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There are many different types of roles that add to the mixture of Simple Machines, and they all
must work together for this organization to thrive. This section highlights the different roles you
are likely to encounter, and how they fit into the overall picture of Simple Machines.
==Simple Machines - Organization Members==
Members of the SMF project may become members of the Simple Machines organization, once they are accepted by the board of directors.  In addition, the organization has service teams, including the site, server, and marketing teams. In the future, other software development projects may join the NPO, and their members may become NPO members. Some NPO members do not belong to any of the NPO's service or project teams.

All regular members of the organization must pay annual dues, or, in lieu of dues, perform volunteer service for the NPO or its teams. All regular members may vote in the annual elections, and in any other polls the organization may conduct.  

If the contributing members leave teams, cease performing volunteer service, and/or cease paying dues, they will become emeritus members. These emeritus members may participate in discussions, but may not vote.

The organization bylaws stipulate that the ratio of non-contributing members to contributing members of the organization must not exceed 30%.  If the ratio ever exceeds 30%, or if the addition of a non-contributing member would cause the ratio by 30%, no non-contributing members may be added until such time as adding a non-contributing member would not cause this ratio to exceed 30%.

==Simple Machines - Board of Directors==
The members of the board of directors are elected to 2-year terms.  Elections for approximately half of the seats are held every year, in June, by a vote of all voting members of the organization. Once the board has been elected, they decide among themselves who will fulfill the roles of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.  The Board of Directors is responsible for making sure that the organization's bills are paid and other obligations are satisfied.  The Board of Directors may, from time to time, appoint members to carry out some of the duties of the organization.

==Simple Machines LLC==
From October 23rd 2006 until 2011, Simple Machines was a Limited Liability Company registered in the state of Arizona.  During 2010 and 2011, the Simple Machines NPO took on the responsibilities of the LLC, and in 2011, the LLC completed a merge with the NPO and was dissolved. The Simple Machines NPO has taken on all of the LLC's assets, liabilities, and business responsibilities. The Simple Machines LLC no longer exists. Some members of the Simple Machines LLC have become members of the Simple Machines NPO.

==SMF Project==

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The people behind the Simple Machines Forum project are a diverse group of individuals who, in their free time, combine their effort to help make Simple Machines Forum what it is today. Each team member is a volunteer who has agreed to donate their time and efforts to help improve Simple Machines’ products and services. Team members have different skills, and work on different parts of the project.

This project was founded by and for people looking to develop their skills as well as themselves, and this is reflected in the project's core values. We seek to foster adherence to these core values as we help and encourage others and provide opportunities for growth, development and learning.

The SMF project structure is divided into several smaller teams, each responsible for a different area of the project’s success, and they may have additional teams of community contributors they work with. At the time of this writing, these areas are:
* Development
* Customization
* Documentation
* Localization
* Support

==SMF Friends==
Anyone who had a lot of influence in the early years of the project (E.g. Zef Hemel), or any former team member is listed as a friend of SMF. These individuals have a lot of knowledge about the history of SMF, and many of them know a lot about the code. Many of them check in from time to time on the Friends board, and are available and interested in providing experience, knowledge and advice. Some friends have left in order to take on new challenges. Others have left the team because of a lack of time, and may return to the team in the future.

==Charter Members==
Charter Members have signed up for an annual subscription.  They have demonstrated that they believe in our success enough to make a financial contribution.  The money they contribute is important to the financial health of the project. Charter members have a private section on the community forums, and are given a higher priority for support, via the HelpDesk system.

Charter Members are our primary advocates outside of SMF circles, and some of our charter members are competent installers and programmers. Others are website owners who understand that they don’t have the skills to built their site, and who appreciate our technical expertise and our experience with the software. In all cases, their feedback is relevant for the project growth.

==Advertisers==
Most advertisers on the SMF site are owners of hosting companies or software companies who
advertise to web masters and website owners.

If you ever elect to use an advertiser’s products or services, please take the time to provide them
with a testimonial and a comment to let them know that their contributions to SMF yielded them
new business, and to help them understand we appreciate their patronage.

The Simple Machines marketing team handles all requests from advertisers.

==Competitors==
There should be friendly competition between us and the developers of other forum software. We should all be able to learn from the good points of other team's designs and implementation. And we should be able to keep the conversation productive and civil.

With the new license adopted for SMF 2.0, we have a new kind of competition -- forks of SMF. These modified versions of the Simple Machines forum are written by developers who are looking for a challenge, or who want to try taking the SMF code in a direction different from what the project has chosen. Discussions of pros and cons of these choices and implementations could grow heated, but should remain civil and friendly. Some of the best SMF talent will choose to do some work on a fork at some point, and the project can learn from the experiments of fork authors.

==Redistributors==
Anyone is permitted to redistribute SMF 2.0, as long as they follow the licensing agreement. Any requests for interpretation of the license agreement should be directed to the SMF project manager, developers, or Simple Machines marketing team.

Anyone who wishes to distribute earlier versions of SMF must have written permission from the Simple Machines organization.  All inquiries about redistributing earlier versions of SMF should be directed to the organization.
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