response 57 of 140:

Oct 25 15:44 UTC 2001

I'll send mail to Rane and ask him to look in on this item.

response 61 of 140:

Oct 26 03:43 UTC 2001

So, to put it all together:

- The section Rane quoted says that a member must be a person or corporation
  (which is different from just saying a membership is "held" by a person,
  because it makes it clear that one person can't have two memberships).

- The section Jan quoted says that each member is entitled to only one vote.

- The section I quoted says that the corporation is responsible for
  certifying a list of eligible voters before any meeting where voting
  takes place (which, when extrapolated to Grex's voting procedures, means
  we have to have an up-to-date list whenever we take a member vote).

So I conclude that it's Grex's responsibility to ceritify, before any
vote, that no one person has the ability to vote more than once.  Since
the mechanics of the voting procedure tie voting ability to particular
logins, it follows that it's Grex's legal responsibility to make sure no
two of those accounts represent the same person.

So, I still like the thing I've been telling people for years, and which
appears in the membership FAQ:

There are two reasons Grex requires ID from its members:

1. While we are very comfortable allowing anonymous users access to Grex,
we are not comfortable unleashing them on the rest of the Internet.  It
would be irresponsible of the Grex administration to allow people we can't
identify to telnet through Grex to other systems, so we require ID from
everyone we allow to do that. 

2. Cyberspace Communications is required by the state of Michigan to
maintain an up-to-date list of members.  Implied in this requirement is
that we make sure no two memberships are held by the same person.  So we
require ID to connect accounts with real people and make sure no one has
the ability to vote twice in Grex elections.

response 63 of 140:

Oct 26 04:09 UTC 2001

Note that corporate members are not allowed to vote, per the bylaws.  So
only the first reason above applies to why we require ID from them.

From the March, 2001 board meeting minutes:

 6. Institutional Membership Requirements: Much discussion, the following
 conclusion:

 Motion by other: In addition to those applicable requirements for individual
 memberships, the requirements for institutional Grex memberships shall be:
 1) A designated contact person who shall be responsible for all use of the
 member account.
 2) Verifiable personal identification for the designated contact person
 (subject to the same ID requirements as individual memberships)
 3) Renewal of institutional memberships requires an update of the contact ID.

 Seconded by aruba.

 Motion carries, 5,0,0

 FAQ should reflect that this is not a fee-for-services arrangement and that
 institutions are responsible for informing us in a timely manner if contact
 persons for institutional accounts change.

response 67 of 140:

Oct 26 04:44 UTC 2001

Re #65: There is nothing to prevent you from purchasing a membership for
IBM, and designating yourself as the contact person, as long as you provide
ID.

response 69 of 140:

Oct 26 05:48 UTC 2001

It doesn't matter in whose name you open the account, but if you wish to 
become a member, individual or organizational, you must provide proof of 
identity because you as an individual are responsible for how the account 
is used, or abused.

You could send in someone else's ID regardless of the logic of our 
policy, even for an individual membership, and as long as we don't know, 
it wouldn't make a difference.  The assumption is that you won't have 
access to enough different ID's to materially impact our governance in an 
improper fashion, and if you break the law and bring on the attention of 
the law enforcement establishment, we can be shown to have taken the 
reasonable and appropriate steps to validate the users to whom we grant 
access to the internet, and the weight of the law will fall on you if 
they catch you, or not if they don't.

response 71 of 140:

Oct 26 07:16 UTC 2001

Re #68: Eric said it pretty well.  We decided that since we grant
institutional members the same internet privileges as human members, that we
need to have a contact person at each institution which is a member, so that
we can hold someone accountable if the provoleges are abused.

response 75 of 140:

Oct 26 18:48 UTC 2001

1. To have a way to send out email notices to members from a secure, 
established email address recognized as belonging to the organization.

2. To create a low-cost informational website.

IM's also provide a way for organizational users of Grex to show their 
appreciation of Grex's services, but simultaneously keep our governance 
within the limits of the one individual-one vote restriction.

response 77 of 140:

Oct 27 15:09 UTC 2001

Sindi: One of the secrets of fundraising is to give people as many different
options as possible.  We added the idea of institutional memberships because
there was a demand for them.  Any institution is of course free to choose
the route you suggest, but institutional memberships give them another
option.