[OSM-legal-talk] [OSM-talk] License to kill

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

graham wrote:
> How do I find out if I'm a member in good standing? Is it possible to 
> check the register of members? 

I recently asked board at osmf for a list of members and received the 
answer that providing such a list might clash with members' privacy; but 
they said they thought that creating a members-only mailing list would 
be a good idea (I expect this to be done any day now). So I guess that, 
once the list is set up, if you find you receive mails from that list 
then you are a member ;-)

> I paid for membership - once, quite a 
> long time ago - and have never received any subsequent request for 
> "subscription and other sum (if any) which shall be due and payable to 
> the Association in respect of my membership" - so I guess I've probably 
> been dropped from the list.

The proper contact at OSMF would be the membership secretary. I don't 
know anything about their policies regarding renewals. However, I 
*think* that it was planned to have some kind of grace period, i.e. if 
your membership has lapsed because you didn't renew, you might have the 
chance to just pay now and it counts as having renewed after your 
previous membership expired. But don't take my word for any of this, I 
do not have any more access to board meeting minutes than anyone else.

> Is that the way it works? No reminders, and 
> silently dropped?  Or do you stay a member as long as you haven't been 
> asked for another subscription, terminating at death? That would seem to 
> be the implication of the 'general' section in the articles of association.

I thought that the membership fee was a yearly amount but maybe I was 
wrong. There are many things in the Articles of Association and the 
underlying Companies Act that on first reading seem to run contrary to 
how business in OSMF is conducted, and I put this down to myself not 
knowing which bits are important and which bits are subject to 
interpretation. For example I would have thought that the Companies Act 
says that the register of members must be available on request (even to 
non-members so could as well be put on the web site), but who am I to 
know the intricate details of the UK system - there are probably myriad 
"case law" issues that say otherwise and only a lawyer will know what 
counts.

Bye
Frederik