[Osmf-talk] Draft resolution on membership prerequisites

[Edward Bainton]

Thank you for the draft, Tobias.

My big-picture view is that purely objective criteria are completely
unsuitable for the anti-takeover purpose: we need human discretion applied
by individuals.

Joining the discussion where it is now, I believe that
A. this sort of detail is not normally in the articles of a membership
organisation, because they are difficult to amend.
B. if the criteria are kept outside the Articles this would mean Associate
Members also can have a vote on them.
C. the "potential text" is not as legally precise as company articles
require - eg, "OpenStreetMap" and "contribute" are not defined.

I therefore propose
D. amend the Articles so Membership Rules are possible as "secondary
legislation".

I have a suggested text, but to save doing several things in one post I
will keep it back for now - please say if helpful to share, on list or off.



On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 at 18:09, john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'd like to suggest that we accept membership from anyone,  money is
> always nice, but voting is restricted to someone who has made 42 days of
> contributions.  That way we can sign people up and get their money without
> having to wait until they have mapped for 42 days first.
>
> I'm not quite sure how that would work but something along those lines.
>
> That way people can support us financially without having to prove they
> have fought with JOSM etc for 42 days.  I might even drop the 42 to 21.
>
>
> Cheerio John
>
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2022, 11:28 Tobias Knerr <osm at tobias-knerr.de> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> at the 2020 AGM, a 79% majority of the membership asked the board to
>> propose prerequisites for membership in the OSM Foundation which would
>> ensure that all applicants for membership have made a reasonable amount
>> of contributions to OSM (not necessarily through mapping).[1]
>>
>> We would like to ask for your feedback to a first draft of this proposal
>> which you can read below. It uses a definition for "reasonable amount of
>> contributions" that is comparable to the active contributor
>> membership[2], but has lower requirements: 42 days of contributions ever
>> instead of 42 days per year. Existing memberships would not be affected
>> by this change.
>>
>> The 2020 resolution called for a membership vote on this topic in 2021.
>> Unfortunately, the board didn't produce a proposal in time for the 2021
>> AGM and we would like to apologize for this delay. Our current plan is
>> to have the resolution ready for a general meeting on April 30, 2022.
>>
>>
>> # Potential text of the resolution
>>
>> Using its powers under §15 of the Articles of Association, the board of
>> directors shall reject applications for membership or associate
>> membership if the applicant has not demonstrably contributed to
>> OpenStreetMap on at least 42 days. The specific form of the
>> contributions (e.g. mapping vs. non-mapping) does not make a difference
>> for the fulfilment of these prerequisites. The board may delegate
>> verification and rejection of membership applications to a working group.
>>
>> ## Rationale:
>>
>> This change would more firmly establish the OSMF as an entity serving
>> the people and communities who create OpenStreetMap. By ensuring that
>> votes in Foundation elections and resolutions are cast by OpenStreetMap
>> contributors, it becomes more likely that the Foundation will continue
>> to support the the project well.
>>
>> The criteria take inspiration from the fee waiver (known as active
>> contributor membership) to allow using a similar implementation. Unlike
>> the fee waiver, eligibility will be evaluated as a one-time step during
>> application for membership, rather than annually. As such, members do
>> not have to fear losing their membership if their activity fluctuates or
>> declines. Existing memberships won't be affected.
>>
>> ## Considerations:
>>
>> This one-time check applies to all member applications including those
>> that pay the regular £15 membership fee.
>>
>>
>> # Footnotes
>>
>> [1]
>>
>> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Annual_General_Meetings/2020/Suggested_resolutions#Vote_3:_Work_on_membership_prerequisites
>> [2] https://join.osmfoundation.org/active-contributor-membership/
>>
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