[License-discuss] membership [OT] [was Re: objective criteria for license evaluation]

[Luis Villa]

Our membership group replied to Nigel separately, but I thought I'd
respond here on the list, since membership questions may be of
interest to some of you.

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Tzeng, Nigel H.
<Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu> wrote:
>
> This is off-topic but I would be more inclined to join as an individual
> member if there was more clarity into what concrete benefits the OSI will
> provide (beyond advocacy)

Part of this will depend on what the membership *want* us to do, but I
see a future where we're doing education as well as advocacy, and
investing in projects (like the one you suggested) that make core open
source infrastructure stronger.

> and what membership governance really means.
> Do members get to vote for board members?

We're working in that general direction, yes; details still TBD and
will depend on the details of California non-profit law. (I was
nominated by the Affiliates.) I personally think this is extremely
important; because of OSI's role in the licensing space, the
organization *must* be trustworthy, and I think that means (in large
part) tying it to the community. But that also means it is something
we have to take the time to get right.

> I can easily give the OSI $40 a year but I don't care to pay for just
> advocacy.  Although I do wonder why membership costs $5 more to join the
> OSI than the ACLU or NRA with actual DC lobbies and lawyers...the AARP is
> a bargain at $16.

We're trying to build organizational capacity, starting from a lot
smaller base than the AARP :) That means, unfortunately, a fairly big
ask. We will of course continue to look at this kind of thing and
adjust to make the organization as broad-based as possible, while also
giving us the revenue to work on projects and perhaps hire staff.

Hope that is helpful-
Luis