[chapter-delegates] Regarding the New Membership Level

[James M Galvin]

The last few days on this mailing list has shown us a lot
of passion regarding the re-instatement of the paying
membership level at ISOC. David McAuley and myself welcome
your intense interest and we sincerely thank you for it.

This discussion comes at an opportune time, since the Board
of Trustees is meeting this weekend, 11 and 12 March. We
would like to let you know what we are planning to do with
respect to the items under discussion.

Although many folks have requested that ISOC withdraw the
new membership level, it is important to understand that to
do so requires a Board decision. ISOC has always been a
membership organization. For the past three years ISOC has
deferred offering the paying membership level, as directed
by the Board. The Board recently approved a new program and
thus voted to re-instate the paying membership level. Lynn
St. Amour's message earlier today includes pointers to most
of the presentations, discussions, and the survey results
from the past 3 years that were used to develop the
program. Her Notes are repeated below and I am also
including a pointer to the business case presentation I
made to the Board in November of 2003 on this subject (so
the last url below is in addition to Lynn's note earlier).

As you should expect, we heard your reaction, as did
Trustees, and as a result the paying membership level for
ISOC will be discussed at this meeting. I am sure the
Chapter Trustees will represent all of the discussion that
has occurred here, as well as recognizing that there are
many more Chapters that have not participated in this
discussion. In addition, we will point all of the Trustees
at the archive for this mailing list so that each can
review the discussion directly. It is not possible to
predict what the outcome will be, but we will inform you of
whatever is decided.

In addition, it is clear that many of you do not approve of
the labels chosen for the membership levels, i.e.,
"Associate Members" versus "Members". Certainly, we did not
intend for such labels to divide the ISOC membership. Of
course, we will revisit this question, with you, after the Board has 
considered the issue of a paying membership level.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that we have decided to
postpone the Chapter testing of the new membership system.
Since the membership system would reflect some of the
matters we have been discussing it seems prudent to wait
until the way forward is clear so we can make whatever
changes are necessary before Chapters begin testing.

I want to thank you for this opportunity to hear your
concerns and respond to them. I am sure there will be more
to say after the Board has met this weekend. David and I
will be getting together tomorrow and we will do a review
of the background of this matter so as to ensure we have
included all relevant pointers to URLs.  If we have
overlooked any we will send them tomorrow.

Thank you.

Jim Galvin
David McAuley


Resolution 02-8 Clarification of individual membership issues - 2002
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/resltn-02.shtml

RESOLVED, that in addition to Global membership offered free of charge,
the Internet Society will continue to offer individual memberships in the
$75-$500 range. Annual reminders will be sent to these members asking
them to continue their support at their existing or higher level.
However, since no additional services are attached to these higher
levels, the payments are treated as donations and not dues payments.


Nov. 17 - 18, 2002
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/mtg30.shtml

July 12 - 13, 2003
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/mtg34.shtml

Nov 8-9, 2003
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/mtg36.shtml


Resolution 03-08 Supporting a Professional Membership Class - 2003
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/resltn-03.shtml

RESOLVED that the board supports the notion of a new professional
membership class and that the board asks the CEO to coordinate an effort
that takes the report from the membership committee into account to 
develop, by October 15, a value proposition and a business plan for the
new class for presentation to the board.


http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/docs/Nov2003/IM-members.ppt