AB Votes/STARTUP membership class

RESOLUTION: STARTUP membership class in September 2014 (not passed)

RESOLUTION: That a new Xen Project StartUp membership class be created for companies with less than 250 consolidated employees with an annual participation fee of $5,000 USD. StartUp applicants will be accepted for membership only upon approval of the Advisory Board. The StartUp membership class benefits include electing 1 Advisory Board seat for every 10 StartUp class members, limited to at most 3 representatives, and any other benefits the Advisory Board may determine, with approval from The Linux Foundation. The Advisory Board asks The Linux Foundation to update the membership application to reflect the new StartUp membership class.

Voting Results

• Citrix : +1
• CA : +1
• Rackspace : +1
• Cavium : +1
• Intel : +1
• ARM : +1
• Amazon : 0
• Oracle : +1 initially, but later raised concerns at [1] - thus count as -1 until resolved
• AMD : +1

7 in favour - one abstained, one set of concerns.

MOTION HAS NOT PASSED IN THE FORM ABOVE

 Action Lars: Schedule discussion in October board meeting re concerns ✓

Addressing concerns related to the resolution

Further Information

See [2] for the proposal, voting and discussion thread

Updates to the resolution / related resolutions

• We allow STARTUP class members to attend board meetings (even if they are not the voting representatives – see AB_Meeting/December_2014_Minutes#Allow_STARTUP_membership_class_members_to_attend_AB_meetings_as_non-voting_attendees)
• See revised proposed resolution below

RESOLVED: That a new Xen Project StartUp membership class be created
for companies with less than 100 consolidated employees with an annual
participation fee of $5,000 USD. StartUp applicants will be accepted
for membership only upon approval of the Advisory Board. The StartUp
membership class benefits include electing 1 Advisory Board seat for
every 5 StartUp class members, limited to at most 3 representatives,
and any other benefits the Advisory Board may determine, with approval
from The Linux Foundation. The first and each subsequent Advisory
Board seat requires at least 5 new StartUp class members. The Advisory
Board asks The Linux Foundation to update the membership application
to reflect the new StartUp membership class.

That addresses concerns raised here and in AB_Meeting/October_2014_Minutes.

• The revised membership application and charter was agreed in the February 2015 board meeting and reflects the changes above
• See AB_Meeting/February_2015_Minutes

Text in revised Project Charter (passed Feb 2015)

Approved in AB_Meeting/February_2015_Minutes

Reference: Xen_Project_Advisory_Board_Membership_Application.pdf

Membership Application

Membership Class:
_____ Advisory Board Governing Member: $25,000 annual dues
_____ Advisory Board Startup Member: $5,000 annual dues
* Startup Membership is only available to companies with fewer than 100 
  consolidated employees and requires approval of the Governing Board
  Members. 

Project Charter

F. Membership Levels

The Xen Project Advisory Board has two levels of membership:

1. Governing Members appoint a voting representative to the Advisory Board, with full	
   participation rights in all Xen Project activities.	

2. Startup Members will annually elect one (1) Voting Representative per every five (5) Startup	
   Members, limited to at most three (3) Voting Representatives, to represent the Startup	
   Members as a voting member of the Advisory Board. All Startup Members may participate in all	
   meetings of the Advisory Board and Xen Project activities, but only the Voting Representatives
   shall be counted towards a quorum and entitled to vote on matters before the Advisory Board.
   Startup Members applications will be accepted only upon a majority vote of the Advisory Board.	
   If during an annual term, an additional five (5) Startup Members are accepted, the Advisory	
   Board may choose to hold an election for an additional Voting Representative.

Commentary During March 2015 Advisory Board Meeting

During the March Board meeting a number of concerns about the text change were raised

• There were different views as to whether the charter text accurately reflect the text as from the resolution, aka "The first and each subsequent Advisory Board seat requires at least 5 new Startup class members.".
• It is not clear what happens when during the year a Startup Member company disappears and the member of Startup members falls below the treshhold required for a voting representative (note: membership cancellations do have to be made in December each year, so technically companies cannot drop out of the Advisory Board during the course of a year)
• Also see: minutes of discussion