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Old 04-30-2010, 01:50 PM
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rbeach84 rbeach84 is offline
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Some Society basics, perhaps?

Chris, this may help (based on some of your comments so far...and anyone please correct me if I am off base in any way)

The Society is an international body made up of (top-to-bottom)
1. National Branches (such as IPMS/USA) - check the USA website links to get an idea of what other national branches are up and running. National organizations publish the Society journals, collect membership dues, maintain membership rosters and charter Chapters. The national organization maintains itself per the Society constitution & By-laws with member elected officers, a process that is often mirrored at the Chapter level.

2. Regions - Administrative divisions within the National organization, if needed, to group Chapters together. Usually there are annual Regional conventions that are hosted on a rotating (but volunteer basis.)

2. Chapters - each Branch charters Society chapters within it's area of responsibility. Chapters are rechartered annually based on payment of fees and maintenance of minimum Society membership levels. This is how USA Chapters can exist in other countries and 'virtually', as stated on the USA website (www.ipmsusa.org)

3. Members - fairly obvious, but membership is pretty flexible and inclusive (for example, I know a lot of 'North Americans' join both Canada and USA branches, not to mention the international memberships that are common... especially where a National branch has not yet formed.) To be a member, as you've seen, essentially all that is required is to pay the annual dues. This entitles you to a copy of the Society magazine and entry into IPMS competitions (this is important as some contests are tagged as "open" events but some, such as the National conventions, are closed to the IPMS membership only.) Association with a Chapter is optional, since Chapters do not exist everywhere.

As you can see, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are *not* a part of the formal Society organization. Rather, SIGs are an 'activity' of Society members who wish to "band together" to focus on their, eh, special interests. Since SIGs are typically organized by the interested membership, there is an official recognition and affiliation with IPMS *by association*, but neither is required for the SIG to operate. After all, SIGs are whatever the SIG members what them to be. I'm sure IPMS might 'disown' a SIG if it were somehow not in line with the Society ideals (say a SIG that was for building half-scale replicas of torture devices or focused on pornographic sculptures...) but in general it is a natural extension of the 'networking' that the Society promotes. Looking at the list of SIGs on the website illustrates this point. SIG's are in essence the same as the old USENET Newsgroups or our own Paper Modelers forum - "band of brothers/ sisters".

With regard to your initiative, creating a SIG for paper modeling (which is 'new' within the IPMS corporate culture) is a natural way to connect the large and active network of international paper modelers (both IPMS & non-IPMS) to the (perhaps smaller?) formal IPMS membership of (this is key) the *many* National branches. Since our 'organizations' are not exclusive of each other, the SIG would provide a conduit for IPMS modelers unfamiliar with paper to learn about it, especially if these newbies (such as I am myself) see the high quality modeling "going on" within the community. Conversely, the SIG's affiliation would also allow the paper modeler an outlet into the world of physical competitions, club fellowship and non-paper modeling techniques that the Society offers. I can see a paper modeler working in primarily a virtual community, finding that there is a local modeling club he can connect with - especially if the SIG he is a part of has already laid the groundwork for just such a move.

In my opinion, having a Virtual Paper Modeling Chapter is the same as having a SIG only it narrows the affiliation to one National branch and doesn't do anything more than the SIG might accomplish. Kind of like having a third nipple - two on a man are useless enough.

So, being the systems analyst that I am, I recommend only a SIG to maintain the "mission focus", which appears to be connection & sharing between the modeling disciplines, not creation of a solely paper modeling enclave within the traditionally 'plastic' IPMS (which I hope someday will morph into the "International Scale Modelers Society", to distinguish from the radio control, railroader, etc folks - not to say they can't do a mean scale replica when they want - hey!) As someone already noted, I hope eventually there aren't 'paper' contest categories just modeling.

Ah, once again, I am suffering from digitus vomitus. My sincere apologies...
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Regards, Robert
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