Become a Member

• Eligibility Criteria
• New Member Contributions
• Joining Fees
• Application Procedure
• Appeals
• Questions?

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Eligibility Criteria

Any research institution, company, partnership, government organisation, non-governmental organisation, or charity with a shared commitment to WSUP’s aims and objectives is encouraged to apply for membership, subject to being able to satisfactorily meet the following criteria:

1. The organisation’s ability to demonstrate its reasons for wishing to join WSUP and in particular the benefits it anticipates gaining through doing so;
2. The organisation’s willingness and ability to sign up to the underlying WSUP principles (set out in the attached Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Members Agreement) and to participate actively in the development and governance of WSUP;
3. The organisation’s ability to commit additional resources in kind and/or in cash (see details below);
4. The organisation's status and reputation in its field of work;
5. The organisation’s capacity to enhance the credibility, reputation, and workability of WSUP.
6. The organisation’s additional and complementary technical and development capacities that can be brought to WSUP;
7. The organisation’s additional and complementary geographic coverage/capacity that can be brought to WSUP;
8. The organisation’s ability to identify and/or develop new projects, as well as to unlock donor resources and project funding;

In accepting new members, appropriate attempts will be made to maintain its overall sectoral balance (currently NGO, private sector and academia). Details of this process are described in the application procedure section below.

Applicants need to be aware that if successful, they will need to sign up to the following membership responsibilities:

• Active participation in WSUP meetings, including via teleconferencing where necessary;
• Engagement in the management and further development of WSUP and its projects, particularly by assisting in the identification, brokering, development, and identification of funding for both the projects and WSUP itself;
• Provision of resources to WSUP in cash and/or in kind on an annual basis;
• Indemnification of WSUP in particular for the repayment of sums unduly received as described in the Members Agreement;
• Granting permission for WSUP to use the organisation’s name and logo in conjunction with the words “a member of” or “including” in connection with WSUP’s not for profit activities and its aims and objectives; and
• Helping in the development and replication of WSUP’s business model by others.

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New Member Contributions

WSUP members are contributing a proportion of the organisation’s 2005-2008 Budget in cash and/or in kind. The total contribution including that of expected new members totals approximately £925,000 for the three years. Donors will be funding the rest.

New members will be expected to contribute an appropriate share of the annual budget in line with that of the existing members. The seven founding members have jointly committed to annual contributions of UK£ 250,000 towards the 2005-2008 budget, with individually committed annual contributions varying from UK£ 20,000 up to UK£ 65,000 (with the higher contributions from the private sector). The required contributions from new members will be set by the Board to match the contributions of their sector-peers.

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Joining Fees

In recognition of all the time, effort and resources that the founding members have invested in the development of WSUP, an appropriate contribution shall be levied in the form of a joining fee, to be determined from time to time by the Board, and to be contributed in cash and/or in kind. They shall however be proportional to, but not exceed, the contributions made by the existing members. As an indication, having seen that development of WSUP has taken almost 2 years, such levy could be equated to a years’ worth of future member contributions, i.e. between UK£ 20,000 and UK£ 65,000 depending on the type of organization. Any joining fee contributions will go towards expanding WSUP’s activities, and not to recompense the WSUP members for their earlier investments. Contributions in-kind related to members’ annual contributions and joining fee contributions would typically be in the provision of human resources to participate in project identification, scoping, and feasibility work, as well as advocacy activities.

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Application Procedure

WSUP will evaluate applications at least once a year. Applications are submitted as a response to how your organisation meets the 8 criteria listed above. They must be submitted 30 days before WSUP’s Annual General Meeting, which is planned around WSUP’s financial year-end of March 31 (once AGM dates are fixed, application deadlines will be posted here).

Applications can however be sent to the Board via the Secretariat at any time of the year. Submission of an early application shall not preclude WSUP from collaborating with the applicant on a project basis in the interim, should the Board elect to do so.

The WSUP Board Directors shall evaluate the applications against the above criteria at the first Board meeting following deadline for submission of applications. With the objective of maintaining a sectoral balance, the objective is each time to select applicants in matching pairs at least. In case there is no matching pair, the Board may admit a single applicant, but it will seek to correct the created imbalance in the next applications round. In case additional applications are received which would further distort the imbalance if admitted, the Board will consider whether it should admit these as observer in the interim.

All applicants will be notified of the Board’s decision within one month after the relevant Board meeting. Unsuccessful applicants will be provided with a written explanation for the Board’s refusal of their application. Successful candidates will be formally asked by the Board to become a full legal member of WSUP, to appoint a Director to the Board, and to sign the Memorandum and Articles of Association as well as the Members Agreement.

Thereafter, the relevant new Member will be expected to participate in WSUP Board meetings, which are normally held quarterly, as well as in its proceedings. The new Member or its Director as appropriate will also be expected to exercise its entitlement to vote where matters relating to WSUP and its projects so require. Voting procedures are written into WSUP’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.

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Appeals

The Board shall operate a procedure for appealing against decisions of the Board in relation to refusal of admission to a prospective new member. In the case of a dispute relating to any such decision, the unsuccessful applicant may instigate an Appeal. An Appeal shall be by written notice to the Company Secretary in such form as the Board may from time to time prescribe.

Upon receipt of a notice requesting an Appeal, the Company Secretary shall invite written submissions from the complainant and the non-independent Directors of the Board. From those submissions and elsewhere he shall in a timely fashion form a consolidated document describing the facts, in so far as these are reasonably obtainable, of the dispute.

The Secretary shall then refer the dispute to an Appeals Committee, providing it with a copy of the consolidated document. The two Independent Directors of the WSUP Board and a mutually agreed third party shall form the Appeals Committee. The applicant must assume the third party’s expenses resulting from that party’s involvement. These Directors and the third party must come to a unanimous agreement, and their decision shall be final. Should either of the Independent Directors have an actual or a perceived conflict of interest with respect to the applicant, he/she shall abstain from voting.

The Secretary shall be informed of the decision and shall report this to the complainant and to the Board, both of whom shall be bound by such decision and the Board shall be bound to implement it.

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Questions?

Please direct any questions you may have regarding the Membership criteria and application procedure to info@wsup.com.

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