[Osmf-talk] Special Resolution for General Meeting
Christoph Hormann
chris_hormann at gmx.de
Wed Nov 18 09:16:27 UTC 2015
On Wednesday 18 November 2015, Kate Chapman wrote:
>
> The reasoning behind this is so the board can set the fees for the
> corporate membership this gives us more flexible as we build out that
> program. The main thought behind not letting the board set fees for
> membership and associate membership (or by any other way) is so that
> people can't be priced out of voting. Since corporations can't vote
> this isn't so much an issue.
Thanks for the explanation, i was going to ask about this but i am glad
i did not have to.
I was unsure how to assess this idea but the more i think about it the
more i tend to disapprove.
The main reason is this would essentially open the possibility for the
board to completely change the economic basis of the OSMF without
asking the membership. I am not implying the current board plans this
but it is definitely a possibility that would open in the future here.
If you'd raise the corporation membership fee 10 to 100 times and make
arrangements with a number of companies to support this, possibly by
offering additional benefits to these corporate members income from
these could easily dominate the overall OSMF finances. I don't think
something like this should be possible without approval of the
membership.
Besides this the whole thing appears very vague, essentially asking for
a blank cheque without any specific hints how it will be used. If
there were specific plans how to redesign corporate membership it would
make much more sense to have a resolution to change the membership fee
and another one to allow further changes at discretion of the board.
And to me the argument of flexibility (i.e. allowing fast changes) does
not fly either. Since membership fees are paid in advance for a year
it is generally a good idea to implement changes with fairly long term
announcements - otherwise it can easily appear as unfair treatment by
the members.
And finally in extension of the prime reason given above i also more
generally think a change in the very nature of corporate membership by
either decreasing fee and inviting a much larger number of companies to
become members or by increasing it and offering additional benefits for
corporate members and thereby changing the focus of activity of the
OSMF significantly should be the prerogative of the members.
After all it is not such a big deal to ask the membership for approval
of a change in membership fees as required by the current regulation.
I see no convincing reason to change this.
--
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/
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