OpenAR Collective

Participate

Join the Collective

There are two ways to stand with the mission: membership for individuals, and Mission Supporter status for organizations. Both are free, and neither is available for purchase at any price. Nothing the Foundation publishes requires either one to access.

For individuals

Membership

Membership is recognition that you are part of the Foundation's community. It is free forever, requires no dues or contribution of any kind, and is open to anyone professionally engaged with the accounts receivable and debt collection industry.

Members receive a member number and access to the Foundation's verified practitioner community, including the members-only areas of the Foundation's Discord server. Members are also included in the Foundation's members-only email updates, which you can leave at any time without affecting your membership. Membership gives you no vote and no governance role, and the Foundation does not publish a list of members.

The Foundation confirms your email address and reviews your stated employer or affiliation before admitting you. That step verifies that you are who you say you are. It is not a screening for favored participants.

The Foundation will never sell your information, and will not disclose it to third parties except as required by law or as necessary to operate the program.

Apply for membership

For organizations

Mission Supporter

Organizations participate by signing the Mission Supporter Statement of Support: a public statement that the organization supports the Foundation's charitable mission. That is all it does. Signing costs nothing and carries no financial commitment of any kind, now or ever.

Mission Supporters are listed on the Foundation's public roster, in alphabetical order, on identical terms, with no tiers. Listing is not a review, approval, or endorsement by the Foundation, and signing does not make an organization a member, partner, affiliate, or sponsor.

The affirmation concerns the Foundation's charitable mission and nothing else. Your organization will never be asked to take a position on industry practices, regulation, or litigation as a condition of participation.

The Foundation will never sell your organization's information, and will not disclose it to third parties except as required by law or as necessary to operate the program.

Sign the Statement of Support

What happens when you join

Membership is reviewed by a person, not granted automatically. Here is the whole process.

  1. 1

    You apply

    The form asks for your name, email address, employer or affiliation, and professional role. It takes a couple of minutes.

  2. 2

    The Foundation checks your details

    Your email address is confirmed and your stated employer or affiliation is reviewed. This usually takes a few days.

  3. 3

    You receive your member number

    Approval arrives by email with your member number and a link to connect your Discord account. You are added to the members-only email list at the same time, and you can leave it whenever you like.

  4. 4

    You connect Discord

    That link signs you in through Discord and adds you to the Foundation's server with your name and access already set, so there is nothing to wait for. If you do not have a Discord account, you can create one along the way.

What members agree to

These standards apply wherever the Foundation convenes people, including the Discord server, webinars and workshops, meetups and conferences, code repositories, and mailing lists.

  • Real names. Members take part under their own names. On the Discord server your nickname is set to match your application, and only a moderator can change it. Practitioners speak more frankly when they know who is in the room, and that is what the verification step protects.
  • No consumer information. Never share a consumer's personal or account information in a Foundation space, whether or not you believe it has been anonymized. The same applies to any data, code, documentation, or examples you contribute.
  • Antitrust. Many members compete with one another. Foundation spaces are not used to discuss or agree on prices, fees, rates, terms of service, allocation of markets or customers, or refusal to deal with any business. If a discussion approaches those subjects, end your participation in it and notify a moderator or the Foundation. The full Antitrust Policy sets out the detail.
  • No soliciting. Vendors are welcome as practitioners. Commercial solicitation is not permitted, no Foundation space is sponsored, and no one can buy visibility.

Good-faith criticism of the Foundation, its board, its software, its published positions, or its governance is never a violation of these standards, and it will never affect your participation. The complete terms are in the Community Programs and Standards Policy.

New to Discord?

Many members are. Your welcome email includes a walkthrough, and people in the community are glad to help you find your way around.

You do not need any of this to use our work

Everything the Foundation publishes is free on this website, with no account, no membership, and no sign-in. Membership adds the peer community, nothing more.