Reply To: Where does the information come from?

[Rezwan]

Until this point, the Focus Fusion Society has been a small enough organization where the simplicity of our bylaws haven’t been an issue. We do, however, plan to grow.

If we elect to continue with the membership model (we can amend this, if we want), we will need some dedicated volunteers to handle membership issues, or we might need to hire staff for membership.

A few more quotes from boardsource.org on the “cons” of Formal Membership, and then I yield the floor for discussion:

Because true members are entitled to certain procedural rights under state law, and because complying with membership notice and meeting procedures sometimes can be quite onerous, it is important to think very carefully before arbitrarily creating one or more classes of members.

If an organization does have one or more classes of voting members, those members are usually entitled to various procedural rights under state law, as well as whatever rights and privileges are stated in the bylaws. For example, members typically are entitled under state law to a certain number of days of prior written notice of member meetings, and the notice may have to contain certain details…

…an organization with hundreds of members can incur significant costs and expend significant time and effort just sending out meeting notices…

…members who cannot attend a meeting in person are generally allowed to vote by proxy, and tallying those proxies can be time consuming. If either the content or the timing of member notice is improper for any reason, disgruntled members may successfully challenge the vote taken at the meeting, which can then result in the need to call a replacement meeting with a new round of notices.