[oclug] Re: oclug traffic

[Dave O'Neill]

On Fri, Nov 05, 2004 at 11:33:12PM -0500, Warren A. Layton wrote:
> In terms of how the Ontario government views our membership, just
> signing up to the list does not officially make one an OCLUG member.
> A person needs to complete a registration form to be a voting member
> (the form in question just requires a name and e-mail address,
> neither or which is distributed to third parties).

Correct.  As far as OCLUG-the-corporation and the Ontario government are
concerned, your name and contact info need to be on file with OCLUG for
you to be considered a valid voting member.  The mailing list was not
sufficient for a seed-base of a members list, because:
  a) most list subscriptions do not include a full name; and
  b) the list subscriptions were not obtained with the intent of making
     the subscriber a member of OCLUG-the-nonprofit-corporation, so they
     wouldn't be valid as a members list.

Because of this, OCLUG began compiling an official members list,
comprised of anyone who wished to provide their information, with no
restrictions on who can be a member as long as they provide the required
information.

> I believe non-members subscribed to the mailing list are given special
> recognition as active participants, but are not actually members.

Basically, everyone (list subscribers, voting members, people who show
up to meetings) are afforded the same benefits of OCLUG, except that
only voting members can cast ballots for the annual election of
directors.  Since anyone who wishes to do so can become a voting member,
this has not yet become a problem.

This is how it worked when I was still in the loop, and I haven't heard
otherwise, so I assume that it's still the case now.  However, keep in
mind that I'm not on the board, and haven't been for a couple of years
now.  

Cheers,
Dave