SIPB Membership

The formal policies and procedures for SIPB membership are described
in the SIPB Constitution, available at
  /afs/sipb.mit.edu/admin/text/constitution/constitution.{tex,ps,pdf}
or at
  https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/admin/text/constitution/constitution.pdf

This document supplements that one with guidance on what to do if you
want to join SIPB.  SIPB members often consider the following factors
in deciding when to elect a new member:

1) Effective participation in SIPB activities, such as SIPB meetings;
   cluedumps and IAP classes; hackathons; contributing to SIPB
   discussions or helping users in the office, on SIPB lists, or on
   -c sipb on zephyr; SIPB computer tours; office cleanings; etc.

2) Effective participation in the SIPB office

3) Effective participation in some SIPB project(s).

You can hack on an existing SIPB project (by talking to the people
currently working on it) or start a new one.  The best way to start
a SIPB project is to pick some computing-related problem that is
important to you, find some like-minded individuals, and try to solve
it, discussing your ideas and plans around the SIPB office, and
reporting on your progress to the SIPB.  The most successful SIPB
projects have often been things that the people involved really wanted
to do, and found resources or collaborators to do them through SIPB.

4) Understanding of SIPB practices and culture (this typically comes
   naturally from spending time in the office).

The best way to become a SIPB member is to act like one:
  "Prospectives get membered when people wonder why they're not
   a member already."

SIPB members receive many privileges (from various organizations) that
facilitate further contributions both to SIPB and to computing at MIT.
Some examples of these include:
- A vote at SIPB meetings, and if a student, a vote in SIPB elections.
- A key to the SIPB office
- Root access on all office workstations
- Membership in the SIPB Github organization
- A permanent Athena account
- A drawer in the SIPB office

The SIPB has private discussions about prospectives before they are
nominated for membership in order to remind members to think about
whether the prospective is qualified, inform members of what the
prospective has done, and consider whether the prosective is ready to
be granted membership.  It is informal policy that no prospective be
nominated for SIPB membership before such discussions have happened.

If you have any questions regarding SIPB's membership policies and
practices or your progress towards becoming a member, feel free to
talk to either the Chair or the Vice Chair. In fact, you're
encouraged to ask about your progress!