[Federation Name]: Membership Criteria

Status: Draft for discussion among founding member groups. The thresholds below are starting points. Argue with them. The exact numbers matter less than that they’re written down before anyone applies.

Who can be a member

Membership in the Federation is open to local AT Protocol community groups that meet the criteria below. The Federation is built around groups, not individuals. There is no individual membership.

A local AT Protocol community group is a group of people who organize in-person or hybrid events, meetups, workshops, or gatherings centered on the AT Protocol, Bluesky, the open social web, or related decentralized social infrastructure, primarily for participants in a specific geographic area.

Eligibility

To be eligible for membership, an applying group must:

1. Have an organizing committee or designated convener. This is the person or people who speak for the group at the Federation level. A Discord without clear organizers is not a group; a group with named organizers and a regular cadence is.
2. Have run at least three events in the past twelve months, or commit to a plan for three events in the next twelve. Events can be in-person meetups, hybrid sessions, workshops, panels, conferences, or virtual gatherings.
3. Operate primarily in a defined geographic area: usually a city, metropolitan area, or region. Online-only groups may apply but should make the case for how they fit a federation built around local communities.
4. Affirm the Federation’s Code of Conduct and agree to enforce it, or an equivalent code, at member-group events.
5. Affirm the Federation’s Bylaws and agree to participate in member governance in good faith.
6. Not duplicate an existing member group’s geography without coordination. If two LA-area groups want to be members, they should talk first. The Federation can host both if there’s a clear reason, but we want to avoid creating competition for the same audience.

What a group does not need to be

A group does not need to be a registered legal entity. Unincorporated associations are welcome. A group does not need a website, a logo, or branded swag. A group does not need to use any particular event platform (Meetup, Lu.ma, Eventbrite, atproto-native, anything else). A group does not need to have raised money, charged for events, or done any commercial activity. And a group does not need to limit its programming to AT Protocol topics; many groups will cover decentralized social broadly, fediverse adjacencies, or related open-web work.

Application process

A group seeking membership submits a short written application that includes:

• Name of the group and primary geographic area
• Names and contact information of the organizing committee or convener
• Brief history (how long the group has existed, what kinds of events, approximate attendance)
• Affirmation of Code of Conduct and Bylaws
• Anything else that would help existing members understand who the group is and what they care about (optional)

Applications are reviewed at the next regular meeting of the membership. Admission requires a majority vote of existing Member Groups present, with quorum. The membership decides, not a board, not the founders.

If an application is declined, the existing members provide written feedback explaining why, and the group is welcome to reapply once the concerns are addressed.

Membership in good standing

A Member Group remains in good standing by designating at least one delegate who participates in member meetings (a defined minimum, for example two of four annual meetings), continuing to run events at a reasonable cadence (at least two per year), continuing to operate consistently with the Federation’s Code of Conduct, and paying any annual dues if dues exist. The initial recommendation is no dues for the first two years.

A Member Group falling out of good standing receives written notice and a reasonable period to come back into compliance.

Suspension and removal

A Member Group may be suspended or removed for:

• Persistent failure to participate in member governance after written notice
• Conduct by the group’s organizers that materially violates the Code of Conduct
• Misrepresentation to the Federation, its funders, or the public about the group’s relationship to the Federation
• Other actions that the membership judges incompatible with continued membership

Suspension or removal requires a two-thirds vote of the membership. The affected group receives written notice with reasons and an opportunity to be heard before the vote. The threshold is high on purpose.

What membership includes

Member Groups in good standing receive coverage under the Federation’s general liability insurance for member-group events (subject to the policy’s terms; large events may need separate underwriting), eligibility for distributions from grants and sponsorships the Federation receives (according to allocation criteria the membership decides), access to shared infrastructure (templates, branding assets, organizing playbooks, peer network), one vote on all matters reserved to the membership, and the right to nominate and elect Federation directors.

What membership does not include

Membership does not grant the right to use the Federation’s name, logo, or branding outside the scope of the group’s normal activities without member consent. It does not grant the right to speak on behalf of the Federation publicly without authorization. It does not guarantee a share of any specific grant or funding; allocations are decided by the membership. And it does not extend tax-deductible status to donations made to the member group itself. The Federation’s tax-exempt status, if granted, applies to the Federation, not its members.

Sponsors and supporters (a different category)

Funders, corporate supporters, infrastructure providers, and other organizations that support the Federation financially or in-kind are recognized as Sponsors. Sponsors are not members. They have no vote, no board representation, and no governance role of any kind. This is by design and not subject to revision. Sponsors are recognized publicly where they wish to be, and receive reports on how their support was used, but they do not steer the Federation.