[Osmf-talk] OSMF Articles of Association - Discussion on Revision for 2013 AGM

[Simon Poole]

Am 08.03.2013 00:00, schrieb Clifford Snow:
>
> On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Dudley Ibbett
> <dudleyibbett at hotmail.com <mailto:dudleyibbett at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Having had a quick look for AoA on the web I wouldn't say it is
>     very common.  I have yet to find an example.  The proposal begs
>     the question as to why would anyone want to be a member under the
>     Act (i.e. having your address on the register) .  What would be
>     the point?
>
>
> I'm not a attorney nor do I have any familiarity with UK laws. However
> searching for relevant documents, it appears to me that if you want to
> be a member of OSMF, we need to provide OSMF with our name and
> address. Looking at Amnesty International United Kingdom AoA [1]  I
> see the same requirement. If any organization would want to keep
> membership anonymous, they would be it.
 
"informal membership" or "supporting member" turns up a number of hits.

For example
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/About%20Us/Governance/Legal_information/DiabetesUK-Articles-of-Association_2011.pdf

At this point in time we are not proposing that the current "normal"
membership class be in anyway restricted, we are just proposing an
additional class. Note that a lot of organisations actually have very
limited formal membership and I suspect what you think of as "AI"
membership is completely informal (aka you fork the money over and that
is it).

>
> Personally I don't have a problem with registering as long as there is
> limited liability to me as an individual if OSMF closed its doors.
> Unless we have good legal advise that membership does not require
> giving name and address, then the only alternative is to organize in a
> country with different membership requirements.
>
>
Membership according to the companies act does require full address
information, that is the reason that we are undertaking this effort in
the first place, no need to ask a lawyer for the umpteenth time.

IMHO (nothing I haven't voiced before) a UK company is less that ideal
for a mass membership organisation, and a lot of the stuff that we are
shoehorning on to the OSMF construct is a no-brainer in other
jurisdictions with appropriate incorporation forms. But we need to get
this issue off the table at last, down the road, one day, somebody may
have the guts to propose and carry out a restructuring of the
organisation, but that is not what is on the table now.

Simon
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