Non Resident Membership By Laws Change - Opposed!

A number of walkers attended today's AGM in town. The budget was discussed and approved and the new set of officers was voted into office. An item of interest to the WIC Walking group, however, came up later when a By Laws change proposal was put forth by Sandy. This would have allowed for a Non Resident Membership option for those who are resident in Belgium 6 months of the year or less at half the regular price. The measure was discussed briefly. Sandy felt it would keep some long term members who are here short term from dropping out and allow them to participate legally in WIC activities as well as bring in some much needed revenue to WIC. Those in opposition felt that it would be open to abuse and hard to verify. They also felt that paying the current rate of 65 Euros per year was a reasonable amount for all to pay whether they were here 2 months or 12 months. Since the measure would require a change of the WIC constitution and a quorum would be necessary to take it up it could not be officially voted upon today, but could be considered at the next November meeting. It was decided, however, to take a "straw" vote anyway just to see where the members stood on the idea. It was resoundingly defeated which means that we stay with the present requirements ... that each of the WIC activities can be attended by full WIC members only. A non member, "guest", may attend a WIC function only twice in a calendar year.