Membership Requirements
PDES, Inc. members pay dues annually and participate in the consortium's technical activities. Specific requirements vary with the type and size of the member organization. The figure below summarizes financial and resource contribution requirements for each type of member. (Beginning with the 2004-2006 phase of work, PDES, Inc. has waived the membership fee requirement for companies with less than $50 million in revenue.) Note that the Industry category is sub-defined by size and type of business in order to allow for variations in the amount of annual dues, and the government organizations have the option of substituting additional labor resources for their annual membership dues. First-year membership dues are payable at the start of the member's term; the second and subsequent years' dues are payable on the anniversary of the start date.
The annual resource contribution is for member participation in STEP development, deployment, and implementation activities. As described in the PDES, Inc. Membership Agreement, the contributed staff hours must be aligned with the activities defined in the Technical Development Plan (TDP). The specific activities where a member's resources will contribute are determined when the member's representative on the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) or Executive Board discusses the organization's interests and priorities with the PDES, Inc. General Manager or designee and a mutually acceptable decision (based on priorities of both the member and PDES, Inc.) is reached. Member organizations that are STEP vendors and universities may satisfy up to half of their PDES, Inc. staff hour commitment by reporting their internal efforts to develop commercial STEP products or services; this work does not have to be directly related to a PDES, Inc. development or deployment activity. (Examples of hours that are admissible for this purpose include development of STEP translators, STEP viewers, or other software that supports STEP data exchange.) These staff hours are reported to WBS element 5.4, "Vendor Product Development." In the event of disagreement between the General Manager and member organization as to what types of product/service development can be charged to PDES, Inc., the issue is taken to the Executive Board for resolution. A summary of the STEP product development activity charged to WBS 5.4 is reported annually to the PDES, Inc. membership and the STEP community via the PDES, Inc. Annual Report. All member organizations are permitted to charge up to 10% of their staff hour requirement to WBS element 1.2, "Member Company Internal Support." Work that is admissible in this category includes Technical Team members' efforts to provide PDES, Inc. and STEP education within their organizations (e.g., through briefings to colleagues and higher level management). Staff hours that are not chargeable to WBS 1.2 include serving as the organization's representative on the Executive Board or Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). Throughout the phase of work, participants report their hours against specific Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) tasks defined in the Technical Development Plan for the phase of work (see the current Schedule in Appendix K ). At the end of a member's two-year membership period, PDES, Inc. management assesses the level of contribution. When the contribution differs from the amount required for the period, one of the following rules applies:
- For contribution greater than the required number of staff hours: The member may carry over up to 450 hours (three months) of the overage into the next phase of membership (i.e., the member's budget for the next two-year membership period is reduced by the number of hours carried over).
- For contribution less than the required number of hours: The member may make up the deficit in one of two ways: (1) contribute the additional staff hours by identifying additional activities during the phase of work that the organization and PDES, Inc. management agree are appropriate for submission; or (2) pay for the deficit as a cash contribution that is in compliance with the PDES, Inc. Membership Agreement. (The rate at the start of the current phase of work is $83.33 per hour, or $150,000 per year.)
Affiliates
There is one circumstance where it is possible for an organization that is not a PDES, Inc. member to participate in a project. Participants of an "Affiliated Project" may include non-members of PDES, Inc. as long as they are teaming partners of one or more PDES, Inc. members who participate in the same project. Affiliated projects in Next Generation STEP Deployment-Phase II include Systems Engineering and the CAx Implementor Forum (which occasionally hosts Implementors' Roundtable meetings where PDES, Inc. member organizations and their key software vendors can discuss important STEP implementation issues; the Roundtables facilitate technical and business exchanges relevant to PDES, Inc. pilot projects and production deployment activities). To gain approval to participate, the non-member organization generally signs a Project Agreement that identifies the participant's contribution to the project (in funding and/or resource hours) and signifies agreement that all deliverables may be provided to PDES, Inc. members and that the PDES, Inc. Board and TAC will have some degree of oversight responsibility for the project.
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Membership Information:
For more information about PDES, Inc., contact
Becky Imhoff, PDES, Inc. Operations Manager, at (843) 760-3217 or becky.imhoff@scra.org
