Off- Boarding of non-voting members from OSGeo Oceania

Membership background:

There  are two documents that outline elections and member requirements... Our constitution and our Membership Policy both created in the startup year.

The key section of the Membership Policy is as follows…

Rights and responsibilities

• Members have the right and responsibility to vote in annual board elections (which can be done electronically). Members not meeting this responsibility in two consecutive annual elections will be assumed to be inactive, and removed from the membership register, with thanks for their prior service.

• Members may be nominated to serve on the board.

• Members are expected to act in line with the Eligibility requirements listed above.

Current Member Register by induction year and status prior to 2026 potential removals

The induction year of the 77 to be taken through the off-boarding process…

Why so many non-voters

The main reason could be that email addresses are being retired or that our emails went to another folder automatically. 

The off-boarding process

We don’t want to lose members however we only have email addresses and postal addresses that may be six years old now. 

• Stage 1: An email is sent to the member advising them that they have breached but can renew immediately using a form. The form has a “do you want to continue to be a member Yes/No” and if Yes, will be asked for their key contact details that we can update our database. If it is No, a reason is requested. This is designed to be a 3 minute renewal process at most.
  

• Stage 2: Any remaining non-voting members who did not respond are contacted by Linked In where we can identify them with the same process above
  

• Stage 3: All remaining non-voting members are then divided up to the board for further potential contact directly.
  

• Stage 4: Any non-voting members that have not been able to be contacted are potentially sent a postal letter to renew online and removed. 
  

• Note that members who did not vote in 2025, should receive a reminder during the next election process.

The process to alter the Membership Policy…
The Policy could be reworded and/or conditions removed. I would suspect that this would require approval of the members as one of our key documents however if required, it can be done.

Jonah has raised the issue of a small membership group impacting on our recognition when dealing with other organisations and our perceived impact. This definitely needs to be considered.

This discussion is about how we proceed forward and it would be great to have input from all. The next stage is to come up with a collaborated approach for ratification at the next board meeting so that board members have time to consider.