Onboarding New Project Members

What is Onboarding

Onboarding is the process of welcoming a new member into the project to help them take advantage of their membership benefits and to feel engaged in the project community.

When does Onboarding happen?

Onboarding happens after a Participation Agreement is fully executed.

  graph LR;
    A[Membership Joining Process] --> B[[Fully Executed Membership Agreement]]
    B --> C{My Project & Linux Foundation}
    C -->|Yes| D[Onboarding for both]
    C ---->|No| E[Only My Project]

The Linux Foundation Membership

For a company to join a direct-fund project, it must first join the Linux Foundation. A company only needs to join as a member of the Linux Foundation once to have access to joining among hundreds of Linux Foundation projects. Most companies join at the Linux Foundation Silver Membership level. (Do we need to explain direct funded projects vs. foundations?)

If yours is the first project they are joining and they are joining as a Linux Foundation Silver member at the same time, then you are responsible for onboarding to your project and to the Linux Foundation. The LF Sales Team or the LF Executive Director typically onboard companies joining at the Gold and Platinum levels of the Linux Foundation. A company can join your project and the Linux Foundation at different levels. For example, they can join your project at a Platinum level (if applicable) and join the Linux Foundation at a Silver level. And visa versa - join your project at a Silver Level and LF at the Platinum level.

Onboarding to your project

Check the SFDC reports (i.e. reports generated from our CRM system of record - Salesforce) to identify the voting representative, technical reps, marketing, pr, billing, etc.
Update the LFX Organization Dashboard, in the employees section, to record key contacts.
Check the PCC (Project Control Center) and update, as needed, Committees. Committees are often linked to existing email lists and meetings, managed by the PCC.
Update other non-PCC commmittees, lists, calendar invites, Slack, Discord etc. as needed.
Send a slide deck with project and project benefits information, if applicable. Project benefits are listed on the LFX Dashboard as well, but you might want to go into more detail.
Onboarding meetings with appropriate stakeholders are also not uncommon. Projects may choose to manage different levels of membership differently. For example, personalized meetings with Platinum members compared to electronic sharing with Silver members (as an example only - membership levels and benefits vary greatly by project.)

Onboarding to the Linux Foundation

You can download a PDF of the the Linux Foundation benefits on the “Join” page. Or, some project administrators create a slide in their project onboarding deck summarizing the benefits and indicating upcoming key events (e.g. the exclusive Members Summit.) Check with your fellow project administrators for examples.