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<h1>How To Apply to Become a Member Project</h1>
<p>New applications for project membership with Conservancy are considered
twice a year. The deadlines for submission of application materials are
1 February and 1 September each year.</p>
<p>The application process is somewhat informal. New applicants should
write
to <a href="mailto:apply@sfconservancy.org"><apply@sfconservancy.org></a>
with a very brief description of their project and a URL to their
project's website. We'll send back initial questions if we have any,
and after that, we'll send the full application materials. Applications
should be submitted in plain ASCII text via email.</p>
<p>Projects are reviewed by Conservancy's Evaluation Subcommittee (which
is a subcommittee of Conservacy's Directors), and the subcommittee's
recommendations are submitted to
Conservancy's <a href="/about/board/">Board of Directors</a>, who make
the final decision to offer membership.</p>
<h1>Project Membership Application FAQs</h1>
<p><b>What are the key criteria our project must meet to join?</b></p>
<p>The following are various questions that we typically get from project
leaders that wish to apply to Conservancy.</p>
<h2>What are the key criteria our project must meet to join?</h2>
<p>In order to join, projects need to meet certain criteria, including the
requirement that the project be exclusively devoted to the development of
FLOSS and that it be consistent with the Conservancy's tax-exempt purposes
and the financial requirements imposed by the IRS. Most FLOSS projects
will meet these requirements.</p>
<p>Additionally, the project must be licensed in a way fitting with
software freedom principles. Specifically, all software of the project
should be licensed under a license that is listed both as
a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">Free Software
license by the Free Software Foundation</a> and as
an <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">Open Source
license by the Open Source Initiative</a>. All software documentation
for the project should be licensed under a license on the preceding
lists, or under Creative
Commons' <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-By-SA</a>
or <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC-By</a> or
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/">CC-0</a>.</p>
<p>While any project licensed under FLOSS licenses can apply, the
Conservancy seeks in particular projects that are well-established and
have some track record of substantial contributions from a community of
volunteer developers. The Conservancy does gives higher priority to
@@ -145,24 +148,25 @@ independent tax-exempt non-profit.</p>
project. Our goal is to do our best to embody the “natural”
leadership structure that evolved in your project into the formal
agreement with Conservancy. As part of the agreement drafting, we work
carefully with you to understand your project's governance and write up
formally with you the decision-making process you use. Most project
contributors find this process of formalizing the leadership structure
helps them clarify in their own minds the governance of their project,
even though the process can be difficult. Since it can be a complicated
process, we suggest that you prepare your project community for this
discussion once your project is accepted.</p>
<h2>How much does will it cost us financially to join Conservancy?</h2>
<p>After your application is approved, as part of the negotiation of the
formal agreement, we'll discuss this issue. Typically, we ask that
member projects voluntarily choose to donate some percentage of their
donations received to support Conservancy's general operations servicing
all its member projects (including yours). We do understand that,
particularly for small projects that only receive a few small donations,
that donating a percentage of your income back to Conservancy can be a
high burden. Therefore, this is not a mandatory requirement. We thus
suggest that you be prepared to discuss this issue with us in detail
after your application is approved.</p>
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