[iaoa-advisor] Your advice on the Proposed Elimination of Membership Fees for IAOA

[Anthony Cohn]

Dear Laure

Thanks for this and for reminding me about the institutional membership which addresses the problem I was trying to solve!

Best wishes      Tony 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: iaoa-advisor <iaoa-advisor-bounces at ovgu.de> On Behalf Of Laure Vieu
> Sent: 15 April 2021 10:10
> To: iaoa-advisor at ovgu.de
> Cc: IAOA Executive Council <iaoa-council at ovgu.de>
> Subject: Re: [iaoa-advisor] Your advice on the Proposed Elimination of
> Membership Fees for IAOA
> 
> Dear Anthony and Maria, dear all,
> 
> We have already thoroughly examined the two grades of membership solution
> within the EC. It has many drawbacks, among which, importantly, requiring to
> change our statutes which do not right now allow for two classes of members
> and, obviously, creating a division among the members in a more conspicuous
> and official way than the original proposal to grant access to those who
> donate enough, which has been criticized already during the public discussion
> for creating second-class citizens.
> 
> For the future funding scheme, as Fabian explained, we do not currently have
> high regular expenses (of course, buying a large package access to IOS Press
> could change this, this is why a special fund is an interesting idea), and in the
> past, the bulk of the money gathered has been essentially from conferences
> surpluses.
> We will continue to enforce the policy that IAOA conferences should run in a
> fully autonomous financial mode, covering also student grants etc, and that
> IAOA contributes with advance money and as insurance against major events.
> Hopefully, surpluses will continue to come in once in a while. And hopefully,
> we will improve our ability to raise donations.
> Note that since institutions can still join for a fee, those who are in position to
> use institutional funds may join as institution instead of giving a donation
> (which often is more problematic institutionally).
> 
> Finally, we plan to assess regularly the sustainability of the new model, and
> might propose to change it again.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Laure
> 
> 
> Le 15/04/2021 à 09:25, Maria Keet a écrit :
> > Hi Anthony,
> >
> > On 14/04/2021 20:02, Galton, Antony wrote:
> >> We could have two grades of membership - full membership which
> >> requires a fee but gives free access to the IOS publications as at
> >> present, and something like associate membership which has no fee as
> >> per the current proposal. Or would this stigmatize the latter as
> >> second-class citizens?
> >>
> >> The main problem with abolishing membership fees entirely, as I see
> >> it, is: How will IAOA be funded in future? Is there sufficient income
> >> from sources other than membership fees to sustain the activities of
> >> the organisation? It would be very risky to rely on donations to make
> >> up any shortfall.
> > there's a huge amount of money in the account to last for a while (and
> > weather a major event disaster), and surplusses of IAOA's main events
> > go to the IAOA account, so it'd be basically 'giving back' to the
> > community in kind what we've all contributed over a while already.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Maria
> >>
> >> Antony
> >>
> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: Laure Vieu <vieu at irit.fr>
> >> Sent: 13 April 2021 19:01
> >> To: Nicola Guarino; 'João Paulo Almeida'; John Bateman; Stefano
> >> Borgo; Cohn; Galton, Antony; Giancarlo Guizzardi; Janna Hastings;
> >> Heinrich Herre; Werner Kuhn; Riichiro Mizoguchi; Mark Musen; Leo
> >> Obrst; Barry Smith; Wood, Zena; Roberta Ferrario; Michael Gruninger;
> >> Maria Keet; thomas.studer at inf.unibe.ch
> >> Cc: IAOA Executive Council
> >> Subject: Your advice on the Proposed Elimination of Membership Fees
> >> for IAOA
> >>
> >> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do
> >> not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender
> >> and know the content is safe.
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear IAOA Advisory Board members,
> >>
> >> We highly value your advisory role on important matters regarding our
> >> association.
> >>
> >> As you probably have noticed, a discussion on a proposal made by the
> >> Executive Council (EC) is currently going on the IAOA-member mailing
> >> list, taking advantage of the Assembly period. (See below the
> >> original message with the proposal.) We believe this proposal, the
> >> complete elimination of membership fees, has the potential to bring
> >> an important change in our association. It is a proposal, not a
> >> decision, and if adopted, it still needs to be refined or altered in
> >> various ways. Several ideas in this respect have already been put
> >> forward during the discussion.
> >>
> >> Therefore, in the name of the whole EC, I would like to warmly
> >> encourage you to share your views, taking part to the public
> >> discussion going on IAOA-member mailing list
> >> (iaoa-member at ovgu.de<mailto:iaoa-member at ovgu.de>), and help us
> >> reaching the best decision.  Some of you have already contributed to
> >> this discussion, for which we are very grateful.
> >> Alternatively, you may send me a message that I will share with the
> >> whole EC.
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >>
> >> Laure Vieu
> >> IAOA president
> >>
> >>
> >> -------- Message transféré --------
> >> Sujet :         [iaoa-member] Proposed Elimination of Membership Fees
> >> -- To be discussed during the current Assembly, till April 30 Date :
> >> Tue, 6 Apr 2021 18:46:45 +0200 De :    Laure Vieu
> >> <vieu at irit.fr><mailto:vieu at irit.fr>
> >> Répondre à :    [IAOA-member]
> >> <iaoa-member at ovgu.de><mailto:iaoa-member at ovgu.de>
> >> Pour :  iaoa-member at ovgu.de<mailto:iaoa-member at ovgu.de>
> >> <iaoa-member at ovgu.de><mailto:iaoa-member at ovgu.de>
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear IAOA member,
> >>
> >> We would like to take advantage of this year’s assembly to share a
> >> proposal by the Executive Council to eliminate all required
> >> membership fees, for your discussion and feedback. The motivation
> >> behind this is to decrease any financial barriers to membership, and
> >> so make the association more open and accessible to a wider ontology
> >> community. This move will also remove any inconvenience associated
> >> with annual membership renewals -- once registered under the new
> >> framework, members will remain so unless they choose to close their
> >> membership. That said, we are hoping for donations from members to
> >> fund IAOA activities in the future.
> >>
> >> Under this new scheme, IAOA members will no longer automatically
> >> receive free access to those IOS Press publications that currently
> >> are open to IAOA members. It’s been suggested that any donation above
> >> a certain amount may receive free access to IOS Press publications
> >> for one calendar year after the date of the donation, however the
> >> details of this remain to be determined. Regardless, all current,
> >> paid members would continue to receive access to IOS Press
> >> publications until the date of their (paid) membership expiry.
> >>
> >> We are proposing the adoption of this approach on a trial basis. If
> >> implemented, the idea would be to monitor the impact for any
> >> unforeseen consequences, modifying the approach or reverting to the
> >> original fees scheme if problems do arise. That said, we do not
> >> anticipate that this change will impact the regular activities of the
> >> IAOA.
> >>
> >> Please let us, and all, know what you think of the idea.
> >> The discussion on this topic is open till the end of the current
> >> assembly, on April 30, through this mailing list.
> >>
> >> Laure Vieu, IAOA President, and the whole IAOA Executive Council
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> 
> __________________________________________________________________
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