passed 1991-11-25
amended 1995-07-10
amended 2008-02-18
amended 2009-02-23
amended 2014-03-24

		 SIPB-sponsored Athena account policy

There are concerns which prevent the SIPB from sponsoring guest
accounts for anyone who asks for them.  These concerns include:

* Licensing.  Some software available on Athena is licensed to the
  MIT community, and there are therefore some legal problems with
  giving people who are not currently members of the MIT community
  access to them.

* Policy.  Clearly, Athena/IS&T believes that deactivating accounts is a
  necessary thing, and giving deactivated accounts back to anyone who
  asks might be considered a subversion of that policy.

* Resources.  The amount of resources available for Athena accounts is
  limited.  Large-scale granting of guest accounts might tax both
  Athena's resources and the SIPB's.

* Nepotism.  The SIPB does not wish to become known as an organization
  that uses grease to make life better for its friends, while not
  serving the user community as a whole as its charter intended.

Furthermore, much of the functionality obtained through an Athena
account is available on public-access systems that can legitimately
give out accounts to anyone who asks and is willing to pay the
(usually not very high) fees.

Therefore, the SIPB chooses to restrict account sponsorship to two
classes of people:

* SIPB members.

* Individuals who will use their accounts to further the goals of the
  SIPB (FTGOS).

SIPB members are entitled to sponsored accounts if for no other reason
than because "membership has its privileges."  Furthermore, SIPB
members are elected only when the membership feels that they will be a
worthwhile addition to the SIPB and help to FTGOS.  Therefore,
sponsoring accounts for members is considered a worthwhile investment.

Unfortunately, what is and is not "FTGOS" is currently somewhat
undetermined.  The mechanism for creating guest accounts currently
leaves that decision to the discretion of the member sponsoring the
account, although the SIPB Executive Committee (EC) may choose to
override a member's decision to sponsor an account.

When a SIPB member wishes to sponsor an account for a non-member, the
member should contact the EC through e-mail to the sipb-ec mailing
list or through some other channel, providing the following
information:

1. The full real name of the sponsoree, including middle initial.
2. The MIT ID number (if the sponsoree has one) or the birthdate of
   the sponsoree.
3. The FTGOS purpose(s) for which the account will be used.
4. Whether or not the sponsoree has ever had an Athena account revoked
   due to disciplinary reasons.

If the account being sponsored is the reactivation of a deactivated
Athena account, items 1 and 2 are not necessary and should be replaced
by the account's username.

The sponsor must ask the sponsoree if they have had an Athena account
revoked for disciplinary reasons and must ask the sponsoree to read the
Athena Rules of Use.

The sponsor should then wait at least three full business days after
the message has been delivered to the EC.  In that time, any SIPB
member may choose to respond to the sponsorship request, asking for
more details about the purpose of the account or questioning the
sufficiency of the reasons given.

If someone questions the account, the sponsor can argue with them, or
bring it up at a meeting, or whatever.  Among other things, the EC has
the authority to request that the sponsor or sponsoree come to a
meeting and justify the need for the account.  The final decision
about whether or not to grant the account is left to the EC.

Once the account has been approved, the Vice-Chair or his delegate
should send an e-mail to accounts@ with the information from items 1 and
 2 above.  The message should be carbon-copied to sipb-ec@.

After the sponsored account has been registered by the sponsoree, the
sponsor should record the account sponsorship via RCS in
/afs/sipb/admin/text/guest-accounts/guest-accounts.txt.

When an account is about to expire, the sponsoree must ask the sponsor
to responsor it, once again stating how it will be used to FTGOS, or
find a new sponsor for the account.

The Secretary of the SIPB will be responsible for keeping records of
currently sponsored guest accounts, including their expiration dates,
as well as for sending out notices when accounts are about to expire
(if Athena doesn't start doing so).

Notes:

* Approval is not required from the EC before creation of an account
  for a SIPB member.  Furthermore, such accounts need no expiration
  date.

* Some scheme will have to be devised for incorporating current guest
  accounts into this system.