[Zope-Annce] Zope Foundation Membership and Board

[Jim Fulton]

The Zope Foundation was legally formed in March 2006.
We are in the process of building membership and electing the first
board of directors.

The purpose of the Zope Foundation is to advance the creation,
evolution, promotion, adoption and support of the Zope Platform and to
cultivate both an open source community and an ecosystem of
complementary products, capabilities, and services.

The Zope Foundation will provide an independent venue for the
safekeeping of the Zope software and related materials.

The Zope Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors elected
annually to represent the stakeholders in the Zope Community. The
Board is composed as follows:

   * Strategic Developer Directors: Strategic Developers may appoint one
     (1) Director.

   * Strategic Consumer Directors: Strategic Consumer Members may elect
     one Director for every Strategic Director.

   * Committer Directors: Committer Members will elect one (1) Director
     for every Strategic Director.

   * Solution Provider Directors: Solution Providers will elect one
     (1) Director for every three (3) Strategic Developer
     Directors. Solution Providers are entitled to elect at least one
     (1) Director in any event.

   * Associate Directors: Associate Members will elect one (1)
     Director to the Board

A library of Zope Foundation formation documentation is available
on-line at:

   http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Foundation/

The Zope Foundation will own the copyright to the software and related
materials (e.g., documentation) that comprises the Zope Platform. The
Zope Foundation will own and operate the Zope website at www.zope.org
and related servers, such as mail.zope.org and svn.zope.org.

The Board will undertake additional initiatives in its sole
discretion (e.g., platform marketing, development coordination,
documentation coordination, etc.)

The Zope Foundation needs active members to ensure the Zope Platform
continues to be successful! Information on the membership classes is
described in the by laws:

   http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Foundation/ZopeFoundationByLaws.pdf

and in the membership agreement:

   http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Foundation/ 
ZopeFoundationMembershipAgreement.pdf

I encourage you to support the Foundation by

   - Becoming a member

   - Volunteering your time by:

     o Participating in the Zope Foundation Mailing list,

     o Volunteering on Foundation sponsored projects, such as zope.org
       operation, development projects, etc.

Deadlines

   We are having elections for board directors representing committer,
   solution-provider, and associate members.  We are currently accepting
   nominations for directors.  Members of each class can nominate
   directors for that class.  For the solution-provider and committer
   members, nominees can only be from that class.  For example, only
   committer members can nominate committer-member directors and those
   nominees must be committer members.  The nomination process closes
   June 13. Voting begins June 14th and closes June 21st. Obviously,
   only members can vote.

   Strategic Developer and Consumer members can appoint directors.
   These appointments must be made by June 21st.

Becoming a member

   To become a member, you need to fill out and submit a membership
   agreement:

    http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Foundation/ 
ZopeFoundationMembershipAgreement.pdf

   You can submit a membership agreement by:

     - Mailing it to:

       Zope Foundation, Incorporated
       ATTN: Committer Agreements
       c/o Zope Corporation
       513 Prince Edward Street
       Fredericksburg, VA
       USA, 22401

     - Faxing it to: +1 703 995 0412

     - Emailing a scanned copy to: legal at zope.org

   To join as a committer member:

     - You must first be invited.

     - You must also submit a committer agreement:

       http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Foundation/ 
ZopeFoundation_Committer_Agreement.pdf

     Please submit the membership agreement and the committer agreement
     together to make less work for volunteers handling the agreements.

   For other membership classes:

     - Make sure you satisfy the requirements of the membership class.

     - Determine your dues and pay them.

       You can pay in three ways:

       1. Send a check made out to the Zope Foundation to The Zope
          Foundation, c/o Zope Corporation
          513 Prince Edward Street, Fredericksburg, VA, USA, 22401.

       2. Make a payment using PayPal

       3. Make a payment using a wire transfer to the Zope Foundation
          Bank account.

       Contact legal at zope.org for PayPal or wire-transfer instructions.

General questions should be send to foundation at zope.org.  Questions
specific to you should be sent to legal at zope.org.

Jim

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