There is a history to the NSS policy on Activities such as the TCMA, the TCC, and the TSS. Originally, the policy stated "The Board of Governors is the ultimate arbiter of policies and plans of these NSS Activities." Presumably this was seen as making legitimate the policy that "The Society may, through its regular procedures, be the recipient of contributions designated for use by any of the above Activities." Then the lawyers cropped up, and that was changed to the current, "The designation of NSS Activity shall not confer upon the Society any right of control over, or responsibility for, the equipment, methods, or techniques employed by the group, or the acts, omissions, or decisions of any of the participants." It is still the case that "The Board of Governors may elect to review the official status of any NSS Activity at any time."
There was never any pretense that the NSS had control over Internal Organizations—"Every IO shall have complete freedom of action in its organization and fiscal policies"—so there was no need to add a disclaimer to legally protect the NSS. In general, rules about NSS membership of participants are similar. All board members of either kind of group must be NSS members. In theory, members of IOs are supposed to be NSS members or join within one year, but that has never been enforced. The cynicism is recognized, but the rule remains in force to encourage those groups that do enforce it, such as the Cave Diving Section and some of the largest grottos. There is no rule, enforced or otherwise, about the NSS membership of ordinary (non-board) members of Activities. Both kinds of groups file annual reports with the relevant NSS committee. Cave conservancies, such as the TCC and the TCMA, in the Activities category have always had somewhat more relaxed rules (if such loose rules can be relaxed), in recognition that they may be heavily related to or branches of other conservation organizations. So, for instance, only the officers of conservancies must be NSS members, not all of the members of their boards. And the old "ultimate arbiter" wording did not apply to conservancies. The bottom line is, while there are minor differences, all sorts of NSS groups are pretty thoroughly independent (not that this is an excuse for you to not join the NSS). Those of you with too much time on your hands can look at the relevant policy documents at https://caves.org/nss-business/bog/Append-D.pdf and https://caves.org/nss-business/bog/Append-P.pdf For some reason these are deep, dark secrets, so NSS members will have to log on with the NSS number and ZIP code to see them.--Mixon ---------------------------------------- The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. ---------------------------------------- You may "reply" to the address this message (unless it's a TexasCavers list post) came from, but for long-term use, save: Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu AMCS: a...@mexicancaves.org or sa...@mexicancaves.org _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
