Guest Karen Posted April 13, 2011 at 03:46 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 03:46 PM Currently I am serving on a committee to draft bylaws for adoption by a new organization that is forming. Under types of membership, what is a proper statement to definine Charter members? I realize that Charter members are the original members signed onto the permanent record (charter roll)which is filed with the original papers founding the organization. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Ralph Posted April 13, 2011 at 03:55 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 03:55 PM RONR does not discuss bylaw texts.I suppose you could write "All those members on the day these bylaws come into effect shall be referred to as 'charter members'." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted April 13, 2011 at 07:45 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 07:45 PM RONR does not discuss bylaw texts.Actually it discusses them pretty extensively, but it would not be appropriate to quote an entire chapter here.By default, RONR just has "members". Are you (Karen) planning on having some sort of distinction between regular and charter members? If not, then there's no need to put anything in the bylaws. You can refer to them as "charter members" or "founders" or the like, using the ordinary dictionary definition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest karen Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:34 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:34 PM Actually it discusses them pretty extensively, but it would not be appropriate to quote an entire chapter here.By default, RONR just has "members". Are you (Karen) planning on having some sort of distinction between regular and charter members? If not, then there's no need to put anything in the bylaws. You can refer to them as "charter members" or "founders" or the like, using the ordinary dictionary definition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karen Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:46 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:46 PM We will have several types of members, including honorary lifetime members. The group took a shot at the Charter member description as follows: "The original members signed onto the permanent record, which is filed with the original papers founding the CWA, shall be charter members.""In addition, those members joining the CWA before December 31. 2011, shall be included in the roll of charter members." This may be rather verbose, but is it appropriate? Do you have other language that is more concise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Ralph Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:48 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:48 PM I don't see much wrong with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmtcastle Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:57 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 08:57 PM We will have several types of members, including honorary lifetime members. The group took a shot at the Charter member description as follows: "The original members signed onto the permanent record, which is filed with the original papers founding the CWA, shall be charter members.""In addition, those members joining the CWA before December 31. 2011, shall be included in the roll of charter members." This may be rather verbose, but is it appropriate? Do you have other language that is more concise.I can almost guarantee that, sooner or later, someone is going to ask if there's a difference between actually being a charter member and only being included in the roll of charter members.Why not simply define charter members as all those who join before a certain date. That would surely include the "original" members. Though, personally, I'd make more of a distinction between those who were there on the Day of Creation and those who joined later that same year.Once you've defined these charter members, what special privileges do you anticipate giving them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karen Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:12 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:12 PM The Charter members will be given opportunity to pay the set amount of dues to become Lifetime members without waiting thru the cosecutive years of service criteria set out for Lifetime members. Thanks for asking, because I now realize that priviledge needs to be listed under Charter or Lifetime members. Other than that...Charter members will just be recognized as the origianal founders. Should there be some other distinction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Goldsworthy Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:44 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:44 PM The Charter members will be given opportunity to pay the set amount of dues to become Lifetime members without waiting thru the cosecutive years of service criteria set out for Lifetime members. Thanks for asking, because I now realize that priviledge needs to be listed under Charter or Lifetime members. Other than that...Charter members will just be recognized as the origianal founders. Should there be some other distinction?Now you are veering toward highly customized class distinctions, none of which can be answered using Robert's Rules of Order.It is a question of philosophy or purpose of the various classes.RONR, as you may know, only recognizes one class of membership, with an acknowledgment that organizations are free to add as many classes of membership as they deem fit.Once you create a new class, you are on your own.You will be creating problems for yourself. -- As witnessed by the many questions this Q&A Forum gets on "who can make motions if that class of membership cannot vote?", or "who counts toward the quorum?", etc.Beware. Tread lightly. "Thar be dragons." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmtcastle Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:46 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 09:46 PM Other than that...Charter members will just be recognized as the origianal founders.Except it will include more than the original founders. It will include anyone who joins before the end of the year.I would suggest you tread very carefully when defining classes of membership. Actually, I would suggest you begin with no classes of membership. You can always add them later. And you can discount the dues for the founders and for those who join before the end of the year without setting them permanently aside as a separate class of member.Remember, every word or phrase you add to your bylaws is a potential time bomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karen Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:06 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:06 PM Oh Geeze! Time bombs and dragons? I'll have the bylaws committee to rethink this toward simplifying meember classes. Thanks for the advice...and warning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David A Foulkes Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:29 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:29 PM Oh Geeze! Time bombs and dragons? I'll have the bylaws committee to rethink this toward simplifying meember classes. Thanks for the advice...and warning.And let's hope it does entice the crocodiles in either. That's when it gets really bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:31 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 at 10:31 PM The Charter members will be given opportunity to pay the set amount of dues to become Lifetime members without waiting thru the cosecutive years of service criteria set out for Lifetime members. Thanks for asking, because I now realize that priviledge needs to be listed under Charter or Lifetime members. Other than that...Charter members will just be recognized as the origianal founders. Should there be some other distinction?RONR recommends no class distinctions between members. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted April 14, 2011 at 01:47 AM Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 at 01:47 AM Currently I am serving on a committee to draft bylaws for adoption by a new organization that is forming. Under types of membership, what is a proper statement to definine Charter members? I realize that Charter members are the original members signed onto the permanent record (charter roll)which is filed with the original papers founding the organization.In RONR, charter members are those who sign the original papers and pay the initial dues, although RONR also notes that in some organizations, all members who join by a specified date are called charter members. In RONR, this is a purely ceremonial title, and conveys no privileges beyond perhaps the honor of being listed as a "charter member" in various documents of the organization. Your organization may define charter members differently in its Bylaws if it wishes to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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