On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 2:36 PM, Tom Holden thomas.holden@gmail.com wrote:
This raises an interesting question we were briefly discussing on IRC last night: namely is there any situation where we would reject the membership application of someone who met the legal requirements? I can imagine we may decide to eventually reject those who had not paid supporting membership fees, but I really cannot see any reason for blocking an application beyond this. I certainly think it would be wrong to tie membership to on wiki activity or seniority in the community. Does anyone have strong opinions the other way?
When I've been involved in similar discussions in the past with regard to a different organisation, the issues arising were around the categories of membership which had been created (and which the draft Mem/Arts would permit us to create). There were often concerns that individuals or organisations had applied for categories of membership for which they were not eligible. Of course, where possible, it made sense to contact the applicant before the meeting to discuss this, but sometimes they were insistent on applying for the inappropriate category, or the inappropriateness only became apparent under discussion. This sometimes required examination of details such as their mailing address, which would have to be done in camera. Whichever categories of membership we might choose to create, I would strongly suggest maintaining at least one category which would be open to any and all applicants.