Dear members,
Since it has been announced that I have been working on framing the Constitution of
ILUG-Cal (IMO a typical PITA sort
of work ;) and since we are discussing subscription amounts to be fixed up & how to
collect it, I guess its time I share
with he members a part of the picture of what I have drawn up & why.
1. Unless we open a bank account in the name of our LUG, its impossible to accept
cheques from sponsors, also keeping
the cash collections with ourselves is a heavy responsibility particularly when it is
in large amounts.
2. I have been given to understand that the best option would be to register ILUG-Cal
as a Registered Society, as this
will help us to open bank accounts without any problem.
3. To register ILUG-Cal in the state of West Bengal, we have to do it according to the
W.B. Registered Societies Act
(1961)... it means:
a> Adopting a Constitution;
b> Selecting an address as our Registered Address (till date my residential
address has been used as ILUG-Cal's
address)
c> Registering the society with the Registrar of Societies, W.B. (involves
some fees)
4. I have used both the Registered Societies Act and the CSI (Computer Society of
India) constitution to provide me with
the framework. However, a number of shifts had to be made from the CSI constitution as
the nature of our organisation is
markedly different.
[NOTE : In all this it has been my intent & purpose to keep the things as simple as
possible.]
5. IMPORTANT -- we have to keep in mind that "open-forum" nature of our LUG is
retained for all times -- this is
intrinsic to the global LUG culture. In plain english, this means people should be
able to walk into our meetings & take
part in it, irrespective of whether they have contributed to the LUG funds or not.
[NOTE : This is one of the areas which I have particularly stressed in my forth-coming
ILUG-HOWTO which is soon to be
published on Linux-India. The HOWTO is intended to be a guide to people who want to
know how to organise an ILUG (Indian
Linux User Group) Chapter in their locality].
6. Till date, membership to our LUG was governed by a simple rule. Either you join the
mailing list & become a member or
attend the meetings or both. From the moment you fulfil any of these criteria, you
will be deemed as a member of
ILUG-Cal. Since most members are on the mailing list, therefore, a member could cancel
his membership by simply removing
himself from the mailing list & by not participating in any of the meetings. We used
to have a turnover of 3 - 5 members
each month who left the list. Again some of the members who are not on the list, but
attends the meetings once in every
2 - 3 months.
This is all quite expected. However this makes determining the exactly size of
membership & identifying each member
individually for the records a difficult task. Particularly if we are going to have
some sort of membership fees,
identifying the members becomes important.
7. Therefore, I propose a multi-tiered membership structure. The proposed features of
such a structure are:
<i>In the individual Category --
a> Executive category -- this will be have an annual membership fees in the
range of Rs. 300 - 500.
b> General category -- this will have a annual membership fee of about Rs. 150
c> Casual category -- this will have no fees attached to it, allowing us
compliance with Point # 5.
<ii> Group/Institutional Category --
a> Educational Institutions -- proposed annual membership fees in the range of
Rs. 1000 - 2000
b> Non-profit organisations & NGOs -- proposed annual membership fees of Rs.
1000 - 2000
c> Corporates -- proposed annual membership fees in the range of Rs. 5000 -
10000
[NOTE : The purpose of having different levels of membership is only to ensure that we
can accomodate all who wants to
join us.]
8. RIGHTS & PRIVILEGES for the membership levels proposed :
a> The Executive Category members will have the right to vote during the AGM (Annual
General Meeting). The
"ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE" (the LUG governing body) will be constituted from among the
Executive members. While they
shall not enjoy any privileged standing within the LUG, they shall be entitled to
all/any facilities that the LUG may
provide its members without restrictions of any nature at all times.
b> The General Category members shall have the right to vote during the AGM based on
certain conditions. It is expected
that a large portion of members will belong to this category. The voting criteria may
be fixed as follows:
[1] Attendence of the member in at least 25% of the total number of meetings
in a year, or
[2] The time gap between last meeting attended by the member can't be more
than 60 calendar days from the date
of AGM, provided the tenure of his membership is longer than 60 days.
[NOTE : Since we register the attendance at every meeting this shouldn't pose any
difficulty]
The General members may not directly stand for elections for positions of
office-bearers of the LUG. They shall have to
submit a petition for this to the ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE, which will take the
decision based on the inputs from the
members.
[NOTE : However, the ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE shall have the power to directly
nominate any deserving member from the
General or Casual Category for the position of an office-bearer, based on their
contribution to the LUG or the cause of
Linux in the region in general.]
The General Category members shall have access to all the LUG resources during the
Meetings & all/any events that the
LUG may take part in.
c> The Casual Member category will draw no membership dues.... in effect, it will be
same as it is at present. They
shall have no voting rights during the AGM. However, their opinions/suggestions shall
be given serious consideration
when any decision has to be taken.
The Casual members shall enjoy the complete facilities the LUG may have to offer only
during the meetings or at any
events/programs that the LUG may take part in.
