Membership

The Swiss Digital Commons Association is carried by its members. Membership is open to anyone who supports the association’s purpose and helps sustain its fostered projects, such as gitn.run.

Who can join

Both natural persons and legal entities that support the association’s purpose may become members. All members are equal, regardless of when they joined; the founding members enjoy no special rights.

How to join

Admission is decided by resolution of the Board. A request for membership is addressed to the Board, which reviews it and decides on admission.

Participation

Members help sustain the association and its fostered projects — through contributions, resources, and collaboration — and take part in its governance. The fostered projects themselves are open to the general public and freely usable.

The transparency and licensing obligations arise from the projects themselves: whoever operates a fostered project discloses the complete corresponding source code under the applicable transparency license (AGPLv3 for gitn.run) — regardless of membership.

Contributions and donations

The association is financed through membership fees and voluntary donations (cash and in-kind). It pursues no profit and distributes nothing to its members.

The membership fee establishes membership; voting rights do not depend on the size of any further contributions. Donations beyond the membership fee are voluntary. Once the association is tax-exempt as a public-benefit organization, such cash and in-kind donations may be deducted from taxes within the limits set by law — whereas the membership fee itself, as well as unpaid labor, may not.

Ending a membership

Membership ends by resignation — which may be declared in writing at any time — by exclusion, or, for natural persons, by death and, for legal entities, by dissolution. Upon termination, the rights associated with membership — in particular the right to vote and to stand for election — end with immediate effect.

The binding rules on membership are set out in the Statutes (§ 3–5). To protect the privacy of all members, the association does not publish a membership list.