Seeker,
if it were as simple as you've set out there wouldn't be an issue and the Governing Council would not disagree with what you have said.
There is respect for the work of the founding group - it was for precisely this reason that the option to award lifetime memberships was written into the Constitution.

However, let's just say that Wouter's recollection of events differs from the collective recollections of those involved in discussions with him. At no time have we tried to marginalise him - even including him in the early Skype meeting of the Governing Council. Kirt and Phill both paid their fees without being asked, they didn't want to be given special treatment. They have both earned the respect that is fully due to them and have behaved in the way that would be expected of someone who has done great work for the good of the class. Wouter appears to want to undo any good that he has done (and as I have already said I wouldn't decry that work). For many years now he seems determined to divide and destroy the class - hardly the work of someone with the good of the class in mind.
Perhaps his most unforgivable trait is to claim to be the voice of F16 while denigrating other classes - a trait that has made the growth and acceptance of F16 that much harder and made life much more difficult for the Governing Council than it otherwise needed to be.
I have no objection to Wouter and the others being recognised via Life Membership - it will be the members who vote them in. I (and others) object to Wouter's automatic expectation of recognition while at the same time attacking those very people he expects to laud him.
The F16 Class is not Wouter, Kirt and Phill - it belongs to those people who have invested their own money and either built designs, moulds, businesses or bought those boats. It is those people who have joined Associations and work actively to race fairly and demonstrate the F16 concept by example. It is those people who invest their time, effort and their own money to talk to other classes, rating officials, National Authorities, race organisers, clubs etc. to further F16 worldwide.
At the end of the day it's not about whether Wouter will or will not stump up a paltry €15 to be a member or even if we give him membership for life. It's about attitude. It's about the good name and reputation of the F16 Class.