You will perhaps notice that the cover of this Newsletter states that this is now the Newsletter of the International SGML Users' Group. We are now able to use the word International because the vote on the Constitution has passed. We received 103 votes. 93 of these voted yes without comments and 10 voted yes with comments. No negative votes were received.
Of the comments, seven proposed that the membership should follow the calendar year. All of these comments were from members of a single chapter. I have contacted the Chairman of this chapter and discussed this issue (the proposal was to have four membership date entry points at the beginning of each calendar quarter). As the proposal does not hinder the commentors from joining at the beginning of the year, they have agreed to waive the comments.
One comment was actually a question as to whether a student should have a vote if they are only paying half the membership fee. Students members do have a vote [as per section 4 (iv): A student may be a direct member and shall have one vote].
Another comment regarding students asked how the student subscription (1/2) should be reflected in a chapter's "bands" of the subscription fee. As we would like to encourage students to join chapters, students will not count toward a chapter's band totals for charging purposes. If the number of students in a chapter takes the chapter over the band, the Chapter should notify the ISUG of this and additional Newsletters will be sent to the Chapter. It is entirely up to the chapter what fee will be charged to a student, just as the actual fee for any member is up to the Chapter. If a student is a direct member of the international group, then the fee shall be 50% of that of an individual member. Those requesting the student fee will have to show proof that they are a full-time student or that it is their principal activity.
One comment was an affirmation that the proposed structure more clearly reflected the changing nature of the group.
And one comment questioned how the member would avoid double paying on dues when the new structure is started. The matter of double paying of dues for an initial time period will need to be resolved on a case-by-case basis. If any other members have questions in this regard, please contact Kirsten Wheatley and she will help resolve the issue.
As all of the comments were resolved, we received a 100% affirmative vote of the returned ballots and therefore have revised the constitution. The new Constitution in its entirety can be found in this current newsletter.
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
