Until 1997, the Group had taken direct memberships only, either individual or corporate. Direct members may be members of both the International Group and a local independent Chapter or only of the International Group. If they are members of both, they pay dues to each organization separately (except in the case of a few Chapters who have built membership in the international Group into their fee structure). They attend local Chapter meetings, but get the benefits of the international membership as well.
At the end of 1996, the ISUG changed its constitution to take Chapter and SIG memberships as well. The ISUG will encourage chapter membership whenever possible. In the case where a local Chapter is not available, the ISUG will accept direct memberships, but we will encourage members in that geographical location to start up a local Chapter as well.
Chapter Members can be incorporated separately (Affiliate Chapter Members) or as subsidiaries (Subsidiary Chapter Members) and shall pay dues to the ISUG according to a schedule based on the number of members it has. All members of a Subsidiary or Affiliate Chapter Member shall be considered a member of the ISUG and shall enjoy all benefits of the ISUG.
Existing Chapters of the SUG can choose to become a Subsidiary or Affiliate Member or can retain their current status as an independent Chapter of the ISUG. If they decide to retain their current status, their members do not automatically become members of the ISUG. If their members would like to receive the benefits of members, they will have to join the ISUG at the individual/corporate direct rates.
In the past, the cost of the international Group's membership has been a barrier for some local chapters. Organizers have felt that their members would not be willing to pay the additional charge for the International Group's membership. In order to overcome that barrier, Richard Light, our Treasurer, developed a new fee schedule as reported in Issue 31 of the Newsletter. Originally, we had thought that we would substantially drop the cost of membership, but retain a per-member charge to the Chapter. However, the administration overhead of such a plan seemed unwieldy. The new funding schedule proposes bands for fees. For example, a Chapter Member with between 75-99 members would pass US$1,875 per annum to the international Group. This would equate to between US$25-20 per member. This compares quite favourably with the current individual membership fee of US$62.
When we discussed these fees with independent Chapter representatives, the bands were generally thought to be a better idea than a per-head cost. However, at the lower bands, the cost per person, was not attractive. In the proposal, Chapters with 10-24 members would pay US$750 per annum, a per-head fee ranging from US$75-32. Based on this feedback, the following schedule was arrived at. [Note: the fee for 1-5 members is as for individual members.]
| Number of members | fee per year (£) | fee per year ($) | fee per member (£) | fee per member ($) |
| 1-5 | N/A | N/A | 40 | 60 |
| 6-9 | 200 | 300 | 33-22 | 50-33 |
| 10-14 | 300 | 450 | 30-21 | 45-32 |
| 15-24 | 500 | 750 | 33-21 | 50-31 |
| 25-49 | 750 | 1125 | 30-15 | 45-22 |
| 50-74 | 1000 | 1500 | 20-14 | 30-21 |
| 75-100 | 1250 | 1875 | 17-13 | 25-20 |
| 100-149 | 1500 | 2250 | 15-10 | 22-15 |
| 150-250 | 2000 | 3300 | 13-8 | 20-12 |
By expanding the total number of members to include those within each Chapter, the level of services could be maintained with this significantly lower per head fee.
The number of members of a chapter, for the purposes of determining the international membership fees, would be counted as follows:
In other words, if a Chapter had 10 institutional members (each with 3 named individuals), 27 individual members, 2 student members, and 1 honorary member (who would probably not pay a fee in the local chapter), the Chapter would have 30 + 27 + 2 + 1 or 60 members and would be responsible for a Chapter Member fee of $1500, equivalent to $25 per member.
To further encourage chapters to subscribe to the chapter membership or to foster the development of new chapters, a range of new services will be offered. We encourage suggestions as to other services that would be useful to chapters, or constructive criticism of those listed here to further refine this list:
As existing Chapters already know, starting up a Chapter is only part of the story. At recent AGMs (held each year at the GCA SGML Europe conferences) and mid-year meetings (an open meeting held each year at the GCA SGML conferences in North America), the discussion often turns to how to keep a Chapter vital. Whilst many members may want a Chapter to continue, it is often difficult to find time to design meetings, get speakers, coordinate with vendors, etc. So the challenge for the Group is to provide services that help established Chapters maintain their membership.
One way to do this is to provide benefits that make renewing membership worthwhile. The benefits of membership of the Group include:
Above all, it is ultimately the individual and corporate member who must benefit. Those individuals who currently belong only to their local chapter can soon enjoy the benefits of international membership for a small incremental cost. Those individuals who are currently members of the international group can continue to enjoy their benefits of international membership and the local chapter benefits of meetings for a lower cost.
Chapter membership is available as of January 1997. Each chapter's anniversary date would be from the nearest new quarter.
If the number of members in a chapter exceeds the band during the membership year, the chapter can declare such and will receive sufficient Newsletters to cover its actual membership. The chapter would formally go up to the next band at its next renewal date and pay the appropriate fee.
To help Chapter Members set up in the most cost-efficient and timely manner, the ISUG would provide administrative services at cost to its Chapter Members. Administrative services, charged at an hourly rate of £8($12)/hour, could include:
The following items are currently being considered as part of the Chapter Start-up Kit. The following pages give examples of each:
Individuals interested in starting up a Chapter should contact to Yvonne Vine to receive more information.
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
