Voluntary Membership/Membership Class Description Sample Clauses

Voluntary Membership/Membership Class Description. The WECC Bylaws initially established five member classes. These are described in Section 4.2 of the WECC Bylaws. In 2006 WECC added Class 6 to ensure proportional representation of Canadians on the WECC Board of Directors.10 Now the implementation of Section 215 has raised additional questions. Structural changes such as the implementation of mandatory reliability standards and the new limit on Regional Entity membership dues are likely to lead to an increase in WECC’s membership. Some of these new WECC members may not wish to be active members,11 and some may not clearly fit into an existing class. These concerns dovetail with a related existing problem, already under discussion within WECC, regarding Class 4. Class 4 currently is open to “End users of the electricity in the Western Interconnection, including industrial, agricultural, commercial and retail entities as well as organizations in the Western Interconnection that represent the interests of a substantial number of end users or a substantial number of persons interested in the impacts of electric systems on the public or the environment.”12 Since virtually everyone who purchases residential electric service is an “end user” of electricity, Class 4 has become the de facto default class for persons or entities that wish to join WECC but do not fit clearly into any other category. Class 4 members who have a more substantial “end user” interest (i.e., trade organizations representing user groups, consumer advocates, environmental groups, and similar organizations.) have 10 See WECC Bylaws § 4.3. 11 In order to address quorum problems, WECC has previously added Section 5.9 to the Bylaws to exclude “inactive” members for purposes of determining a quorum. In order to make administration of this provision more efficient, WECC has amended Section 5.9 to allow new members to self-designate themselves as “inactive” members (see Section III.H below). 12 WECC Bylaws § 4.2.4. become increasingly concerned that their voice and their votes have been diluted as a result of the default status of Class 4. In order to facilitate WECC membership for persons or entities that do not wish to participate actively in the organization and to avoid using Class 4, which was intended to be a stakeholder class, as a default, WECC has amended the Bylaws to create a new Class 7. This addition and related changes are set forth below.