(d) To affiliate with any organisation or Association which has similar objectives.
Is this describing our affiliation with the Australia-Wide computerbank project? I thought for a moment it might be (trying) to describe our connections with other charities in order to obtain access to their inside knowledge of those persons most likely to benefit from our services - however you may simply be describing our intent to affiliate with Computerbank Australia... 8-)
I am thinking that we need another clause describing our intent to:
Form strategic alliances and agreements with organisations whereby ComputerBank will provide technical equipment and services to the clients put forward by other (non-profit charity) organisations.
This was described reasonably well in http://www.hotbot.com/und/waggers/index.html
under the heading "
Strategic Partners"
Quote: "It is intended that ComputerBank WA will not be the only
point of distribution., but will form strategic
partnerships with other organisations to identify equipment recipients,
run projects, conduct courses and arrange
for equipment to be distributed. It is a strong possibility that most
most of the equipment will be distributed via
other organisations.
While these organisations are expected to be other registered charities,
any organisation that promotes the
ComputerBank WA objectives may be considered as a distribution point
or project partner, provided that all
distribution is conducted in accordance with the official ComputerBank
WA distribution policy (by-laws). "
End Quote:
I don't know if this belongs in the constitution though... might be something for the bylaws... 8-)
Another item: Section 4.1 regarding Membership...
While I agree that ComputerBank should not (in general) be giving computers to it's own members, I can forsee a potential problem....
For example, suppose we provide a computer to Mary, who then gets into computing and learns lots about the machines, and subsequently wants to join us in providing technical support to others who are similarly provided with computers. Mary may still be in need of computing equipment that we might otherwise want to provide to her, however we would not wish to exclude her on the basis of her ongoing work with computerbank.
Maybe this sort of stuff needs to be moved to the bylaws - but with a flexible "out", so that at the discrition of hte computerbank executive committee, we can give equipment to computerbnak members - on the proviso that they meet the (financial) requirements that would normally be placed to determine eligibility for computerbank equipment...This should get around the problem of us "rich" computer-guys not getting computers off computerbank, but nonetheless providing for our clients to join us if they so desire without excluding them from further equipment (for example modems or other equipment that might not be given in the first instance).
Also, maybe we can give a provision (as a suggestion for discussion), whereby someone who has already received a computerbank pc, can receive another (later) in exchange for their old machine --> suppose for example we start giving away 386's, and then later get a rash of 486's or low-end-pentiums... it'd be a shame to confine someone to a 386 because that's what we had at the time...
Just my $0.02, anyway.... 8-)
cheers
David Buddrige.