maintain regular, scheduled meeting and visits in different regions 
and countries
- Regularly, personally and actively participate in internet debates by 
mailing lists, forums and instant communicators
- Regularly communicate their papers, positions, suggestions and calls 
for action

If communication with members is a waste of time for you - please find 
other field of activity




More information about the Chapter-delegates mailing list