Thank you for your interest in becoming an OCCAID member. In order to connect to the OCCAID R&D network, you must first become a member of our consortium. Membership is available to K-22 education institutions, corporations and ISPs, municipal and governmental agencies, and non-profit corporations. Individual membership is not available, however those who are participating in public community efforts (i.e. GNU, *BSD, Planet Lab, etc) may inquire for a sponsorship through one of our Community Service Programs.

This document outlines the application process and contains information pertaining to acquisition of OCCAID membership status.

Membership Definitions

There are two kinds of OCCAID membership oppurtunities--General Membership and Associate Membership.

General Membership is granted to organizations who are directly participating to OCCAID. These members typically pay an annual membership fee to help maintain OCCAID's community services and stewardship. ISPs, partners and organizations providing contribution and assistance to OCCAID are automatically granted General Membership without any annual fees.

Associate Membership is granted to organizations that have been sponsored to participate (either directly or indirectly) in OCCAID without any annual membership fees. Associate Membership is typically granted to non-profit organizations and community projects that can benefit through an OCCAID network connection.

OCCAID also grants organizations an Associate Membership through our community service programs and the GIPS initiative. Through GIPS initiative, OCCAID grants sponsored connections to organizations (irrespective of whether for-profit or not-for-profit) that have been endorsed through the GIPS Steering Committee for IPv6 connectivity. Entities without endorsement may also contact the Community Program Committee for a sponsorship.

Application Process

1. If your organization wishes to become a general member to directly participate in OCCAID activities, please email membership [at] occaid.org and ask for a membership application.

2. After you complete your application, it will be reviewed by OCCAID staff which takes about 5 business days to respond back to you.

3. Once OCCAID has approved your application and you are accepted for general membership, you will receive a welcome package over email, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) document that will govern the relationship between both parties. You will need to have an authorized legal representative to sign and execute the MoU, and then we will countersign and return it back to you via fax for your records. Then you should go ahead and enter your technical contacts to OCCAID mailing list.

4. Included in your welcome package is an invoice for your first year membership fee. You will need to pay this fee to proceed to the next step. You can view the membership pricing on the Membership Fees listing page at anytime. If you have any questions about payment methods or fees, please contact billing [at] occaid.org or the staff member who sent you the welcome package. At the end of your annual membership term, you will receive an invoice for renewing your membership. You may choose to renew the membership by paying the fee or terminate it by sending us a notice. Failure to pay recurring membership dues within sixty (60) days after being invoiced will result in suspension of membership.

5. Once your first year membership fee is received, OCCAID will assign a project manager to work with you in implementing your connection to our network. Native and tunnel options are available to members. If you are not able to provision a native connection and would prefer a tunnel instead for the time being, we can always upgrade it to native later on when you are ready.

By this point, you should be up and running.

Sponsorship Oppurtunities

The OCCAID Program Committee routinely votes to sponsor Associate Membership to organizations that can benefit by connecting to OCCAID. An associate member is exempted from requirement to pay annual membership fees. Associate Membership is provided through various sponsorship programs as determined by the Program Committee. Some of the existing sponsorship oppurtunities are listed below.

• The Global IPv6 Advancement Program (GIPS) Initiative:
  The GIPS initiative is determined to spread IPv6 adoption worldwide through the OCCAID backbone network. Co-chaired by the GIPS Steering Committee, GIPS works with ISPs and organizations to determine the areas of assistance they require to become connected to the IPv6 internet. We recognize that for many small to medium sized ISPs, funding acquisition for IPv6 deployment can be very difficult when there is little to no immediate revenue oppurtunities. Thus, the GIPS initiative routinely submits qualified organizations to the Community Program Committee for a sponsorship. The Community Program Committee will review the prospective member's goals and merits of connecting to OCCAID and will reach a consensus in accepting the application within 7 business days.
• OCCAID Community Service Programs:
  In close consultation and partnership with the network operators' community, OCCAID sponsors individuals and projects that are involved in works of public research, experimentation or software and technology development. Under these ideals, a project oriented for public service may contact the public services liaison at pubservices [at] occaid.org for a sponsorship in collocation, IPv4 and IPv6 bandwidth and technical services. Public services liaison will review the merit and purpose of the individual application to determine whether a sponsorship will be appropriate. When the application appears to be in good standing, the liaison will forward the application to the Community Program Committee, who will reach a consensus in accepting the member application within 10 business days.
  
  Successful examples of sponsored applicant under the Community Service Programs would be: (a) Planet Lab project member, (b) *BSD or GNU/Linux official developer with cvs commit access tasked with a specific project to develop or enhance public software, etc.
• General Member and Partner Endorsement:
  An existing general member in good standing and an OCCAID partner may provide endorsement for an organization to be sponsored for an Associate Membership. When endorsed, the Program Committee will review the member's application and reach a consensus within 5 business days.