Guidelines for Applying for a Wiley Sponsored Membership to the System Dynamics Society

At the 2005 Boston conference, the System Dynamics Society was very pleased to announce a new scheme to be sponsored jointly by John Wiley & Sons, our publisher, and the Society to encourage development of the system dynamics community in 'lower income' countries and regions. The Complimentary Society Memberships Committee has developed the following implementation guidelines for this scheme:

(1) Name: The new SDS category of membership will be called the 'Wiley Sponsored Member'.

(2) Purpose: The purpose of this new category is to encourage development of the SD community in 'lower income' countries¹ and regions to enable chapters to be formed or maintained, to encourage the development of local SD activity/meetings etc., or to encourage recent SD graduates who move to a new post where there is no current SD activity.

(3) Number: Up to 10 Wiley Sponsored Memberships will be available each year, full membership entitlements will be provided at no charge to the member [up to a maximum of 20 memberships current at any time].

(4) Duration: A member will remain a Wiley Sponsored Member for up to 2 years, and then be expected to subscribe under the appropriate normal membership category.

(5) Eligibility: Only prospective members who would qualify for the Society's reduced membership rate (student/subsidized member) may apply, and the Memberships will normally only be available in 'lower income' countries. The application should include a statement about relative incomes in his/her country of residence as part of the case.

(6) Application form: Applications must be made on a designated WSM Application Form (link below). The applicant can make a brief statement explaining their case to be a Wiley Sponsored Member. In addition the name of a referee must be provided (i.e. a current member of the System Dynamics Society, or a suitable person from the local academic, business or general community). Any comments made by the referee in support of the application should be inserted into the form, but all such comments are subject to verification by the committee, who may seek further information from the referee. Referees' details must include an email contact address and this will be the only method of contact. All information provided by the applicant must be included within the one-page form, and no further materials should be appended or submitted.

(7) Application assessment: The decision to award a Sponsored Membership will be made by a special committee nominated by the Policy Council. The present committee is Bob Cavana (Chair), David Lane, Scott Rockart and Graham Winch. The decision to award will be based on individual circumstances and the potential to grow SD membership and activities in presently under-represented economic regions. The individual circumstances considered will be based solely on the application form plus any further solicited comments from SD members in good standing (or other nominated academics or professionals). The committee's decision each year will be final, but re-application in a future year will be permitted.

WSM Application Form

¹A 'lower income' country for the purposes of this scheme is defined as a country with a GDP per capita estimated to be less than US$15,000 pa. This is likely to include most countries in the world except the majority of OECD countries. For example, refer to the GDP per capita listing on the OECD web site: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/55/60/33747039.pdf.