To be on the membership committee, just volunteer. Volunteer by commenting and voting. This is a rough but sort of formalized version of the criteria we had been using thus far: Membership in the ISTA is open to anyone enthusiastic and dedicated to snuff taking who has been an active, contributing member of Snuffhouse.org for not less than two years or who has demostrated outstanding service to the promotion of snuff taking in some other venue. These include but are not limited to: publishing a book or magazine about snuff; maintaining a blog or website about snuff; maintaining, or assisting in the maintenance of a commercial (or non profit) establishment that makes or sells snuff; moderating a snuff forum; proficiency in a craft that promotes snuff taking such as making snuff boxes; or any other demonstrable activity that promotes snuff taking. Please comment with any revisions, deletions or additions.
I’ll volunteer. I don’t post a lot but I read dang near everything, excepting most of the “what” threads. Seems easy enough to see how long someone has been active here and decide if they are a positive influence on the community. IS this going to be a committee vote on nominations or just if someone asks to join? Or both?
Well first we need to agree to the membership criteria. Then the ISTA as a whole can decide if they want to give us the power to approve members. I don’t have a problem with nominations, but so far we’ve gotten members that have asked to join. If you want to nominate people, they’d still have to be willing.
demostrated outstanding service to the promotion of snuff taking in some other venue.
This is a very high standard that would reduce ISTA membership to the activists. If that is the goal, cool. BUT it seems like it would be a short list, compared to the regular forum membership. I would suggest changing the wording to include those willing to meet that standard , who either don’t know how or need some fresh ideas. It’s early in the day, so please tell me that makes sense to someone other than me.
I think membership should be open to those who are very knowledgeable about snuff, I think ISTA should be more for snuff connoisseurs than snuff activists
I think we need to decide the best rules to attain candidates that further the ISTA’s goals and/or mission. Until that is finalized we can’t determine accurate requirements.
Did you miss the “or” ? The outstanding service clause was written so that membership could be granted to people other than snuffhouse veterans. We can try something different, but we need some way to ensure we are getting dedicated people, otherwise the whole of snuffhouse would be automatic members.
I am up for it. So I suppose this could include say people that make you tube video on snuff. Who are or never been snuffhouse.org members.
Yeah, I guess I missed the “or”. :"> @basement_shaman, How would a non snuffhouse member even know about ISTA or participate?
@bigmick the you tube community talk amongst themselves some are members here at snuffhouse, yahoo has groups that also chat. not to leave out other tobacco forums ,pipe smokers,dippers,cigar, and tobacco leaf growers who grind,and blend snuff share recipes and other information. there are social networks facebook ,twitter and more popping up daily. with non SH members that may want to join. After we get the ball rolling it may have a carefully written article published in the snuff takers ephemeris . Or other media when our Public information committee is established if we ever have one. How they would participate , Well they would have to be granted access by the membership committee.
Ok then. Does anyone else want to amend the membership criteria? @n9inchnails? anyone?
“maintaining, or assisting in the maintenance of a commercial (or non profit) establishment that makes or sells snuff” Just reads a bit vague to me. How about ‘maintaining or progressing the skills of snuff blending and manufacturing’. My feeling is that there should be no distinction between ‘amateurs’ and ‘professionals’. I would scrub ‘selling’ as it refers to something that can be done without any skill or understanding. I think “any other demonstrable activity that promotes snuff taking” is sufficient to catch any potential members from the retail world who work at such a level of excellence as to warrant membership. I wouldn’t have retailers at all unless they add to the knowledge base or are personally eligible for membership on the other grounds.
After we get the ball rolling it may have a carefully written article published in the snuff takers ephemeris .
I will happily offer pages, free, in STE for any purpose the ISTA needs. Just remember that if it’s time sensitive information we suck at that. 
Can we change the word open to inclusive. it just sound friendlier
“maintaining, or assisting in the maintenance of a commercial (or non profit) establishment that makes or sells snuff” Just reads a bit vague to me. How about ‘maintaining or progressing the skills of snuff blending and manufacturing’. My feeling is that there should be no distinction between ‘amateurs’ and ‘professionals’. I would scrub ‘selling’ as it refers to something that can be done without any skill or understanding. I think “any other demonstrable activity that promotes snuff taking” is sufficient to catch any potential members from the retail world who work at such a level of excellence as to warrant membership. I wouldn’t have retailers at all unless they add to the knowledge base or are personally eligible for membership on the other grounds.
Ok. My thoughts on this were of specific people. In “maintaining or assisting” and “non-profit” I was thinking of the volunteers at the Kralingse mills. In selling, I was thinking of those who maintain brick and mortar shops that go out of their way to carry a wide range of snuffs, such as Mr. Nose’s shop in Missouri, or even My Smoking Shop or The Black Swan etc. in England that carry a good range and their owners are very knowledgeable about snuff or at least a member of the staff is, not just any shopkeep that happens to have an odd tin for sale. If you want it reworded in your language to sound less vague, that’s ok with me.
Can we change the word open to inclusive. it just sound friendlier
Membership in the ISTA is inclusive of [had to change ‘to’ to ‘of’ to make it work grammatically] anyone enthusiastic and dedicated to snuff taking… Not sure it reads right, ‘inclusive’ implies already in, ‘open’ implies welcoming in. We can tweak it if you like, I’m not sure that’s the right wording though. :-/
‘includes’ is less awkward than ‘is inclusive of’ Here’s a proposal that’s only a slight variation of Xander’s phrasing: The membership of the ISTA includes people enthusiastic and dedicated to snuff taking or the making of tobacco snuff. I struck the word ‘anyone’. I am hesitant to include the word ‘anyone’ in this description, because I get the impression that some people have been declined membership, and using the word ‘anyone’ would be fuel to their fire. Also, when published, I’d spell ISTA out in full, rather than using the acronym.
Another try: The membership of the ISTA includes enthusiastic people who are dedicated to snuff taking or are involved in the making of either tobacco snuff or it’s accessories.
I said “anyone” because I really do mean anyone, so long as they meet the membership criteria. If its just anyone with an interest in (or even enthusiastic about) snuff, well, we have snuffhouse.org for that. Yes, the acronym would be spelled out. Even if you change ‘open’ to ‘includes’ that still implies past tense not future. It implies who is already part of the organization rather than who can join. It implies a closed organization. If a prospective member sees ‘includes’ he might think, “Oh that’s nice, but are they open to new members?” Remember this has got to be the statement that the world sees and knows who is eligible, not just who we are already. That part should be spelled out in the mission statement. The only people that were declined membership were those who didn’t have 2 full years in here. I think we bent that a bit and let a few in that were a month or two shy, and lunecat because he’s a very active member and now moderator - meaning he is making up for the time difference under the “outstanding service” clause. If you want to strike “outstanding” and just go for the simpler “service to the promotion of snuff taking…” I’m fine with that. I think I was trying to be flowery with my writing. Also I’m negotiable on the two year rule, it was not totally arbitrary to pick that time, but it doesn’t have to be set in stone. If you guys want a shorter time rule (or a longer one, or none at all) speak up now.
Another try: The membership of the ISTA includes enthusiastic people who are dedicated to snuff taking or are involved in the making of either tobacco snuff or it’s accessories.
I would add knowledgeable after enthusiastic. We all know people who are enthusiastic, with limited or no knowledge.