Here is the beginnings of a membership agreement. It is not, nor intended to be, legaleze.

Comments welcome. -- AdamShand

Eligibility

To be eligible to become a member of Personal Telco you must meet the below requirements:

1. You must be sponsored by an existing member.

2. You must have contributed to the network by doing one of the below:

   1. Owning FootNote(Being listed as the primary technical contact in the node map also counts.) a gateway or repeater node which conforms to our NodeStandards FootNote(You are eligible once your node has been up for one month. Your eligibility lapses if your node is unavailable for three months).

   2. (or) Be granted a membership by a majority vote of the board of advisors.
   3. (or) Pay a one-time fee of $500.

Rules of Conduct

1. You understand that physical activity and risk may be part of building network nodes. You agree not to hold Personal Telco liable for any harm that may result from activities either directly or indirectly related to the building of the network.
2. You understand that Personal Telco can accept no responsibility for the maintenance or security of your network.
3. You agree not to do anything illegal with or through any Personal Telco node. Unacceptable activities include, but are not limited to, spamming, breaching your ISP's terms and conditions of use and breaching the FCC rules and regulations for the ISM band.
4. You must allow Personal Telco to audit the availability and location of your node.
5. You must allow us to gather and redistribute statistics on your node. However we will never release your name, address, email or any other personally identifying information to a third party.
6. Membership may be terminated, without cause or notification, by either party.

Addendums

1. You are eligible for MembershipBenefits.

2. You understand that this is a living document and subject to changes. Personal Telco will make a best effort attempt to contact you via email prior to any changes in requirements or responsibilities coming into effect. However ultimate responsibility for knowing the contents of the membership agreement lies with you.
3. The most current version of the document will always be available at the below URL:

   • http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MembershipAgreement

Comments:

Please leave your name with your comments.

What about sweet Labour? Seem to me that if a person donates X of hour he should be a member also.

• That's what the board exemption is for. If people do significant work to contribute in some way or another the board can grant them a membership. -- AdamShand

Seem to me this sounds like a elite boys club?

• Could you explain what it is you don't like? Remember that anyone can use the network, membership means that you get to vote on how the organization is run. The intention is to give control of the organization to the people who build the network (directly or indirectly). -- AdamShand

• You understand that physical activity and risk may be required as part of building network nodes. You agree not to hold Personal Telco liable for any harm that may result from activities either directly or indirectly related to the building of the network.

  Perhaps we could clarify that the risk is associated with building nodes, but building nodes is not requried? It seems like we require physical risk no matter what. - ColinDabritz

The Rights and Responsibilities looks more like Limitation of Liability or Rules of Conduct; perhaps it should be renamed. For Rights and Responsibilities I would have expected to see more along the lines of what is in the MembershipBenefits: you can vote and be an officer of the group. --DavidSmith

• Good thought. Renamed. -- Adam.

Two points: 1) It seems appropriate that contributing to the network is one of the means of attaining membership -- PTP clearly wants to grow the network. In lieu of a node contribution, money could also help build the network ... but $500 seems pretty steep. I put up a node for less than half of $500, but due to geography (I'm in a valley) it is largely useless to PTP. The $500 amount seems large in comparison to the actual cost of a node, which leads me to think we're actually creating an incentive for people to put up nodes (at much less than $500) even if the node will have no value to the PTP network since that will be cheaper than $500 cash. In my case, PTP would be beter served by having, say, $250 of my money than having my node. If it were up to me (and I know it isn't), I'd reduce the the money cost of membership to more closely approximate the cost of constructing a node.

• Here's the rational. We really want you to put up a node rather then give us money, even if it's out in BFE because as this spreads there might be people near you. Every SSID set to www.personaltelco.net is a win from a community, solidarity and publicity point of view. We're building a network and that's the focus. As for the actual figure of $500 that comes from a couple places. First, $500 is what we quote to businesses as the "cost of a node". It means we can do it right with a Soekris, NoCatAuth, an antenna, a high powered card etc. Also there are on going costs of running a node (bandwidth, time and energy etc). We didn't want to get into the situation where people just pay us, we want people to put up a node, *that* is the point of all this. -- AdamShand.

2) Somebody ( a few screen inches above) commented that this looks like 'an elite boy's club". I had a similar reaction when I read that one can also become a member through the majority vote of the board of advisors. That the board can make these selections/nominations *does* seem appropriate, but it worries me that there isn't a guideline or rationale published for how, when, or why the board should grant membership outside of the two traditional membership paths (a node or money). I imagine the provision for board-granted membership is there for someone who has made significant contributions (time, effort, knowledge, hardware ... whatever) to PTP but hasn't put up a node or $500 cash. To eliminate the prospect of "an elite boy's club" I think we should publish a policy on the basis by which the board can grant membership outside of the node or $500 paths. I think we want to avoid the appearance nepotism and caprice. --DavidSmith

• I've *very* concerned about that, I don't want that to be the perception. In fact one of the reasons for creating the NonProfit was to try and move it to more of an established organization and less of "Adam's Club". The exemption is not there to grandfather friends in, it's there for people who have peformed significant services and for some reason can't run a node. It's also there to be able to give honourary memberships to people who have helped out but aren't in the Portland area (say Schuyler for writing NoCatAuth or Rich Bader at EasyStreet for supporting us from the beginning). I'm sensitive to the idea that it's open to board abuse, but I really want to keep it simple rather then getting anymore rule bound then it already is. Suggestions greatfully accepted. -- Adam.