IP Membership Categories

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 21:45:59 -0400
To: Christopher Majka <nextug@is.dal.ca>
From: Peter Morgan <ae112@chebucto.ns.ca>
Cc: ccn board <ccn-board@chebucto.ns.ca>, CCN Information Provider Committee <ccn-ip@chebucto.ns.ca>
References: <4.1.19990103211922.00ac3890@riversystems.com>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <ccn-ip-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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Index of Subjects

that's all they are.
There is a long discussion to be had here, but just one quick point:

> IP with Network Package 
> - $1000 (to be negotiated depending on needs) 
> - above plus 20 email addresses 
> - 4 mailing lists 
> - contracted support (if necessary) 
> - org takes responsibility for email addresses

>are, at most, at a 'future projection' stage. They're not even close to
>anything that the CCN could at the moment advertise, invoice for, etc.
>What is 'reasonable'? What does 'to be determined and enforced sometime in
>the future' mean? What does 'takes responsibility for Email addresses'
>actually entail? How does PPP support factor into these categories? What
>does 'contracted support' actually involve?

David Murdoch has just such an arrangement with the Halifax Regional
Development Authority to provide just such a service -- dedicated phone
lines, numerous organizational email accounts, shared file space, etc. It
is a great example of a partnership and also of our very formidable
capabilities.

I think the other stuff will just have to fall in to the category of "we
agree to disagree".

At 12:00 AM 11/01/99 Monday, Christopher Majka wrote:
>Greetings Peter!
>
>On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, Peter Morgan wrote:
>
>> Happy New Year!
>
>And to you! BTW, thanks for the fine and Xmas card! Started my wanderlust
>juices flowing. ;->
>
>> One more time (with gusto), as adopted by the Board as an interim measure
>> until a representative IP committee can be established:
>
>I'm not sure where the notion that there is no IP Committee arose,
>however, I simply don't subscribe to it. The IP Committee just met last
>month (December 10) with eight members in attendance and regrets received
>from six others (minutes at
>http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Chebucto/IP/Minutes/dec-10-98.html).  Just
>because the chair of a Committee leaves does not, in my view, mean that
>the Committee ceases to exist.
>
>IP Training continues to work as before. The CNN Editors (13 members
>strong) continues to work as before. All during the fall we have continued
>to work on projects of our own design (Site Map, Featured IP,
>administering current IPs, fixing bugs in the IP database, etc.) as well
>as liasing with the Technical Committee and the Communications Committee,
>etc. on mutual projects (FTP to IP directories, restricted-post mailing
>lists, etc.). 
>
>Apart from the Technical Committee the IP Committee seems to me to be the
>next most active committee in the CCN.
>
>Further to this point the IP Committee discussed precisely the issue of
>VDNs (as it has in the past) with the following conclusions (taken from
>the minutes):
>
>	There was considerable discussion of this topic, particularly the
>	rate structures that the Board of Directors is proposing to charge
>	our non-business IPs. The IP Committee was unanimous in its
>	conviction that a $400 annual fee was: 
>
>	Not what its understanding ever had been for this rate
>	structure. It was rather its belief that this fee should be a
>	one-time set-up charge; 
>
>	That it was excessive and would put this feature out of the range
>	of the vast majority of our current Information Providers; 
>
>	That it was out of keeping with what costs the CCN incurred in
>        implementing VDN's (i.e. the technical overhead in
>	implementing this was of a one-time nature: beyond that,
>	maintaining a VDN was scarcely more difficult than that any other
>	IP). 
>
>	A rate of $400 as a one-time set-up charge followed by a $100 annual
>	fee was floated as something which represented a much more
>	realistic fee for non-business IPs and which many felt was much
>	more apt to be 'sell-able' to our IP constituency. 
>
>> NB: These are all ANNUAL FEES (why do I find myself shouting?) and I see
>> their is no distinction for businesses
>
>Fine. We did, however, go through a whole process last spring (ratified,
>it seems to me, at that time by the Board) which did create a separate
>business IP category. In my view distinguishing between these two makes a
>great deal of sense, given my sense of the economic means of these two
>groups and thus of having a membership instrument to distinguish between
>them.
>
>> Basic IP service: (what we currently offer)
>> suggested minimum contribution of $50 annually
>> limit on web space (to be determined and enforced sometime in the future)
>> 2 mailing lists
>> volunteer training and support
>> other services as you could better iterate than I
>> 
>> (WITHOUT resorting to shouting, I must point out that this means that IP's
>> who currently do not pay anything, can continue not to pay anything. They
>> will continue to receive all services they presently receive. How this can
>> be construed as not affordable to an IP is beyond me.)
>
>No one that I know is arguing this. ;-> My concerns have pertained to
>virtual domains and costs thereof.
>
>> IP Member
>> - $200
>> - above with "reasonable" space
>> 
>> (This is the category we want current IP's, which can afford to pay, to
>> contribute at. This represents less than an individual would pay for a
>> commercial account with far less benefits)
>> 
>> IP Member with VDN
>> - $400
>> - above plus:
>> - VDN
>> - organizational email address
>> 
>> IP Member with Organization Package
>> - $600
>> - above plus 10 email addresses
>> - contracted support (if necessary)
>> - org takes responsibility for email addresses
>> 
>> IP with Network Package
>> - $1000 (to be negotiated depending on needs)
>> - above plus 20 email addresses
>> - 4 mailing lists
>> - contracted support (if necessary)
>> - org takes responsibility for email addresses
>> 
>> PPP access is offered to all IP's paying a membership ($200 or more)
>> 
>> We could certainly publish this fee structure, although my sense is we want
>> to have a discussion with potential users and an email link serves us well.
>
>But Peter, (equally without resorting to shouting ;->) these categories
>are, at most, at a 'future projection' stage. They're not even close to
>anything that the CCN could at the moment advertise, invoice for, etc.
>What is 'reasonable'? What does 'to be determined and enforced sometime in
>the future' mean? What does 'takes responsibility for Email addresses'
>actually entail? How does PPP support factor into these categories? What
>does 'contracted support' actually involve?
>
>Before we start to advertise such categories we need to exactly specify
>what all these terms and conditions mean. Why would an IP buy a 'Member'
>category f