New NetBSD developer application procedure

NetBSD Foundation membership application process:

  • Existing members decide to sponsor a potential member.

    First, existing members of the Foundation must decide that they are willing to sponsor a potential member. (This can happen as a result of discussions amongst the members, or, for instance, because the potential member asks someone to sponsor them.)

    These members should communicate this to the potential member, and should send to her/him a membership application form, which can be found in the file membership-app in this directory.

  • The potential member fills out the form, and returns it to the Membership committee membership-exec@NetBSD.org by e-mail.

    The form may be filled out in consultation with one or more developers, but is intended to be primarily filled out by the applicant.

    At this point an entry for the potential member is created in the "completed-forms" subdirectory. At all later stages, it should be kept up to date.

  • The Membership committee informs the Foundation's members about the potential member, and solicits comments about the application.

    The form to be used to solicit opinions can be found in the file "rfc-template" in this directory. There's also a script to automatically fill out and send the form ("send-rfc-form").

    A period of 14 calendar days shall be allowed for comments.

    The Membership committee also informs the applicant that his application is received and when the applicant will next hear from the committee.

  • The Membership committee, weighing the application and the comments, decides whether to offer membership to the applicant.

    If membership is denied, that should be communicated to the applicant along with some information about why, and this process stops.

  • The Membership committee sends an invitation for membership and a membership agreement form to the applicant.

    An entry for the applicant is made in the "status" file, filling in all pertinent information from the corresponding entry in the "completed-forms" directory.

  • The applicant returns the signed membership agreement, if he or she accepts its terms, to the Secretary of the NetBSD Project, whose postal address will be specified in the invitation letter.
  • The Membership committee then asks admins@NetBSD.org to create accounts for the new member.
  • The administrators create accounts for the new member, and update the "status" file and the corresponding entry in the "completed-forms" directory accordingly;
    • Admins inform the applicant, his/her sponsor(s), and the Membership EC when this is done
    • Sponsor(s) welcome applicant on the NetBSD developers mailing list
    • www announces applicant(s) on www.NetBSD.org on a programatic base (e.g. once per month, if any) and informs Membership EC about announcement
    • Membership EC posts new membership announcement (text from www) to netbsd-announce
    • Membership EC reviews new members's application, makes sure that all files have been updated, and closes the case