2008/11/28 michael west michawest@gmail.com:
Just a credit crunch thought, but some of us don't like cheques sitting ideal. A cheque that is cashed up2 a couple of weeks after I have posted it, I can cope with, but a cheque that is going to be cashed months later isn't a good idea. Instant transactions are the norm now and it is so easy to forget that a cheque was written after say a month.
You can wait until the account is open before sending in your application, they're just accepting them early from people that want to get it out of the way. Unless you plan to stand for the board, you can probably just turn up to the AGM and join on the door.
Many of us donate to WMF anyway, how about if we can prove we donate we get an associate membership without voting rights if we send in all our WMF paypal receipts? Although associates would have voting rights on constitutional matters.
WMF is completely separate, I don't think accepting donations to them in exchange for membership of the chapter is a good idea. At the moment there is just one type of member and that's full membership of the company ("guarantor membership" as the previous incarnation called it). It's possible other forms of membership will be created in the future, but the board decided to leave that decision for the AGM or the next board.