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There are four classes of membership:

•General Membership
This membership is offered to any organization supporting the development of the DOI System that is not a Registration Agency. It is subject to a signed agreement.
General membership is a pre-requisite for any organization applying to become a Registration Agency. If a General Member subsequently is appointed as a Registration Agency, their membership transfers from the General to the RA category.

•Registration Agency Membership
This membership is only available to organizations who have successfully undergone the process of becoming a Registration Agency (RA) (see Process of Becoming a Registration Agency).
The primary role of RAs is to provide services and applications to registrants by allocating DOI prefixes, registering DOI names and providing the necessary infrastructure to allow registrants to declare and maintain DOI metadata and DOI records. For more information about RAs, see DOI System Participants: Registration Agencies and Registrants.

•Charter Membership
This membership was initially established for founding the DOI Foundation and is only offered to organizations whose main activities are in the creation or production and dissemination of intellectual property. The DOI Board reserves the right to determine eligibility for the Charter membership category.

•Affiliate Membership
This membership is restricted to professional associations who have one or more of their current members in current membership of the DOI Foundation. Organizations outside this scope may be invited or admitted at the Board's sole discretion. Affiliate membership does not carry voting rights, and Affiliate members are not eligible for Board membership. Registration Agencies are not eligible for this category of membership.

General, Registration Agency and Charter members are entitled to vote in annual DOI Foundation's elections within their own category of membership (There are no differences in member rights and benefits between Charter and General.). Affiliate membership does not carry voting rights.

More information is available on the membership classes on the DOI web site.