President's Column - Proposed changes to membership structure
Thu, Aug 19 2010

For more than 12 months I have been reflecting on our current membership structure.

AMOS represents very good value for those members who, like me, have spent their adult life in the professions of atmospheric science or oceanography. We pay the same AMOS annual subscription as an early career researcher or a member with an amateur interest in the subject. Yet the benefits that I and other “professional” members receive far exceed those the Society provides to amateur members – including representation of our professions to governments and official inquiries (eg, the Royal Commission into the Black Saturday bushfires) and in the media (and we would like to do more).

The annual subscription costs for AMOS, for members such as me, are far lower than most comparable organisations. I think it is reasonable to expect those of us who receive a very good income from the professions of atmospheric science or oceanography to pay a higher rate of subscription than early career scientists or amateur members. I have discussed possible rule changes we could make to allow this, firstly at the AGM this year, then with the National Council and all the AMOS Fellows. After these discussions I would like to propose the following rule changes, to introduce a new category of “Professional Member” (who would pay a 50% higher annual subscription. The rule changes also make explicit the various retired membership categories (retired members pay 50% of the annual subscription of members), and simplify the process of nominating and electing Fellows.

I would encourage members to comment on these proposed changes to the rules. The preferred method of comment would be to submit a comment onto the General AMOS Discussion forum on the AMOS website  (although feel free to send me a comment directly if you would prefer to remain anonymous). To introduce these rule changes we will need to call a Special General Meeting, but I want to allow a wider range of views to be heard before doing this.

AMOS Membership Rules: Proposed changes, August 2010.

3.2. Membership consists of nine categories of members:-

(a) Member: available to any individual.

(b) Professional Member: a member who has been employed in meteorology or oceanography or an allied field for at least five years, has tertiary level qualifications in meteorology, oceanography or an allied field, and is currently employed (at least 80% of full-time) in meteorology, oceanography or an allied field. Professional Member is the expected level of membership for a full-time tertiary-qualified meteorologist or oceanographer with at least five years experience in the field.

(c) Student Member: available to any student enrolled at least half-time in an accredited educational institution.

(d) Corporate Member: available to any corporation, school or other organization. Each corporate member shall nominate one person who, after being approved by Council, shall act on behalf of the corporate member in all dealings with the Society.

(e) Fellow: available to a member who has made major contributions to the Society and/or the fields of meteorology or oceanography. Each year, in October, a call for nominations for election to Fellow will be distributed to members. Any two members can nominate another member for election to Fellow, with the nomination to be on a form to be distributed by Council. Letters of support from the two nominating members can accompany the nomination form. The nomination form must include an indication from the nominee of his/her willingness to be nominated. A sub-committee selected by Council from current Fellows will decide on each nomination.

(f) Retired Member: available to any member who has retired from full-time employment.

(g) Retired Professional Member: available to any Professional Member who has retired from full-time employment.

(h) Retired Fellow: available to any Fellow who has retired from full-time employment.

(i) Honorary Member: a person who has made an outstanding contribution to meteorology or oceanography over a substantial period of years or who has provided exceptional long- term service and support to the Society. An honorary membership is proposed by the Council and must be approved by a general meeting. Honorary members are not expected to pay fees and may receive Society publications of their choice. An honorary membership cannot be proposed if the number of honorary members exceeds two percent of the total number of members. An honorary member remains a member of the Society for life, unless he/she resigns in accordance with rule 6.

Neville Nicholls
August 2010