[OpenID board] Getting Membership Management Under Control

Tue Jun 2 18:11:30 UTC 2009

Unfortunately the OpenID foundation hasn't lived up to the promises to 
its members, various brought to the attention of the board and previous 
and current execs were simply ignored. At the moment StartCom has no 
intention to renew its membership - I might do so as an individual...maybe.

But the foundation has been steam-rolled by the big corporations, making 
the contribution of smaller companies and individuals pretty irrelevant. 
The below issue of Carsten only highlights how this organization is run 
and further confirms our own impression and decision to pull out.

Regards
Signer: 	Eddy Nigg, StartCom Ltd. <http://www.startcom.org>
Jabber: 	startcom at startcom.org <xmpp:startcom at startcom.org>
Blog: 	Join the Revolution! <http://blog.startcom.org>
Phone: 	+1.213.341.0390

On 06/02/2009 08:44 PM, David Recordon:
> If you haven't read Carsten's post this morning, you should.  It looks 
> like Carsten's membership now ends on July 1 and that we still owe him 
> $75.
>
> I've left a comment on Carsten's blog and emailed Don, John and Marisa 
> asking that we sort this out today.  Is Carsten's membership different 
> than others or do we have a larger membership management problem on 
> our hands?
>
> http://notsorelevant.com/2009-06-02/about-losing-a-supporter/
>
> Thanks,
> --David
>
> In February 2008 I happily joined the OpenID Foundation (OIDF). For
> the first time it was possible for individuals to join the OIDF and I
> was certainly among the first to join. While the annual membership fee
> of $100 was a little high, I thought it was only natural for me to
> join the foundation and support something that I believe in. This blog
> and Spread OpenID are document of that.
>
> By the end of last year the membership fee for individuals was lowered
> to $25/year. So I was surprised when I got notified by PayPal in
> February 2009 that $100 were transferred to the OIDF for another year
> of membership, starting April 1 2009. I was a little confused since I
> wasn’t aware that it was a subscription model, that was probably my
> fault, and that I was charged $100 instead of $25.
>
> So first I cancelled the subscription - the $100 for period April 2009
> to March 2010 were paid, though - and got in touch with David Recordon
> and Scott Kveton who are both board members of the OIDF. Obviously,
> something was wrong with the subscription model and I wanted to make
> sure this didn’t happen to other members as well. Also I wanted to
> work out a way that I only paid $25 as well. Both forwarded my email
> to Don Thibeau, who was appointed the executive director of the OIDF
> in February.
>
> Until March 21 I didn’t hear from Don so I got back in touch with him
> and asked about the matter. I got only a short reply, two short
> sentences without salutation or complimentary close (hey, he’s
> probably busy or that’s some cultural difference), that he was working
> on the issue with Marisa Kihlthau (of Inventures). Marisa got a copy
> of his reply as well.
>
> Since I didn’t get another information until May 2 I emailed Don
> again. Well, something happened in between: the end of my membership
> status changed from April 1 to July 1. Don’t ask me why, though. As
> you can guess, I was rather frustrated by the time and I wrote to Don
> that I didn’t care about the OIDFanymore and that he should keep the
> $100 for whatever period of time my membership was good for.
>
> Once again he replied that he was sorry and copied the email to
> Marisa. He wrote another email and asked if he could do anything else
> for me. I negated. Marisa also got in touch, explaining that the OIDF
> was under new management (wow, that’s news in May 2009  ) and that
> they were sorting the membership database, hoping things to be solved
> by the end of May. I should get in touch with her if I had any more
> questions.
>
> Until today nothing happened. No way will I get back in touch with
> anyone about the matter. I don’t care anymore. However I want to make
> the story public because I think it is a bad example of customer
> service. I will no longer support theOIDF as it is unprofessional and
> won’t accomplish much if all issues are dealt with the same way.
>
> I tried to support OpenID in many ways in the past and still think it
> is a great concept. But why should I waste more time, energy, and
> money?
>
> Annoyed, frustrated, disappointed!
> _______________________________________________
> board mailing list
> board at openid.net
> http://openid.net/mailman/listinfo/board
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