Associate membership ($15/month) is a way to support Skullspace without
the cost, rights, and responsibilities of full membership. Associate
members will be offered special discounts on some events admissions and
other Skullspace services and access to some events and services which
are available to associate and full members only.
Another thing worth repeating is that this idea of Associate Membership
isn't a "hard policy" requiring approval by the members as a bylaw
change. (unlike student membership).
It's a marketing program to turn some guests into repeat donor guests,
not a form of real membership with any rights and responsibilities.
As such, I'm going to risk "asking for forgiveness" after the fact on
this one and just put it live on the wiki on October 30 after our
meeting without taking any vote on the matter. (more ideas like this
should get done that way instead of being pitched "why don't we..." at
everyone)
At that point it will be up to folks who run events and services to make
it more than just wiki markup by actually by giving associates different
treatment from other guests and it will be up to advocates of this idea
to actually sign associates up for the appropriate PAD and/or track
envelopes of cash/cheuqes dropped off in the donation box.
Perhaps someone should step up and be the /associate member registrar/
instead of dumping it on Jay.
As VM server admin, I will permit associates to have VM server access if
there is a maintained registry of these people I can rely on for that.
I see this whole idea as being outside the scope of the bylaws and don't
want to cheapen real membership by giving it any kind of recognition
under the bylaws. Perhaps using the "M" word at all carries this risk of
conflicting with the bylaws. If I hear enough objections along these
lines, I will call this donor-marketting program "associate of
Skullspace" instead of "associate membership".
Some folks were talking about having associate members sign on to the
members agreement. In the spirit of not giving this any formal
recognition, I think that's a bad idea -- if we're not granting any real
rights so let's not ask these folks to carry responsibilities as per the
member agreement either -- lets put emphasis on associates being
*guests* who get a few event and service perks and not let them feel
they're a form of member.
Even though this whole thing is in the realm of soft-policy, I
appreciate that it could end up cheapening the value of membership
anyway, even without the "M" word included. As such, in the spirit of
"asking for forgiveness later", I will withdraw this from the wiki (or
not put it there to begin with) if some kind of "motion of condemnation"
receives majority support at a meeting.
So, like first Fridays, "it's on!"
Mark
p.s.
I wrote
> Full members are responsible for not turning associate members and
> other guests the into defacto full members with respect to access by
> sponsoring their access too frequently, *especially* for the purpose
> of simply hanging around or informal gaming. (its best if guests are
> brought in for special events or project work).
This what goes through my head when I hear "casual member". Being able
to hang out any time and enjoy everybody else's presence is actually one
of the best privileges that comes with membership. We should never give
that away.
I have gratuitously stolen the "associate" word as meaning "has no real
right, just hands over money and feels good" from the FSF:
http://www.fsf.org/associate/
http://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits
They don't even have real "members" to offset the associates, their
board is fully in-charge and re-appoints itself under the glow of RMS's
benevolent dictatorship-saint in the church of emacs halo.
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