I've mulled this over a bit, and here is my proposal, if it is legally feasible.

We have two kinds of members.
"Voting" members can vote for the board, stand for election on the board, and the like. They have to pay a nominal fee (I'm thinking $1, but you get the idea). These members may also have to fill other conditions (contribs to WM projects? etc), as determined from time to time by the board (and maybe a referendum of voting members).

Non voting members can either be project contributors or donors, or both, but are people who don't want a voice in the operations of the board

My line of thought here is to introduce a low barrier to being involved. Now, we would encourage _donations_ (suggested donation $25?) to become either a voting or non-voting member, but the idea is to detach the membership being coupled money (in a direct fashion).
Does anyone know if membership fees are tax deductible? (I'm not sure on that).

I'd like to see donors encouraged to donate as much as they can, while having members and contributors be able to belong and help out without having a lot of headaches.

From reviewing, this looks like a bit of Delphine's suggestions 1 & 2 combined, with a bit more added in.

We're brainstorming now, so if anyone has a feeling of how this might be done, though it out there.

Thanks,
Gerald.