AFNix Association Membership Policy

AFNix is a non-profit association following the principle of representative democracy. Members of the association regularly vote on the membership of the main decision body: the Board. Additionally, in case of dissatisfaction with the actions of the Board, members can call a vote of no-confidence to replace the roster of the Board. As such, membership in AFNix comes with a certain amount of decision power and control on the future of the association. This policy document describes the criteria defining who can join AFNix as a voting member.

Note: for more information on the democratic processes as well as other non-voting member classes (sponsoring members, emeritus members), please refer to the association's statutes.

Representatives of projects hosted by AFNix

AFNix's main reason for existence is to support the projects it hosts. However, to keep this in check, we invite projects hosted by AFNix to take place in the democratic decision making by offering each project a membership for a chosen representative. This representative is chosen by the leadership of their respective project, and can be changed at any time.

Since it is in the interest of the association to have proper representation of its hosted projects (to better reflect the needs of our users in our democratic choices, and to give the processes legitimacy), the Board is expected to regularly check that the roster of representatives does not contain inactive members. In the case of inactivity of a representative, the Board should proactively initiate talks with the respective project leadership to get a replacement.

Contributors to AFNix

Individuals who have shown significant commitment to AFNix by contributing to the operations of the association can be invited to become members by decision of the Board. The Board is expected to behave relatively openly in this regard and to award said invitations quickly once someone has shown their interest in contributing regularly to the association.

This roster of members will be regularly re-evaluated by the Board to remove members that have stopped being active. This will always be preceded by an early notice giving the member the option to continue contributing or to oppose the decision by proposing a voting motion to the association.

Contributors to the AFNix association may also be contributors to AFNix hosted projects. In this situation, we encourage said projects to name a separate representative member who is not already an AFNix contributor. This does indirectly give more democratic weight to these projects, but this is a desired outcome if their contributors are also actively helping the AFNix association with its day to day operations.