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Any chance of using PDF files? If it’s a Word file I need to download it, open it and convert it in Pages where the layout might not be the same as you intended! Will upload a PDF version now for the benefit of others. (This is not just part of my well-publicised and well-based antipathy towards Microsoft. PDFs work better in the online environment and PDFs work for everyone.)
What you say about “Allied Business” sounds OK but I suspect there is going to be a lot more work involved in monitoring this. With an “affiliate” organisation, we are talking about a group that is basically doing the same as we are doing. With an allied business there may be other factors. Suppose for example they are also teaching hypnotherapy, homeopathy or magnetic therapy …. ??? Remember that such a business, if it is giving WGI official courses, already has the benefit of saying the courses are official. Can we rubber stamp them beyond this? I believe we need to straighten out the affiliates situation as a matter of urgency and that the businesses can wait.
I’m afraid I’m not a fan of appendices. When something is called an appendix, it sounds like an appendix, an after-thought! I find it very hard to compare the original document and this one due to this fact. You have also dropped the numbering system which is so helpful in referring to articles and changes in same. This is like doing the work right from the start again.
I notice something about affiliates collecting fees. We have been working hard to create an online membership renewal system, one that will reduce the need for a lot of work-hours, administration and careful record keeping. If affiliates do this then the work load is in fact increased from what it was before. We need to balance policy with pracicality. If you want to suggest such an arrangement then you would need to suggest all the practical steps for its implementation.
Surely the top purpose of an affiliate is not to link to other affiliates. Surely it is to localise WGI work. They are in a good position to decide on what is the best arrangement of hours/days, translate into the local language, understand local marketing. They may also need to enhance some programmes to meet local needs (as in the case of the European Psychotherapy qualification). The key work is enhance, not diminish. (For example, one affiliate delights in 3-day basic weeks!!!!!!) We also agreed some time ago that certificates should be issued centrally due to some strange practices out there. (Provided we issue cert numbers centrally that is really all we need.)
Finally, something I said elsewhere, I think we need to distinguish rights from responsiblities. One responsiblity not listed is to adhere to WGI policies.
Picking up on John’s review of the current policy, I notice a few points.
We do need to keep an official register of recognised affiliates with details about who is the mentor, contact person, regional delagate .. and the like.
Section 7 of the policy mixes rights and responsiblities. It might be an idea to separate these. For example, is it a right to be able to use the WGI Logo or is it a responsiblity?
On a related point I think it would be useful to have a separate affiliate logo showing our symbol and with the annotation “Official Affiliate of WGI” or some such.
Finally, section 8 probably should read “with WGI’s vision and values” and not just “values”.
There are a few points here.
First of all I too would be against the idea of some sort of meritorcracy for voting. What I do support is the idea of having voters who KNOW what they are doing. We don’t expect people from Australia to have a say in USA elections. All elections that I know of have some definition of who can vote and it’s usually those who have a vested interest in the election results. In our case voters would have to be members of WGI. How else could we call ourselves an organisation?That brings us to the second point: who is a member? A very basic requirement would have to be that a member supports the working of WGI financially. Otherwise we are daft! We are worrying about finances and then not sharing that burden with those for whom WGI exists.
I agree that WGI is not fully in the QWs of people. That’s why I have been working almost non-stop for the past weeks on the new website. It plays a central role in the networking that is the main plus for WGI.
It’s not qualification=vote; it is membership of WGI=vote in WGI.
This is an important point. It might not apply to all the courses we offer but certainly to some. Another aspect is that accreditation will vary from country to country.
Do we need (1) a board member to becomes an “Accreditation Officer” (I’m sure there’s a better word.) and (2) an accrediation person in each affiliate to identify local requirements?
Yesterday when GoToMeeting crashed I asked Conrad for ideas on membership (so that we could use it in the resusitated meeting) and I quote below what he wrote:
Hi Brian,
Thank you for your note. This is a good conversation in which to involve the whole marketing committee.
What does member mean?
Because WGI has chosen to be a corporation with voting members, there is no room for adjusting the consequence of being a member. That is, all members vote. So that leaves us with three questions for sure:
1. How does someone qualify as a member?
2. How does a member vote?
3. What constitutes a quorum?
Question #2 is easiest to answer. Members may vote in person or by electronic submission. This allows votes to be conducted at conferences, and by referendum.
The mechanism for voting is Wishlist Member. It already has this functionality. A member logs into the site, casts their vote, and then cannot access the voting page again. It is then up to the member to ensure they do not share their login information with anyone else.
Question #3 is slightly harder to answer. The difficulty is ensuring engagement with members so they want to vote. I recommend not even trying to define what makes a quorum until after we’ve had time to engage the existing membership in conversation via e-mail and the new site. Simply run with what’s working for now, and plan to do a test run of a new process in 2016 at the conference.
Question #1 already has an answer. I become a member by going to the WGI site and joining. Simple – or maybe not.
Rather than run through all the possible scenarios, let’s go straight to the heart of the matter.
The ideal solution is for all issues of membership to run through WGI. Every time someone joins WGI, the transaction runs through the WGI site. This makes a person a member of WGI and a member of the applicable national affiliate. Where there is no national affiliate, all the funds remain with WGI.
Two things are likely to be required to make this work:
a. The fee for basic WGI membership will remain at $20, and perhaps be lessb. WGI must develop other streams of income that include higher membership fees
This is a good beginning for the conversation. Thank you for getting it started, Brian.
For now, let’s have this starting point in our minds. There is quite a bit of other work that needs to be completed before we get into a protracted conversation about membership. Indeed, some of the other work is going to help fill in details for this conversation.
Thank you to everyone for taking time to read this through. It’s an interesting conversation, and I’m sure we’ll have lots of discussion when it times to revisit this topic.
Sincerely,
Conrad Hall
