About Samvera Partners

Samvera Partners are institutions, corporations or other groups that have formally committed to contributing to the Samvera Community. Samvera Partners collectively advance the project and the Community for the benefit of all participants.

The Samvera Partners contribute to groups that coordinate activity from multiple institutions and development efforts. These include the Board of Directors, the Roadmaps Alignment Group, the Core Components Maintenance Group and Samvera’s Interest and Working Groups, as well as teams working on specific projects and solutions such as the Avalon Media System, Hyrax, and Hyku.

Partnership is earned by actively contributing to the Community. Partners:

• Contribute. Annual Partnership dues to support Community infrastructure along with any one or more of: code, analysis, design, documentation, presentations and other forms of communication, marketing, support, funding, participation in working/interest groups, or other resources.

• Stay Informed. Additionally, be among the first to be notified of any known security issues and fixes, ahead of the information being made public.

• Meet. Participate in Samvera Partner meetings and other conversations that shape our future.

• Vote. As a Partner, it is a duty and privilege to vote on elected positions and on other matters of importance.

• Lead. Help lead the way by participating in the governance of Samvera. Partners may provide input on the Community and technical direction up to the highest levels, and represent Samvera to the broader community. Partners have the right to nominate persons for election to the Samvera Board of Directors.

How to become a Samvera Partner

The steps to become a Samvera Partner are:

1. Participation: Participate in the Samvera Community in one or more of the many ways described above.

2. Nomination: Be nominated by an existing Partner or the Samvera Board.

3. Application: Each Partner is asked to write a brief letter of intent indicating why they want to become a Samvera Partner and what they intend to contribute to the Community.

4. Approval: Be voted in by the Board of Directors, and

5. Announcement: Be welcomed formally to the Community as a Partner.

Benefits of Partnership

By investing financially in Samvera’s future, Partners help ensure the longevity of the Community and its software.  By contributing to Samvera’s Working and Interest Groups, and by having staff participate in the further development of our code and solutions, Partners protect their own investment in our products and services.

In return for Partner contributions, the Community undertakes to provide a number of specific services.  These include:

• The right to vote in formal Samvera decision making (one vote per Partner institution)

• The right to put up candidates for election to the Samvera Board

• The right to attend Partner meetings and Partner calls

• The right to advance information about any security vulnerabilities discovered in Samvera software (via the Partners’ closed mailing list)

• Centrally coordinated shared best practices for common legal and financial services 

• Financial stewardship

• Legal issues (including trademark)

• Marketing (including website and wiki)

• An annual Samvera Connect conference

• An annual Samvera Virtual Connect

• Access to the services of any Samvera appointed employees to help further local Samvera initiatives

• Public acknowledgement of Partnership in/on appropriate publicity materials (including the website and wiki)

In addition, there are less tangible, but potentially important, aspects to Samvera Partnership.  For instance, many of our Partners have been successful in obtaining grants from philanthropic funds to assist and/or enhance the development of their local systems.  An institution’s involvement in a larger community, and a commitment to feeding back developments for the wider benefit, can be seen to support the case for grant funding.  The track record of Samvera Partners in successfully delivering the outputs of their respective grants and contributing those back to community solutions may be seen as a further benefit.

How to stop being a Samvera Partner

A Partner may withdraw from Partnership by providing written notice to the Samvera Board of Directors that they wish to withdraw from the Partner agreement.