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Membership and Fees Charter

1.   Purpose

The Membership and Fees Committee is charged with ongoing assessment of ORCID’s membership policies to ensure that they support the sustainability of the organization whilst also encouraging broad adoption and adherence to our Planning principles (see below).

Among their responsibilities is overseeing projects that explore new membership models and new or changed services that may impact membership, understanding their costs and implications in order to inform the Board’s strategy. 

2. Reporting

The Membership and Fees Committee reports to the Board of Directors, providing a summary report of its discussions, including dissenting opinions, and recommendations as it deems appropriate.

3. Roles and Responsibilities of the Committee

The Membership and Fees Committee is an Advisory Committee of the Board. As such, it provides guidance or recommendations to the Board on specific issues or endeavors, as specifically delegated to them by the Board. The committee will develop a workplan, for review annually by the Board, including such activities as:

  • Reviewing the activity cost drivers, maturity metrics, and membership policies in relation to the scalability and sustainability of the organization.
  • Using cost and maturity metrics to assess existing and proposed business models and membership services, including any implications from the outcomes of projects.
  • Reporting back to the Board and make policy recommendations.

The Committee may engage with the Finance committee for assistance on financial modeling.

4.   Committee Constitution

As an Advisory Committee of the Board, the Chair of the Board shall appoint the committee chair.

  • The Committee is chaired by a Board Director, who serves as the principal liaison between the committee and the Board, works with the staff leader to schedule and set an agenda for each committee meeting, and prepare and distribute handouts and reports to committee members in advance or each meeting.
    • The committee consists of at minimum five persons, of which three are Board members. In addition, there shall be two members of the committee who are also members of the ORCID Finance Committee, one of whom will generally be the Treasurer.
    • Committee members shall not receive any consulting, advisor, or other fees from ORCID.
    • The Chair of this committee is appointed by the Board Chair and members of this committee are appointed by the Board. All committee members, excluding the person serving as chair, may serve two consecutive 3-year terms. There is no limit to the number of consecutive 1-year terms that the chair may serve.
    • Committee members are responsible for reviewing materials and making substantive contributions to the work of the group.

5.   Principles

To address the Charter the Committee developed a set of Planning Principles to inform the recommendations of the Committee to the Board. The following principles were adopted by and guide the Committee:

  • ORCID’s membership and fees model should maximize equitable international participation in, and use of, ORCID, whilst ensuring prudent financial sustainability of the ORCID organization.
    • Prudent financial sustainability will require ORCID to maintain a buffer of at least three months of operating expenses and in addition, generate a surplus to allow necessary ongoing investment and eventual payback of start-up loans.
    • The current annual cap of a maximum 3% fee increase, as detailed in existing agreements, should be maintained where the fee type/band remains the same.
    • The membership and fee model should encourage the establishment of active consortia and the consortia fee bands should incentivize consortia to grow in size without compromising Principle 1.

6.   Meetings and Quorum

The Committee will strive to establish monthly meetings. The committee is supported by ORCID staff, who schedule meetings, develop meeting agendas with the chair, and maintain meeting minutes. Meetings may be conducted in person, by phone or video conference. A quorum shall consist of the majority of Committee members.

7. Committee membership

2023: Lori Schultz (Chair), Nicolas Fressengeas, Gregory Gordon, Kalynn Kennon, Janet Remmington, Jesse Xiao, Roger Wood (external member)

2022: Alison Mitchell (Chair), Clare Appavoo, Paul Gemmill, Lori Schultz, Daisy Selematsela, Jesse Xiao Heath Marks (external member), Britta Dreyer (external member)

2021 Committee: Alison Mitchell (Chair), Clare Appavoo, Paul Gemmill, Daniel Hook (Treasurer), Daisy Selematsela, Heath Marks

2020 Committee: Alison Mitchell (Chair), Daniel Hook, Daisy Selematsela

2019 Committee: Linda O’Brien (Chair), Daniel Hook, Salvatore Mele, Ed Pentz