Unicode Membership Changes

Responding to its members, the Unicode Consortium has been expanding its role to more fully cover all aspects of software internationalization. This is reflected in increased costs to the Consortium, which require an increase in fees. To help ameliorate the effects of this, the Consortium is adding a new level of membership and slightly modifying the existing ones.

Introducing a New Level of Membership: the Institutional Membership

Institutional membership is open to qualified institutions of higher education, government ministries and standardization bodies, and 501-C (3) or similar non-profit corporations of any size. This level of membership allows such institutions to contribute effectively to the technical work of the Consortium. As an Institutional member, your organization has full access to documentation, email lists and technical committee meetings and receives one vote in all technical committees. This does not include the right to vote for the board nor the right to vote at corporate (Full) membership meetings.

Increasing Unicode Membership Fees

By carefully controlling its expenses, the Consortium has managed to keep the membership fees unchanged for the last seven years. However, expenses have risen over that period, and the scope of the Consortium’s work has increased significantly due to its broadening involvement in all essential aspects of software globalization: for example, the Consortium now hosts the CLDR Project, houses the Registry for ISO 15924, and is increasingly involved in Internet security issues.

Effective Monday, August 1st, 2005, the fees for all classes of membership will increase by 25%. The current and new fees are listed in the table below:

	FULL	INSTITUTIONAL	SUPPORTING	ASSOCIATE	LIAISON	INDIVIDUAL
Current Rates	$12,000	$9,500	$6,000	$2,000 for-profit	By invitation only	$120
				$1,200 non-profit
Rates as of 8/1/2005	$15,000	$12,000	$7,500	$2,500 for-profit	By invitation only	$150
				$1,500 non-profit

Current Lower Membership Rates Extended until July 31st, 2005

To provide a smoother transition to the new fees for members, the Consortium is also making a special offer available until July 31. Current and new members may choose to join, renew, or extend their membership by one or more years at the current lower rate. That is, payment must be for a period of at least 12 months, with no upper limit. Payments at the current rate must be received by the Unicode office on or before August 1st, 2005.

 

 

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