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Constitution Review Working Group Report Proposals Part One 22/01/01

ISOCNZ Constitutional Review Working Group
Proposals 1

The following points have been discussed by the Constitutional Working Group (WG) and are being put forward as proposals for discussion by the members of ISOCNZ.

Membership issues:

The types of membership in the Society.

  1. Individual Associate Member
    1. The notion of the Associate member will be abolished. As currently constituted this creates a second-class member with restricted voting rights. A provision for a reduced fee will be continued - for unwaged persons and students - but with full ordinary membership rights.
    2. Fees for all levels of membership in the Society will continue to be set by the AGM, the amounts being recommended to the AGM by the Council.
  2. Ordinary Members.
    1. Validation of an individual as a member : This is a very difficult area. The WG has determined that we will await the outcome of the NZ Government initiative on validation (using unique PIN numbers) in the e-government guidelines before continuing the discussion of validation further.
    2. Individuals must apply under their own name and will be required to supply (and maintain) a working e-mail address. Communication from the Society to the member will be by e-mail
    3. Individuals will be required to hold only one membership in the Society and must agree to abide by the rules of the Society.
      Chris Streatfield proposed that hotmail type (free email) accounts and general business type (i.e. somedept@somebiz) accounts should not be permitted as the official email address of an individual. The overwhelming majority of the WG were opposed to the proposal.
    4. The WG has agreed that we need to encourage participation of members in the work of the Society, we therefore propose that: On joining (and renewing) membership in the Society individuals will be requested to indicate their areas of interest in the work of the Society to enable individuals to participate in WGs and Standing Committees.
  3. Corporate Membership.
    1. The current four levels of Corporate Membership will be maintained, viz:
      Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
    2. The current rights of number of individual members to be nominated by a Corporate Member will be maintained, viz:
      • 4 ordinary members for Platinum,
      • 3 ordinary members for Gold,
      • 2 ordinary members for silver and
      • 1 ordinary member for Bronze.
      These ordinary members become full members of the Society.
    3. The rule in the current Articles viz:
      "12.1 At every General Meeting each Individual Member and each Organisational Member shall have one vote, except that..."
      is to be modified such that corporate members will cease to have an additional vote on-top-of their nominated ordinary members.
  4. Organisational Membership.

    Organisational Membership will be defined as Constituencies. Initially three constituencies will be created. This type of membership is independent of type of subscribed membership but is formed from within these subscriptions.

    1. A constituency of Registrars that are Corporate members will be created.
    2. A constituency of ISPs that are Corporate members will be created.
    3. A constituency of domain name holders will be created.
    4. Individual Constituencies will be responsible for their own internal structure within a general framework that will require each Constituency to be responsible for creating an executive committee which will manage the affairs of the constituency. A Chairperson will be elected by each constituency and will become a member of the Council of ISOCNZ. The person taking up the seat on Council must be an ordinary member of the Society. No individual can take up a seat on Council as representative of more than one constituency or hold any other seat on Council.
    5. Corporate members that are both ISPs and Registrars can only be members of both constituencies if they hold Platinum or Gold membership in the Society. The WG has been unable to agree whether these joint constituency members may have voting rights in both constituencies.
    6. For the purposes of defining the eligibility to be members of one of the constituencies:
      • A Registrar is one which has been accredited to the *.nz name space.
      • An ISP is to be defined as a commercial provider of internet access and service.
      • Individual domain name holders will be defined as ordinary members of the Society who are domain name owners or administrative contacts for a *.nz domain name.
    7. To enable the broadest possible involvement of individuals in the dnh constituency Registrars shall have a clause in their contracts which will require them to send an email to the registrant with the proposed wording:
      "The Internet Society of New Zealand administers and sets policy for domain names ending in *.nz
      As a Domain Name holder you are entitled to join the Society and take part in the Domain Name holder constituency.
      For further information please click on this link or contact membership@isocnz.org.nz".
  5. Affiliate Membership.
    1. The category of Affiliate Membership will be created to enable other organisations, such as the Maori Internet Society, to join ISOCNZ if they represent a significant segment of the internet community in New Zealand. This category of membership has not yet been discussed in detail by the WG, but the possibility that the rights of Affiliate Membership could include a seat on the Council has been floated.
  6. Termination of Membership.
    1. ISOCNZ shall have the power to terminate a membership where necessary.
    2. Criteria will be that a member's actions have been in serious conflict with the rules or objects of the Society.
    3. Procedures to be followed:
      1. A member may make a complaint asking for expulsion of a member to the Chairperson of the Society.
      2. The Chairperson will notify the member against whom the complaint has been made within 72 hours or receiving the complaint.
      3. Any Officer or Councillor who may have a conflict of interest with the case must recuse themselves from any involvement with the following process.
      4. The Officers of the Society shall meet within 14 days to consider whether there is sufficient substance to the complaint to warrant a further hearing.
      5. If the officers find insufficient substance to the complaint the matter will not be taken further and the member who is the subject of the complaint will be notified accordingly.
      6. If the complaint is upheld by the officers they will prepare a formal complaint notice.
      7. On receipt of a formal complaint notice the Council shall, within 7 days, appoint a panel of 5 Councillors to hear the complaint.
      8. The panel shall convene within 7 to 14 days in a face-to-face meeting to hear submissions.
      9. The member subject to the complaint shall have a right to make a submission to the panel.
      10. The hearing shall be confidential.
      11. On completion of their deliberations the panel shall make recommendation to Council which shall include a summary of the facts of the case and the hearing.
      12. The Council shall consider the panel's recommendation within four working weeks of receipt and may only vote to accept the recommendation or send it back to the panel for further consideration.
      13. The member subject to the complaint shall have no action taken against them until the completion of the process, except in an extreme case.
Convenor Constitutional Working Group
Chris Streatfield

© 2001 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 23 January 2001

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