[chapter-delegates] Re: Memebrship presentation

[Patrick Vande Walle]

W. Majewski said the following on 11/03/2005 03:28:

> Hi all,
>
> the current version of my presention in  different formats is 
> available here:
>
> http://isoc.org.pl/2005/membership/
>
Dear Wladek,

Thanks for this hard work. I will keep you updated on the results of the 
discussion later today.

One observation:

ISOC currently has 21.177 individuals  members, whatever name we give to 
this category. Of this, only 57% are  also members of chapters.
With the current policy of indirectly electing BoT members through 
chapter delegates, the remaining 43% of members have no representation 
whatsoever, which is an issue.

Becoming a non-paying member is as easy as filling an online form and 
the only thing ISOC can verify is that the e-mail address does not 
bounce back. As some put it, even my dog could be a member of ISOC, as 
long as it has an e-mail address.

I also agree that a membership fee should provide some benefits, a 
return on investment if you like. 

We need also to present ISOC and its chapters as ONE entity by 
collecting all fees at one place. But there should a possibility for 
members to not join a chapter, if only because there are  places where 
there are no chapters.  Collecting fees locally makes a lot of sense,  
since credit cards are not as common as some would think.


patrick