Responding a little late but I thought this was a good idea during the meeting on Monday. I can't see any negatives to this as we'd be reaching out to folks we already collaborate with or who join our projects. I think the fact they would be non-voting protects us and no fees for them protects them.

Thanks,

Amy

On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 4:24 AM Thierry Carrez <thierry@openstack.org> wrote:
Hello everyone,

During the informal call on Monday I introduced the idea of creating a
new Foundation non-voting membership tier called "Associate members".

Rationale:

The Open Infrastructure Foundation mission is to develop, support,
protect, and promote open infrastructure software projects (open source
solutions to build infrastructure for further innovation). Integration
between those projects has been identified as a key issue hindering
further adoption of those solutions. While the Foundation directly
supports and promotes a number of projects, its mission goes beyond the
projects it directly hosts. We currently don’t have any program allowing
us to formally engage with non-profit organizations sustaining open
infrastructure projects, and help us better collaborate around events,
promotion, and cross-community discussions.

We also have a lot of connections with the academic world (through
OpenInfra Labs and our education initiatives) and a lot of open
infrastructure users in the public research space. Those traditionally
do not sign up as members, despite being very engaged (CERN, for
example, is not a member). This makes it difficult to apply
“member-first” thinking in some cases, and we miss out on showcasing
those illustrious institutions as Foundation members.

Proposal:

Create a new Foundation non-voting membership tier called "Associate
members". That tier would be free to join, and the Executive Director of
the Foundation would be empowered to approve any interested organization
fitting the criteria. Two criteria would be defined:

- Non-profit organizations sustaining open infrastructure projects
- Notable academic and public research institutions making extensive use
of open infrastructure projects.

Please let me know of any question, concern, or comment on this
proposal. My goal is to get it approved by the Board on our end of June
meeting, and roll it out with initial candidates during Q3.

Regards,

--
Thierry Carrez

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