GENERAL RULES GUIDING INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
---------------------------------------------------
Organisations ranging from educational, NGOs, similar non-profit organisations like
ILUG-Cal, corporates, governmental &
semi-governmental agencies can become members of ILUG-Cal. This category of membership
will have a common set of rules
associated to their membership.
[1] Each Institutional member will have to appoint one person from its side to
represent it in the LUG. This is required
as members in this category will be a member of the ILUG-Cal Executive Category by
default. Each institutional member
shall have one vote each during the AGM.
[2] more than one of of their members can be present at the LUG meetings, however
their representation will be treated
as one. In case of decision-making, only their nominated representative's opinions
will go on record.
[3] Institutional members may change their nominated representative through a notice
sent to the ADMINISTRATIVE
COMMITTEE of the LUG. The change is expected to be affected within 7 calendar days of
receipt of the said notice.
A> Educational Institutions may register with the LUG as an Institutional member. This
scheme will allow their
institution to be a part of the Linux movement in Calcutta. Their students can benefit
from their close association with
the LUG.
B> NGOs & non-profit organisations embracing the Linux platform to empower people at
the lower end of the info-social
spectrum (those with little access to the power & benefits of Information Technology)
can become members under this
category. Also if the NGO is using Linux for its own internal purposes as a
replacement of expensive, proprietory s/w,
it is welcome to join the LUG.
C> Corporates -- whether end-users, developers or providers of Linux-based services
can be a member under this category.
Benefits & privileges of Institutional memberships
--------------------------------------
Educational, non-profit & NGOs:
ILUG-Cal as a group will attempt to help in assisting them in their use & adoption of
Linux. Members of ILUG-Cal can
volunteer on project to project basis to lend their expertise to these institutional
members as their (the volunteers')
way of giving back to the community, thereby re-affirming their commitment to the
OpenSource & GNU philosophy.
ILUG-Cal shall make a commitment to work alongside these institutional members to make
sure that Linux penetrates down
to the grass-root level from the present scenario of being an almost exclusive domain
of techies & power-users.
The members can avail of handsome discounts on any fee-based training programs that
the LUG may conduct.
Corporate membership:
Being the single largest gathering of Linux users and professionals in Calcutta and
one which is attracting an
increasing number of members with each passing day, a corporate's association with
ILUG-Cal can enhance its prestige,
and act as a testimony to the corporate's commitment to Linux as one of their
preferred platforms. While this forum
shall never lend itself to being used a bulletin board of corporate brouchures, they
can use this forum to create an
awareness about their products & services, either Linux-based or working with Linux.
The Corporate members may be allowed to put up stalls or displays (including, but not
limited to banners alone) at the
venue of any ILUG-Cal event at no extra cost. However, the members shall have to bear
all the costs of their stalls by
themselves.
[NOTE: No such actions from the Institutional (particularly Corporate) members shall
be allowed which may shift the
primary focus of an event from ILUG-Cal onto themselves, even in the slightest
possible degree. To ensure the
safeguarding of LUG's interests, all materials to be used for display or advertisement
by the members in these
categories shall require to be cleared by the ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE. The said
members will have to submit a complete
inventory of their publicity material which they plan on using at any ILUG-Cal
venue/event to the AC for approval &
record.]
[GENERAL NOTE ON ROLE OF DIFFERENT MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES IN DECISION-MAKING : Despite
the categories mentioned, the
decisions affecting the entire LUG shall largely be taken on the basis of democratic
principles through the process of
peer-review.]
Upgradation of Membership in the Individual Category
----------------------------------------
Members (Executive members excluded) belonging to the individual category can choose
to upgrade their membership
category ao any point of time.
a> A Casual Member may choose to upgrade his/her membership to either to the "GENERAL"
or "EXECUTIVE" category.
b> A General Member may choose to upgrade his/her membership to the "EXECUTIVE"
category.
Exception to the above rule
--------------------
A particularly capable and enthusiastic member belonging to "General" or even from the
"Casual" can be inducted into the
Executive Membership category without payment of membership fees, the subject to the
sanction of the Administrative
Committee.
[NOTE : Downgrading to a lower membership level can't affected during the period of
one year after registration.
However, if a member so chooses, s/he may do choose to renew his/her membership in a
lower category at the time of
renewal after an year]
Role of the Mailing list
-----------------
The LUG mailing list, in conjuction with the LUG web-site shall be the source of all
information about the LUG & all its
activities. Towards this end the mailing list will be divided in several sub-lists
each dedicated towards a specific
purpose. The forking of the list is likely to be along the following lines:
a> ILUG-Cal -- the general list as we have now;
b> ILUG-Cal-Announce -- a list dedicated to announcements related to the LUG.
c> ILUG-Cal-Admin -- a list for discussing the administrative issues, ranging from
day-to-day activities to
policy-making.
d> ILUG-Cal-Commercial -- a list that will allow commercial activities to discussed
without any hassles.
----------------------------------------
Ok... I am tired of this for now... more of this later.... there are a lot of rough
edges to what I have written here,
you feedback will help me in finetuning this stuff...... lets hear from you...
--Indra.
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