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General Information

DiGRA welcomes the foundation and maintenance of local Chapters. To help sustain its relationship with local Chapters, as well as to facilitate and support their local activities, DiGRA added an International Chapter Officer in 2012. Currently this office is held by Mahli-Ann Butt (mahliann.butt@unimelb.edu.au).

The main purpose of local DiGRA Chapters is to serve and lend coherence to the research and industry communities of particular regions, which are normally countries (or large politically, historically or culturally delineated regions, e.g. Scotland, Flanders or South America). Chapters are geographically defined (rather than in terms of language or ethnicity), e.g. the Dutch Chapter is based in the Netherlands and offers membership benefits to games researchers and industry professionals of any nationality who work in the Netherlands (rather than Dutch individuals working elsewhere in the world, although the latter aren’t categorically excluded from Dutch Chapter membership).

Amongst the services the Association offers to its Chapters are:

• conference support (see Section 6)
• promotion of Chapter activities, contacts etc. on the DiGRA website:
• platform for local Chapter panels etc. at DiGRA conference
• combined membership and revenue sharing (see Sections 2 and 3)

Chapter Membership

Members of the DiGRA umbrella organisation are not automatically members of any particular Chapter. The DiGRA membership fee therefore doesn’t automatically include Chapter membership. However, if existing DiGRA members decide to join a local DiGRA Chapter should sign up to the local Chapter via the DiGRA website, which will charge the DiGRA membership fee as detailed at www.digra.org/the-association/membership and grant combined membership (of DiGRA and the local Chapter). The fee will then be split between the Chapter and the umbrella organisation as detailed in Section 3. The same mechanism applies to completely new members, who wish to sign up to a local Chapter in the first instance. On top of that, local Chapters may rise their own additional membership fees if and as necessary, for example to fund specific events or research developments. These fall entirely within the remit of the local chapter organisers and will not be formally monitored by DiGRA.

Revenue Sharing

DiGRA membership fees are detailed at www.digra.org/the-association/membership. Depending on the number of paying members registered per year, each Chapter will obtain a certain share of all its membership fees, where the other part of the revenue will be retained by the umbrella organisation. The more members a Chapter recruits, the greater their share in revenue.

The following tiers apply:

• 0-10 paying members p.a.: local Chapter to keep 0% of membership;
• 11-20 paying members p.a.: local Chapter to keep 20% of membership;
• 21-50 paying members p.a.: local Chapter to keep 30%;
• 51+ paying members p.a.: local Chapter to keep 40%.

Chapters should invoice DiGRA’s Treasurer (currently Jussi Holopainen at jussi.p.holopainen@gmail.com) at the end of every year to apply for remittance. They should include a list of confirmed Chapter members with their invoice.

Signing Up

In 2014 DiGRA will introduce a new online membership application / renewal process which will allow members to sign up to a local Chapter directly through the DiGRA website (www.digra.org). The online form will allow applicants to choose a local chapter, which will be registered on the DiGRA membership database. Payments will be made in Euros via Paypal or debit/credit card. Chapters will receive their revenue share in Euros once per year (end of December) from the DiGRA Treasurer, via PayPal transfer (https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/transfer-money-online), depending on the number of new registrations recorded on the DiGRA membership database, in accordance with the tiered revenue sharing system detailed in Section 3.

Proposing New Chapters

New local Chapter proposals are both welcome and encouraged. Proposals will be discussed at the DiGRA Board meeting directly following the date of receipt, and the Association’s comments and decision will be communicated to the applicants as soon as possible thereafter. Applicants should complete the overleaf form (Appendix A) and email it to the DiGRA International Chapter Officer (mimasi@utu.fi).

Apply for New Conference Support

DiGRA encourages local Chapters to organise their own research events, such as conferences, workshops and symposia. To apply for DiGRA local Chapter conference support, The Chapter Chair (or his/her deputy) should complete the local DiGRA event proposal form (Appendix B) and email it to the DiGRA International Chapter Officer (mimasi@utu.fi).

Appendix A: New Chapter Proposals

Rationale for Chapter Status

• How would a Chapter be of benefit to your membership?
• Who will be the members?  Are these academics or practitioners or a mixture?

Geographical area

• Please indicate the geographical area the chapter will serve.

 Outline of the chapter aims, objectives and activities

• Will you organize an activity to initiate the chapter?
• Will you organize regular meetings, what frequency? Where?
• Does the chapter plan to organise a local DIGRA conference or workshop in the next 2 years?

Planned organisational structure

• Will the chapter be a formal legal entity and if so, in what country?
• How will the organisational committee be constituted and elected?
• What means of communication and dissemination will be put in place?
  • with all members
  • within the organising committee

Please note that DiGRA can set up a mailing list for you.

Initial organisation committee

• Who are the proposed members of the organisation committee?
• Please include a short biography (no more than 50 words) and a brief outline of the roles each member will take.

Financial plan and required resources

• Please make a short financial plan and indicate the required resources. At the moment DiGRA is only able to financially support local chapters in organizing a local DIGRA event, such as a conference, seminar or workshop.  If you would like to apply for this please complete separate document entitled ‘Proposal for local DiGRA event’