All sponsors receive:

• Appropriate number of transferable Employee Memberships


• Recognition plaque/certificate


• Recognition on the CLUE website

Bronze Sponsorship

Dues: $750(new), $650(renewal)

• 4 Employee Memberships


• Recognition plaque/certificate


• Recognition on the CLUE website

Silver Sponsorship

Dues: $3,250(new), $3,000(renewal)

• 15 Employee Memberships


• Opportunity to include brochures in Member “Welcome kits”


• Rotating logo on CLUE web pages


• Descriptive company description on CLUE website

The following is a list of CLUE annual dues and member benefits. The list of benefits is intended to grow as we are able to partner with other groups and sponsors. All dues for Canadian residents are subject to GST/HST as applicable.

I have been invited by the executive to be a policy coordinator, working for CLUE in Ottawa. My focus will be on the federal government and federal policy, but will also be collaborating with other CLUE members on other levels of government as well.

As an exhibitor at the LinuxWorld show and conference in April, CLUE can make available free show passes (PDF format) to all our members and supporters. Just follow the link and print out the pass (or just follow its instructions if you are registering online).

CLUE is a virtual organization with supporters and members across the country. However, as in all groups there is a core of people who help bring it all together.

(For bios, click on the person's name)

1. Is CLUE a charity?
   No, CLUE is a Canadian federally-incorporated not-for-profit corporation but it is not registered as a charity. Doing so would be inconsistent with our aims of policy advocacy. As a result, we cannot issue charitable-donation tax receipts; however, CLUE memberships may qualify as an acceptable business expense for tax purposes. Check with your tax advisors to see if this applies to you.


2. Is CLUE a user group?
   Not in the same way as most conventional computer user groups. CLUE does not hold regular meetings, run regular public education events or distribute software. We work with and support affiliated groups, with which we work together to support FOSS at both the local and national levels.

The existence of a vibrant and active community has been critical to the worldwide growth in the use of open source software such as Linux, Apache, Firefox, and Jboss. The acceptance of open source distribution and development models into the IT mainstream has been the result of hard work by a combination of grassroots volunteers and commercial support organizations. Most of the technical obstacles to using open source have been eliminated, as people and organizations within the public and private sectors have discovered its many advantages.

Canada is home to many open source software projects, as well as a thriving community of users, academics, developers and vendors. The country has the potential to develop open source based IT into a truly home-grown infrastructure which encourages innovation, creates jobs, and offers export opportunities to serve the world's growing demand for open source expertise.

The Goals of CLUE, in the support of its vision and mission, are to:

1. Create a membership organization that represents individual, organizational and corporate members of the free and open source software community;


2. Advance the interests of the community in the development of public policy at the national, provincial and local levels;


3. Support programs and activities which encourage greater understanding and appreciation of the community's values within the general public as well as the private and public sectors;


4. Enhance communications and resource-sharing within the community;

At a meeting of its Board of Directors on January 18, CLUE voted to update its mandate:

The Vision of CLUE is to nurture a Canadian Information Technology environment which promotes collaborative innovation as well as open standards and the rights of consumers.

The Mission of CLUE is to promote the use and development of free, open source software, by providing a public voice to the community of its Canadian users, developers and supporters. CLUE will enhance this community's ability to share resources, define standards, and promote its values within Canadian society.