<p>All,<br> <br>My first instinct (although it might not be the best one) is to follow previous practice from other chapters. So I just quickly looked it up on the wiki, leading me to the Australian chapter's draft mission statement. It appears they do not mention country of residency as a criterion (after a quick scan), and membership is handled on a case by case basis anyway. I think that means that necessary exceptions (if they do end up manifesting themselves) do not cause a bureaucratic hassle. <br>
</p>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<ol>
<li>
<p>Membership qualifications </p>
<ul>
<li>A person is qualified to be a member of the association if, but only if:
<ol type="a">
<li> the person is a person referred to in section <strike>15</strike> <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">16</span>(1) (a), (b) or (c) of the Act and has not ceased to be a member of the association at any time after incorporation of the association under the Act, or
<li>the person is a natural person:
<ol type="i">
<li>who has been nominated for membership of the association as provided by rule <strike>3</strike> <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">4</span>, and
<li>who has been approved for membership of the association by the committee of the association.</li></li></ol>
<li><font color="#ff0000">has complied with rule 3 and disclosed any conflicts of interest.</font><br></li></li></li></ol></li></ul>
<li>Conflict of Interest </li>
<li>You must make the association aware of any potential conflicts of interest by declaring if:
<ol type="a">
<li>they are employed by,<br>
<li>contracted to, or
<li>an immediate family member of a person employed or contracted with a commercial mapping organisation</li></li></li></ol>
<li>If your, or your immediate family members, circumstance changes that it would conflict with (1)
<li>Being employed or contracted to a mapping entity doesn't prevent a person from being a member or becoming a member but it must be disclosed to reduce or prevent conflict of interest problems.
<li>Failure to disclose may lead to sanctions of your membership or expulsion as provided by rule 12 </li></li></li></li></li></ol></blockquote>
<div><a href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZf0jIYShBc0ZGNicXR6OXZfMGdoOGsycGZi&pli=1">https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZf0jIYShBc0ZGNicXR6OXZfMGdoOGsycGZi&pli=1</a><br> <br>Sorry for the rough copy and paste job. Do any of the other members of the list have contacts with other local chapters elsewhere that may have encountered this issue? The only other drafts I found after a quick search were for Belgium and Japan. My language skills do not help me there. </div>
<p>Best,<br>_AJS<br><br></p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 2:04 PM, Kate Chapman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kate@maploser.com">kate@maploser.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>Frederik,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>That makes sense to me. I just wasn't sure if there were issues we had not though about. Americans abroad for example. Would we discourage them from becoming members of a U.S. chapter? Though I agree that those becoming members of multiple chapters could complicate internal processes. So maybe the answer is to state somewhere that an individual can only be a member of one chapter at a time.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div><br></div><font color="#888888">
<div>Kate</div></font>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div></div>I have organisational knowledge of two other international non-profits with national chapters. Both do not encourage you to become a member of two national chapters at the same time; among other thigs this could double your theoretical weight in certain internal decision making processes.<br>
<br>Having members from abroad is certainly always a bit of a challenge for an organisation (different address format; more expensive postage rates; other ways to make payments; other requirements for tax-exempt dontaions; etc.etc.). I think that things would be easier for everyone if people, generally, became a member of the OSM organisation in their respective country of residence, rather than becoming members in all OSM organisations in countries they want to map in!<br>
<br>Just my 2¢ though.<br><br>Bye<br>Frederik<br><font color="#888888"><br>-- <br>Frederik Ramm ## eMail <a href="mailto:frederik@remote.org" target="_blank">frederik@remote.org</a> ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33"<br>
</font></blockquote></div></div><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Talk-us mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Talk-us@openstreetmap.org">Talk-us@openstreetmap.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us" target="_blank">http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Alexander J. Stein<br>Cell: (201) 412-9479<br>Email: <a href="mailto:alharaka@gmail.com">alharaka@gmail.com</a><br>Skype: alexander.j.stein<br>AIM: elduderino6886<br>