[Linux-aus] Multi-tier membership and member services

[Jonathan Oxer]

Hey LA,

At the AGM I proposed 4 motions, the wording of which is available here:

http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/Constitutional_Amendments

Amendments #1 and #4 were passed, while #2 and #3 were rejected (IIRC,
not having notes handy). Amendment #1 was specifically to lay the
groundwork for putting in place a multi-tier membership system that was
documented here:

http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/Multi_Tier_Membership

The idea behind the multi-tier membership scheme was to:

1. Provide a simple way for members to support LA financially if they
feel so inclined.
2. Create a mechanism for LA to provide greater benefits to members. I
have a lot of ideas about this, but I want to get the foundational
membership structure sorted out before I go down that track.
3. Allow non-individual membership such as LUGs to facilitate coverage
of LUG events under LA's public liability insurance.

This year I want to put some time firstly into getting the multi-tier
membership system operational (assuming there is general support for
it), and based on that create a series of member benefits / services
such as @opensource.org.au email forwarding and subdomains.

I have already set up a mail server to handle opensource.org.au and the
DNS for that domain is currently delegated to me so that I can run
automated updates to subdomains based on updates to MemberDB, but before
I jump the gun with all that I want to get the multi-tiered membership
stuff underway first.

So: to make this happen we need a couple of things. Firstly, we need to
know if members actually want this to be done (based on previous
discussion the reaction was quite positive, so that shouldn't be a
problem). Secondly, we need the Council to move that such a scheme be
implemented.

To get right to it, I'd like to see the Council move something like the
following:

"Linux Australia will implement a multi-tier membership scheme with four
classes of membership.

Ordinary Member: Perpetual individual membership as per current
practice. Fee: free.

Contributing Member: Annually renewable individual membership which is
automatically switched to Ordinary Member if fees are not paid. Fee:
$35pa.

Honorary Life Member: Equivalent to Contributing Member, but bestowed at
the discretion of the Council and requiring no payment of fees.

Affiliate Member: Annually renewable membership for companies and
organisations. Fee: $150pa (may be waived for LUGs at the discretion of
the Council).

All existing members will be automatically converted to Ordinary Member
status initially, with the exception of existing Life Members who will
be automatically converted to Honorary Life Member status."

The wording of that motion varies slightly from the text on the page
linked above, but is essentially the same proposal with some bugfixes
such as the mention of fee waiver for LUGs.

Does this seem like a reasonable scheme? If so, what numbers should be
put in for the $ values? I just plucked those numbers out of the air
because they seemed reasonable.
-- 
Cheers    :-)

Jonathan Oxer
Ph +61 4 3851 6600
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