Re: Questions about the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP)

A few things to consider in this thread:
1. By-Laws vs Member benefits
2. Examples from other associations and consortiums
3. Examples of when if ever all the individual IAAP members would ever 
vote on anything

1. IAAP Member benefits include:
        Eligible to participate in committees and task forces 
        http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?contentid=153

I recommend including some level of "voting benefits" to the list of 
benefits, but scope it (limit the scope with example) as in vote on 
committees and task forces.  And give some example of when if ever the 
general membership of the IAAP would ever vote on anything. 


2. Use example from other associations, such as the W3C

For example, consider a tiered approach, like at the W3C, where working 
groups are operated by chairs that try to reach consensus rather than 
voting all the time.
        See http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/policies.html#Votes

and distinguish between if and when groups of members that get to vote and 
groups of members that don't vote - meaning the same members can vote and 
at other times the same members don't get to vote.  So, although all 
members get to nominate and vote on who gets to be on the Advisory 
Committee, only members on the Advisory Committee get to vote on things 
the Advisory votes on [smile].

        See the section describes general policies for W3C groups 
regarding participation, meeting requirements, and decision-making. These 
policies apply to participants in the following groups: Advisory Committee
, Advisory Board, TAG, Working Groups, Interest Groups, and Coordination 
Groups. 

3. Examples of when all the IAAP indivisual members would vote on 
something?
I can't think of any. I've never heard of a vote of all individual members 
of the W3C (companies get to vote once in a while, but not individuals) , 
or IEEE members, or even the ACM members that I can remember.  I do get to 
vote at the annual IBM Stockholder's meeting, based on the number of 
shares I have - but that is a business model, not a democracy government 
model of one citizen one vote.  At the annual stockholders meeting the 
deck is stacked, but so is the vested interest.  Even as a citizen I do 
not get to vote on everything - for example I do not get to vote at the 
Senate Committee meetings or the local Citiy Council meetings.  I wouldn't 
expect IAAP members to get to vote on something like raising the 
membership fee - that's the job of the board and/or CEO and staff. OK, 
maybe, just maybe I could see IAAP having a popularity vote on a new logo 
competition or something like that. . . 
but
if we're talking about a scenario where there is an IAAP committee or task 
force that can't reach consensus, and the chair has to call for a vote of 
the members participating, then should all the members participating get 
to vote, even if those members come from the same company, government, 
non-profit agency, country,  or group of independent consultants? Yes, in 
my opinion  becasue IAAP is not a consortium, but an association.   In the 
W3C's process, the group of invited experts only gets one vote for their 
group. In IAAP every individual member pays a individual membership fee. 
The payment may come from either themselves or their employer pays for 
them, or via your tax dollars, or by scholarship - however it doesn't 
matter who or how its paid - its about whether the individual is a member 
or the organization is a member.  Because the individual is the member 
(representing themselves, not the company, not the government agency, not 
the country they live in, not the non-profit, and not the group of 
independent consultants) each member gets a vote, if or when ever one is 
called. Which is what I think the by-law is saying.
 
See W3C's guidance on 3.3.1. Managing Dissent
        
http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/policies.html#managing-dissent

___________________________________________
Regards,
Phill Jenkins,