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Thank Wade (and Shaheen), I’ve appreciated your participation and comments here and on other questions.
I did want to make one comment, and that is that I am not sure that Alex’s desire for a free-for-all with membership lists is a request or concern shared by all members. For myself, I would rather not have any .ca holder able to spam me, simply by asking for the list and getting my information from CIRA.
That said, I do believe there is a need for forum(s) where members who want to talk to other members can find each other and discuss CIRA and other pertinent matters.
Your stream-of-consciousness thoughts were bang on, IMO.
The hard part for me, and, based on the survey results, 60% of members, is finding meaningful ways to engage. Part of the challenge, or course, is that .CA registrants have .CA domains for reasons other than being involved in CIRA, and most don’t become members because they view themselves more as indirect customers (through their registrar) than participants in management of the CIRA domain.
Even those of us who do become CIRA members (or least me) often find ourselves at a loss for how we can be relevant. It seems to me ridiculous to have a non-profit membership that has no purpose, in seeming practice, other than to elect a board and attend the annual meeting.
That’s not a CIRA-specific problem though, it is a problem for many non-profits, especially those where members are not also involved in the non-profit’s operations (i.e. excepting those where members are those who volunteer for a non-profit and/or who are supported by the non-profit).
Perhaps at issue is that term ‘member’ raises expectations (at least in this day and age) of more involvement than has/is typically the case, but that is never what was anticipated by the various non-profit’s acts and legislation and represents a change in thinking that many (most?) non-profits have not yet recognized or changed to accommodate.
In any event, I think it is great to talk about increasing engagement, but I’d like to know what ideas members and nominees mean by that, and what concrete opportunities to engage that represents.
It could even be part of the task is to inform prospective members what membership means, but also what it doesn’t. Why members exist (aside from needing votes to continue existing under legislation) and the legal philosophy behind the construction of non-profit entities in laws as they now exist might be of interest as well.
Anyway, as you can see from my own stream-of-conciousness, this is a work in progress for me, and I think for many non-profit members, and more relevantly, here with CIRA.
I don’t know if that gives you any ideas, or food for thought on engagement, but I hope it helps.