TLDA, Inc. Membership Guidelines and Regulations

(This document does not supersede the By-Laws, but expounds upon them as determined by the Membership Committee by rights extended them under the By-Laws.)

Membership in this organization shall be open to all who meet the criteria prescribed by the Bylaws established by the Board of Directors and expounded upon herein. Associate Membership in the TLDA is free.

•  
  •  

    Full Membership - TLD holders that meet all requirements stated in these guidelines and regulations; including technical standards for their TLD, completed membership application and timely payment of annual dues. Full Members are voting members.

    Provisional Membership - Granted to verified TLD Holders who have met the basic requirements for Membership, and have been granted a 120 day grace period from the time their application is accepted to allow them to achieve full compliance with the technical standards for Full Membership. Provisional Members are voting members.

    Upon satisfying all requirements within the 120 day Provisional period, the TLD holder shall enjoy Full Membership Privileges. If the Provisional Member has not completed all requirements for Full Membership within the 120 day window of opportunity, their membership status will be converted to that of Associate Membership.

    If the requirements for full Membership have not been met within the 120 day provisional window of opportunity, the Provisional Member may, at a later time, appeal to the Board of Directors with evidence of their having complied with all requirements to receive Full Membership status.

    Associate Membership - TLD holders that do not meet all requirements for Full Membership and have either chosen not to pursue full membership or exceeded their grace period and failed in their petition to change their status permanently.

    Sponsoring Membership - Non-TLD holders who financially support the TLDA's mission and goals. Sponsoring Members are non-voting members

 

Membership may be applied for at <http://www.TLDAINC.org> Once applied for, membership will be approved or denied by the TLDA Membership Committee. The Membership Committee shall have the non-exclusive and discretionary authority to determine whether an applicant is deemed to satisfy the membership criteria.

In short, membership is available to TLD holders who can prove the right to assign or delegate rights and cancel or delegate authority for an operational TLD. The holder must be a legally recognized entity such as, but not limited to, a partnership, trust, corporation, natural person, government, or cooperative. The TLD must meet certain criteria of activity and stability. It must be operational and have a functioning registry and NIC/Info resource for the TLD and it's associated Registry/Registrar(s).

This can be demonstrated by providing two nameservers, on separate packet switched networks showing valid SOA records for the TLD and at least 3 functional SLDs delegated or registered under the TLD.

A new TLDA member must fulfill the first requirement (operational) for initial membership but will have 120 days to provide the registry and NIC resources, SLD requirements and minimum dual points of failure. SLDs must also contain content such as websites, or hosts providing FTP, SMTP, Telnet/SSH or other Internet resources (Three “A” Resource Records that answer), and show at least two nameservers on separate packet switched networks that answer authoritatively for the SLDs.

For the 120-day period, that entity will be granted a Provisional Membership.

A TLD holder may have only one membership regardless of the number of TLDs held by that entity. If a single entity owns or controls more than 5% of the voting rights of one or more other entities that, in turn, hold one or more TLDs, only one membership may be held by that entity or group of entities.

In order to exercise a vote in any official TLDA activities, a member must provide a copy of a “government issued” Identification card, passport or letter with picture of the member. Failing to do so does not negate membership, but does withhold voting privileges.

A voting TLD holder may designate another entity to represent them for the purpose membership in the TLDA, however no entity may represent more than one TLD holder for voting purposes.

From time to time, and on an individual and ad hoc basis, the Membership Committee may hear petitions from potential members for exceptions, or requests for waivers to the specifics of particular membership criteria. The Membership Committee shall review each such petition or request for waiver and rule based on the particular circumstances surrounding that petition.

Dues: In order to be granted and/or maintain the status level of Full Membership in the TLDA, annual dues in the amount of $50.00 per year will be required.

Once an applicant or Associate Member meets the technical and legal requirements for Full Membership level in the TLDA, according to the Membership Committee, the TLDA will invoice the member via PayPal, (or other method deemed acceptable by the Board of Directors or the Ways and Means Committee) for their annual membership dues.

The applicant may pay via credit card, PayPal, certified bank check or money order in US Dollars (or other method deemed acceptable by the Board of Directors or the Ways and Means Committee), for their annual membership dues.

Full Membership will be granted upon receipt of their pro-rated annual dues by the TLDA for that year, and will be invoiced each subsequent year on 31 January.

Membership dues which are more than 60 days delinquent will result in the member's level of membership remaining at, or converted to, the Associate Membership level until such time as their annual membership dues are paid in full for that current year.

