Our policies require that members be resident in Canada. We have a membership application which included the following note:
“I’m a Canadian citizen, currently residing in Germany, but moving home soon. I need to transfer away from my employer-provided mastodon instance, so requesting an account before being resident in Canada. I want to join a sustainable Canadian instance, and have enjoyed following some of the founders here (Tim, Evan).”
I think I should ask the person to provide some evidence of their Canadian-ness and moving plans. Any other input on this one?
We discussed already but I guess have not included an updated resolution about being more open to Canadians regardless of current place of residence, as well as residents in Canada (citizen, permanent resident, refugee/new Canadian…).
If we’re not yet able to just accept “Canadians worldwide”, a good faith minimum bar that’s not too intrusive, such as asking for an intended resumption of residency date/province might be OK. I’m not sure we need to get more complicated than that plus the membership fee as proof. Perhaps we support arranging the registration and permitting account transfer but delay enabling the account until return -14 days or some time frame?
I think I’m personally more relaxed than most about demanding CoSocial membership be geographically enclosed, but if we still must do for governance reasons, as much flex as possible while fulfilling any know-your-members requirements is where I lean.
I don’t know that we’ve updated the text on the website yet, but this was adopted at the last board meeting, so we are accepting Canadian citizens (anywhere in the world) or residents of Canada (regardless of citizenship).
I think I should ask the person to provide some evidence of their Canadian-ness
I don’t remember, but I don’t think I was asked to provide any proof of citizenship or residence when I joined? I seems like a good idea to check this though - if we have those membership restrictions. Not sure how scalable that is (maybe it doesn’t have to be?), or how to go about it, though.
Having said that, doing this on the honour system would be very Canadian!