A question about voting - $25 members excluded?

[Brian Aday]

Our Bylaws say Members can vote in board elections, and Associate Membership is membership.

Also, we passed $25 voting for HYH as Ryan details here: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/heatsynclabs/25$20member/heatsynclabs/DMFA-d5Fk2s/alADUyJYJsoJ

Did this not give them the right to vote for board members? The election is held in conjunction with a HYH.

Not trying to start a flame war, I am just bringing this up as a fairness and consistency  issue. I thought the community already settled this. 

[Will Bradley]

I agree this should be clarified. The member tiers were defined in the bylaws before, but were since moved to the Rules which are here: http://wiki.heatsynclabs.org/wiki/Rules#Membership_Tiers (you can also view the wiki history to confirm.) We created the Associate tier literally as a way to support us without spending $50/mo. We asked if people wanted to pay $25/mo for essentially nothing in return, and people said yes (they want to contribute.)

My understanding of the HYH vote was that it applied to the HYH vote only, and not board elections. I could be mistaken; let's discuss. (There are only about ten $25 members, most of whom aren't very active, compared to 70 basic+ members. If you're a $25 member and want to vote, please yell loudly right now! Voter suppression is not the goal!)

I'm in favor of either (a) renaming Associate Member to just Associate, or "Friend of HeatSync " to avoid confusion, or (b) adjusting the rules so that all >$25/mo member tiers get a vote on board elections. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A: people like the word "member." Not a single person has ever used the $1, $5, or $10/mo sponsorship options right below the membership options. B: If you have $250, now you can buy 10 votes and win by a landslide. (Minimum membership term requirements?)

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[Will Bradley]

I forgot a line, please re-read the first paragraph with bold:

I agree this should be clarified. The member tiers were defined in the bylaws before, but were since moved to the Rules which are here: http://wiki.heatsynclabs.org/wiki/Rules#Membership_Tiers (you can also view the wiki history to confirm.) The rules (and bylaws before them) don't give board voting privileges to the Associate tier. We created the Associate tier literally as a way to support us without spending $50/mo. We asked if people wanted to pay $25/mo for essentially nothing in return, and people said yes (they want to contribute.)

[JR]

Here's how I think of things:

Non-member: Can be in the lab as a guest of a member, and use the equipment that way.    Can be asked to leave at any time.

Associate member
-Can be in the lab and use the equipment,
-Gets member discounts on classes
-Can  not have 24hr access or vote (although now they can vote in HYH). 

Full Member: Everything an associate member gets plus the opportunity for 24hr access and the right to vote.

As someone who only makes it up to the lab every few weeks/months, this suits my needs fine.  I don't care for the politics (although if there's a problem I'll try to do something about it), so I don't get excited about voting.  If I decide I want to vote, I'll change from the $25 to the $50 membership.

[Will Bradley]

Found the original proposal which was under the topic of HYH rules: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/heatsynclabs/proposal/heatsynclabs/V5LlD_p7X7s/kHA97cECAmkJ

Either way I plan to push for my (a) or (b) ideas via a HYH proposal, since it is a loose end.

[JR]

I agree clarification would be good- but would favor (b). 

It's not much different than junior memberships at many clubs.