[chapter-delegates] an apology

[James M Galvin]

In advance of the staff response tomorrow and as one of the principal 
parties responsible for the new membership program, I will apologize for 
the timing of the release of the new program.

We should have reminded the Chapters that a new program was coming.  It 
is a reminder because ISOC has always been a membership organization with 
paying membership, since 1992.  The introduction of this program was not 
a "proclamation from on high."  What I did was recast a program that has 
always existed.  All Chapters are welcome to criticize me for the 
program, which you are doing, and I will respond to that criticism.  In 
the meantime, I am sincerely sorry for not making all this clear before 
the release of the program.

We should have made a point of letting the Chapters see the program 
before it was introduced.  But Chapters should also know that this 
program has been under discussion with the Board since before I became VP 
Chapters.  All materials have been available through the "Board" section 
of the web site.  It was never hidden from the Chapters, just not pointed 
out to you.  Links to some of the material have already been posted. 
Even so, that does not excuse the fact that we did not call your 
attention to the documents explicitly.  I am sincerely sorry for not 
calling your attention to the documents while they were under development.

A serious communication mistake was made.  I am sorry for that.  Had we 
alerted you to the new program I am sure we would have had the same 
criticisms but we would have had a chance to respond to them before 
introducing the program.

We want to respond to the criticisms now, and I do hope that all Chapters 
will work with us to transition the program to something we can all 
accept.

Jim Galvin
VP Chapters