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IV. Membership

Submitted by walter on September 25, 2006 - 1:56pm.

A. All voting members of NYMAA should agree with the NYMAA Purposes of Existence (see here). In addition, they must meet two out of the following three criteria:

    1. Actively participate in at least one NYMAA grouplet between GAs. Active participation is defined by the grouplet itself, and a list of active participants who are or seek to become members will be sent to the Comms Group at least one week before each GA.
    2. Attend two out of every four GAs, with attendance based on the sign-up sheet found near the entrance to each GA.
    3. Contribute money (or materials/labor) to general NYMAA funds, using the IWW scale ($3/month for the unemployed; $6/month for those making minimum wage or less; $12/month for those making slightly more than minimum wage; $18/month for those making significantly more than the minimum wage). The honor system will be used to determine what category people fall into.

B. Exclusion/Expulsion: Members may be expelled from NYMAA and individuals may be excluded from membership in NYMAA through the following process:

    1. A proposal for exclusion or expulsion is brought to a General Assembly and placed on the agenda as a priority matter.
    2. The decision to expel or exclude is reached by NYMAA's standard voting procedure.
    3. The person(s) to be expelled or excluded cannot take part in the vote.

C. Membership lapse:

    4d (version 1). If a member does not attend General Assemblies, Working Groups, or Locals for at least six months, their membership lapses, and they no longer have voting rights or list access in NYMAA.
    4d (version 2). If a member does not attend General Assemblies for at least six months, their membership lapses, and they no longer have voting rights or list access in NYMAA.
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Membership criteria
Submitted by walter on October 23, 2006 - 3:14pm.

These criteria address concerns with the definition of membership prior to October 21. 2006. Before that date membership was solely based on attendence at General Assembly (GA) meetings, which presented two problems.

1) There was no mechanism for establishing membership of people who were otherwise active in NYMAA, but who could not attend GAs for scheduling or other reasons.

2) With GA's meeting only every two months, it would take at least four months for someone to become a member.

These problems are significant because access to several features on the web site are available only to members, only members can take part decisionmaking at GAs, and calculation of a quorum may depend on membership.

Each of the criterion is intended as recognition of active participation in NYMAA. Attendence at GAs is one indication of activity, involvement with NYMAA subgroups is also an indication of activity, and continuing financial contribution is an additional indication of committment to the group.

Since only two of the three criteria must be met, none of the criteria are required (although meeting all three is a good thing).

Activity in subgroups is determined entirely by the subgroup itself. The group provides a list of names of people who have been active in the group and are or would like to be members. Thus individuals not interested in NYMAA need not be included on the subgroup's list of active members.

The sliding scale for dues is based on the IWW scale, but is not dependent on it (i.e., if IWW changes its scale, NYMAA scale is unaffected). The honor system means that each member may decide for themselves where they fall on the sliding scale, and it is understood that some members may not be able to contribute at the level at which they would technically fall on the sliding scale.

The last section deals with lapse of membership. It was not amended when the membership criterion were changed, and should be revisited. Version 2 does not apply since GA attendence is not a requirement for membership. In addition, attendence at a sngle GA or working group is not sufficient for membership without payment of dues. That implies that dues be considered in determining when membership lapses.

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