GRANDFATHER CLAUSE: In order to minimize the impact of introducing annual membership dues to the current TLDA membership, annual membership dues for current and existing members of TLDA will become effective as of the annual invoice date of 31 January 2010, at which time they will receive their first invoice for annual membership dues.

Full Members who are delinquent with regards to their annual membership dues will have their membership status reclassified to that of the Associate Membership level until such time as their annual membership dues are received by the TLDA for the current calendar year.

Sponsoring Membership Level: Sponsoring Members receive exposure and honorable mention in various TLDA press, media, and marketing publicity materials released to the public and also receive prominent placement in the "Sponsors" area of the TLDA website. The following classifications for Sponsoring Members are as follows:

1.) Bronze Level Sponsor: $100.00 - $499.99 USD per year

2.) Silver Level Sponsor: $500.00 - $1499.99 USD per year

3.) Gold Level Sponsor: $1500.00 - $2499.99 USD per year

4.) Platinum Level Sponsor: $2500.00 - $4999.99 USD per year

5.) Benefactor: $5000.00+ USD per year

Sponsoring Members will be invoiced on the anniversary date of their initial donation to the TLDA, and may elect to maintain their current level of classification as a Sponsoring Member, a different level of classification as a Sponsoring Member determined by the amount of their donation to the TLDA Mission, or let their membership lapse.

There is currently no fee associated with applications for membership with the TLDA.

A Member may resign their membership in the TLDA by email or other traditionally acceptable notification to the Membership Committee stating the date and time of resignation, with or without reason. Upon verification of such intent by a member to resign their membership, the Membership Committee shall certify and tender the resignation thereby nullifying any membership, associated benefits, or obligations by the former member to the TLDA.

Membership shall be terminated on the effective date upon which a member ceases to satisfy the membership criteria herein, as determined by the Membership Committee, by notice of both email message to the member's email address of record and also copied to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it mailing list, or other appropriate acceptable notification, if evidence is found to negate the eligibility requirements consistent with the provisions contained in the regulations herein.

Decisions by the Membership Committee leading to loss of membership in the TLDA may be appealed with clear supporting evidence to any member of the Board of Directors who may then ask for contrary evidence from the Membership Committee and submit both bodies of evidence to the full Board of Directors for a vote. The decisions of the Board of Directors will be final in such matters.

Acceptable Standards and Policies for participation in moderated discussion forums and lists at TLDA:

By using this web site and any related discussion lists of the TLDA, you agree to be contacted by site administration, regardless of your account settings, when it becomes necessary to do so regarding your account activity.

The basic ground rules for discussions are simple: be polite, use common sense, don't break the law and don't post any message that is intended to insult, defame, or causes a disharmonious atmosphere.

We don't intend to censor messages based on the opinions expressed within posts, but we will enforce the policies outlined here. We reserve the right to remove, modify or move posts at our discretion and without explanation.

Suspension or moderation of your ability to post is a definite consequence of not adhering to these guidelines.

We take the "Be Polite" philosophy very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be moderated or have their posting privileges suspended without warning.

You may not post on behalf of any moderated, suspended, or banned member in any public manner. This includes all forums and discussion lists, private messages, signatures, and e-mail features.

In general publicly displayed messages are limited to the English language. This includes posts, titles, signatures, and any attachments or other forms of public display. This is not a hard and fast rule, as sometimes it is necessary to provide text from a source that was written in another language or dialect, yet every attempt should be made to also post a translation of the material in English, on a 'best efforts' basis.

You may not link, in any manner, to sites or images containing pornography, sexually explicit, gross violence, defamatory material against other members, or such material determined by moderators to be detrimental to the community.

Any posts that encourage illegal intent will be removed at the discretion of moderators and may result in moderation of posts, suspension from posting or having the account disabled.

Any posts not meeting these guidelines may be removed or modified with our without notice.

We do not remove posts or accounts on request, but encourage you to report inappropriate behavior.

In light of our policy of encouraging candid, open exchanges of views and the rapid distribution of information originating from many sources, TLDA cannot determine the accuracy of information that may be uploaded to it's facilities.

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by participants in discussions are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. You are urged to seek professional advice for specific, individual situations and not rely solely on advice or opinions given in the discussions.

Privacy Policy: We will not release any member information that is not already publicly accessible unless under court order to do so.

We reserve the right to modify and amend these terms at any time without notice. It is your responsibility to remain informed of current TLDA policies.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites