Hmmm ... without putting too much thought into it, my feelings are squarely with Hugh in worrying about it, and squarely with Martin in not doing anything (more) about it. That is, all the pieces needed are already present: * Council can invite a particular individual to the e-mail list or to a specific discussion at will; * Council can invite particular individuals to be committers to the SVN (or GIT) repository at will; * Council can request permission from the Board to have a particular individual present at a face-to-face meeting -- unless we were already over-budget, it's hard to imagine the Board saying no; * Having assigned these privileges, Council could revoke them (although it might be a politically charged move) at will. All that said, it might be nice to have a title for such individuals. I believe we called Lou an "invited expert". If and when we find the people we're inviting to help out are turning us down, we can think about titles and rewards (like waved membership fee). Personally, I don't think that's going to happen for a long time, if at all.