On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 6:21 PM, Alison Wheeler
<wikimedia(a)alisonwheeler.com> wrote:
On Sat, August 16, 2008 17:15, Thomas Dalton wrote:
There seems to be some confusion here. You seem
to be suggesting that
you can become a member of the company without being a member of the
chapter (becoming a member of the chapter is impossible due to the
lack of a bank account). The website says: "For Supporting members,
there is also the option of membership of the Company." That suggests
you do need to be a member of the chapter to join the company. Which
is it?
Ah ... hmmmn .. you noticed that did you ... w-e-l-l ...
Company law rather precludes us making membership of the non-profit
Company conditional upon anything else, although there was an early
decision of the Directors that we might well conclude that someone who was
not a member of the Chapter (ie supporting member) was not a fit person to
be a member of the Company. Generally it was felt to be in the best
interests of the organisation as a whole that anyone active on the Company
side (including being a member) should also be a supporting (Chapter)
member although it cannot be a 'compulsory' issue.
The issue that I feel lies behind much of the conversation on this
subject (but which I don't think I've seen explicitly outlined) is
that of the governance of the organisation. As this is very much a
project founded on the idea of community, is there to be some kind of
accountability of the board to the community? How many members of the
company do you anticipate there being? Will making someone a member
of the company be a regular occurrence? What rights will supporting
membership bring?
I realise that the answers to these questions may still be undecided,
but it would, I think, be useful to know what the directors'
intentions are.
Sam
--
Sam
PGP public key:
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