> On Feb 10, 2015, at 10:56 AM, Derek J. Balling <[email protected]> wrote: > > Signed PGP part > > > On 2/10/2015 1:01 PM, Gilbert Wilson wrote: > > Selling it as a membership based organization that has benefits is, > > and always has been, based on the promise of some sort of undefined > > future return. It’s a very hard sell. Relabelling membership as a > > sponsorship moves expectations more in line with the structure of > > an organization that has a working board. > > That is as may be, but it is inappropriate to simply say "we're > changing our entire model around, and keeping your membership-org dues > and calling you a sponsor." Maybe people don't want to be sponsors > of such an organization. > > The organization can't just unilaterally change the relationship with > the paid members in that fashion, not without incurring the option of > refunding members' already-paid dues for anyone who doesn't want the > conversion. > > Speaking personally for myself, I'm already a member of an > "education-driven" non-profit org for sysadmins, called USENIX/LISA. I > not only "don't want to sponsor" another, but I see sponsoring another > as detrimental to the profession (because of dilution of resources as > two different orgs work in the same already resource-light space). I > would personally expect a refund on "unused" membership dues paid in > my name, under that scenario. >
Those are all fair points. I would image that both the governance structure of the organization as it now exists, and “good public relations” would require any transition like this to be more than “now everyone is sponsors with none of the rights or privileges of membership!” At least, I would certainly hope the board would keep that in mind. From how they’ve approached things historically I’m inclined to think they would. Gil _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
