Membership of the Indo-European Language Association, now without ordinary annual subscription fees

Posted on by Admin
Statement by the Board, 27 Feb 2009: There has been a gross mistake in the description of the new condition for members. The ordinary Assembly General, held in February, decided in second call (Art. 20, First, Estatutes) with a qualified majority – of the members that were there with right to vote – that ordinary annual subscription fees would amount to 0€. There were indeed talks about “lifelong membership” (which is partly the practical consequence of the decision taken), but the matter wasn’t voted in those terms due to the need of modifying the Constitution. Even if the majority of votes (unanimity) qualified to legally make such a modification – according to Art. 20 b) – the terms of the agreement didn’t include but a change in ordinary annual subscription fees. Furthermore, no specific talks were held or decisions taken about the necessary modification of Estatutes to include such a “lifelong membership” condition. We are sorry for the inconveniences (if any).

The Association opened itself for international membership a year ago. Before its first birthday forces the first subscribers to pay one more year, we have decided to turn ordinary subscription fees to zero, and to make the standard payment the only type of subscription, following the example of other international non-profit organizations.

The decision is based on two main reasons:

  1. The Association was firstly conceived as a regional one. Members have subscribed from different European countries, expecting to find an international organization. The strength of such an international Association is based on the number of members who can collaborate with each other in the different regions and countries, and this is difficult to achieve with a 15€/year obligatory fee.
  2. Subscriptions have been based on the benefits of membership, which have changed over time because they were excessively optimistic, especially regarding the benefits of “academic courses”, “conferences” and “meetings”, which haven’t been held. It isn’t fair that early members pay more for benefits and events that will be held in the future, and it could make them abandon the Association expecting a better future value of the subscription fee.

We have therefore left just a standard unique 15€ fee as obligatory, because the 7€ unwaged/student fee isn’t rational anymore. Nevertheless, those subscribers who made use of that discount will be automatically turned into standard members. We didn’t consider leaving a lower standard fee to avoid the membership of unresponsible people attracted by low prices.

Also, given that the Association will (hopefully) become a strong organization in number of willing members, the linguistic aspect will need the collaboration of the old concept of the “Europaiom Consortium of experts”, which is now the Proto-Indo-European Language Foundation (Eur. Dnghu Bhudhnós). Its internal and external organization rules will be written down in the Association Wiki.

Other development of February was the inclusion of ads in all public wikis, to help cover the monthly expenses of the Association.

Your Indo-European language team.