Sorry to have missed the call, I had a last minute clash.

I’d support the idea but it would depend on the details whether CERN could join.

For background, we’ve joined a number of programs such as Academic member  of Ceph (https://ceph.io/foundation/) and the CNCF enduser membership (https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2020/11/18/cloud-native-computing-foundation-adds-46-new-members/). 

For international organisations to join requires review by the CERN legal and procurement groups. The process can take up to 2 months to get approval.Specifically,

- Extensive legal text with arbitration can be problematic and needs to reflect CERN’s immunities as an international organisation
- The membership must not indicate an endorsement of the foundation

The use of CERN’s logo is not guaranteed. Alternatives such as a picture of one of the experiments could be used  instead. However, in the past, open source communities may be granted permission. There can also be issues if there are other members with certain activities such as military. A mock up of the web page is usually required to get approval.

Cheers,
Tim

On 12 May 2021, at 12:23, Kurt Garloff <kurt@garloff.de> wrote:

Hi Thierry,

I really like the idea -- I would indeed have expected the CERN to be somehow formally connected to the OIF ...
It has not hindered us from working together closely -- but sometimes it helps to have instruments in place to record such a close collaboration.
Create a bit more visibility and in general be on the radar for events, consultation, discussions, ... but also communicating to the outside world.

Thanks,
--
Kurt Garloff <garloff@osb-alliance.com>

CTO Sovereign Cloud Stack

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On 12/05/2021 11:23, Thierry Carrez 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,

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