I recieved a question regarding membership categories and voting rights, and
since its an important point, I'll reply to the whole group to clarify the
details of the issue through the email server.
The intent of the ISSA constitution membership clause (2) is to require
helmsmen at sanctioned events to be ordinary members in good standing. The
clause also defines a subgroup or members as "boat owning members" who have the
right to vote. In order to guard against a boat owning multi-member syndicate
having undue influence, only one vote per registered hull is allowed. Likewise,
to prevent for example, a mischevious group of opti sailors joining en mass as
ordinary members and changing the destiny of the class to their evil whims,
voting is restricted by the constitution to the "boat owning" ordinary member.
So you might say boats can vote in the Swift Solo Class.
Moreover, Bram has lately been fielding a fair number of enquiries from other
class owners who are mining our building PDF & rigging manuals for ideas. While
he is happy to help these individuals, his time is limited. The associate
membership category is intended as a way to both limit the out of class
interactions for Bram to the serious enquiries and should we need to move the
class related material to a class-member only area to provide some organized
way for class friends to access the info. It is also hoped that the associate
member category will provide a category for "friends of the class" to interact
with us, as members rather than as the "general public", from whom we can not
raise much revenue under the IRS rules for a non-profit association.
Hope that clears up any confusion
Greg Ryan
Class President
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