[Linux-aus] Proposed constitutional changes: cessation of membership

[Mary Gardiner]

On Sun, May 01, 2011, David Newall wrote:
> On 30/04/11 20:45, Mary Gardiner wrote:
> > Note also the change to 4(d) in which people only have one month to pay
> > their membership fee, if any. That would reduce administrative burden on
> > the Council, but is it too onerous? (Recall that we have no plans to set a
> > fee though!)
> 
> The fee seems merely a token.  I expect any reasonable cost of transaction
> for receiving this fee would be more than the dollar collected.  Why not give
> members 99 years within which to pay it?

Firstly, for onlookers, recall yet again that the current Council does NOT
intend to introduce a compulsory membership fee. However, it seems sensible to
allow for it in the constitution (as almost every incorporated association
does). It may be, for example, that some future Linux Australia needs the
money, or the balance in favour of making membership as easy as possible has
changed.

In answer to David: in many associations, this fee is around $25+ per member,
not really token.

In terms of sensible due dates, two things:

 (1) NOT paying causes the end of your membership (and this does seem rather
     reasonable for a "membership fee" after all) so having that happen fairly
     soon rather than 99 years later seems sensible!

 (2) the Treasurer would need an account of outstanding membership fees (as
     might returning officers for the purposes of determining eligibility to
     vote/stand for Council), so again, a period of rather less than 99 years is
     reasonable

I can see an argument for it being various values within the 0 to 6 month
range, but not 99 years.

-Mary