Re: Membership dues [ was: Re: Advisory Board Letter ]

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

"David C. Mason" <dcm@redhat.com> writes:

> Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@eazel.com> writes:
> 
> 
> Do you really think setting the fee at 20K is going to stop large
> companies from joining - and them not creating noise? For very large
> companies, this is just one in a long list of foundations and
> organizations in which they can put down on their 'corporate resume' to
> play when they need it most.

Yes. Getting a $20k expense approvedtakes siginificant effort for a
fairly large company. Large corporations are high-intertia beasts and
if they can get over that enough to pay some money, that demonstrates
a lot more caring than just saying "we want to join".

> According to that, and what my instincts tell me, I would make one of
> two things criteria for a company to join. 
> 
> a) A small amount of money, like $5k so we can get things we
> might need.

This sounds fairly reasonable but I like the current $10k compromise
proposal better.
 
> b) Contribution to GNOME by way of code, documentation, translation or
> the like.

Since we plan to have the ability to waive the fee, (b) is already in
effect.

 - Maciej