Idea 10: Have different membership categories (2 mins)

Every day during September we will post up an idea for you to vote on.  The most popular ideas will become the things that the inaugural Organizing Committee of the Critical Physiotherapy Network focuses on in 2015.  So please make sure you cast your vote at the bottom of each post.

Our original idea was for us to use a snowball referral system to bring people into the Network.  People who we knew were critical thinkers would invite others they knew to be of a similar mind and the group would grow organically.  None of us really anticipated quite how popular the group would be once we got started, and no-one really thought that it might prove to be a popular forum for people who were not necessarily ‘critical,’ but were looking for a social network.  And so, as the weeks have gone on, and the group’s profile has grown, we’ve attracted a whole range of different people.

Thus far we haven’t set up membership categories, we only have ‘participants’.  But maybe it’s now time we did.  We might have a free category, for instance, for people who just want to lurk on the site and not be active in the group’s activities.  There might then be a general members category for people who want deeper access to resources and more involvement in the group’s development.  There might also be an associate members category for non-physios.

Obviously, one of the necessary conditions will be a clear definition of what we mean by ‘critical’ – but this will come when the first organizing committee starts to work on some terms of reference and objectives for the group.  But what do you think about the idea of setting up membership categories?

Post update: please note that voting closed on 7 October 2014 (results are available here), but please feel free to post your comments in the space below.

Since this idea was published in September 2014, the network has established an online registration process that invites people who want to join us to accept the network’s aims & objectives & website terms & conditions.