Finally getting a handle on this job, which has changed quite a bit since the last time I blogged. Ably assisted by the nimble-brained and service-minded Roelof Kotze, he and I are now Membership. As anyone who has had a hitch in their membership process knows, Roelof is the Member and Community Support staff, who works to improve and automate our processes and handle applicant difficulties. He is also the person who answers info@symbian.org, and the human being at the other end of the online Contact Us form. If you want to give him a kick, send us a message and start with “Hey, Roelof”.

My role has two halves that fit together nicely: Member Acquisition and Member Programs. As Member Programs, the job is simple: create programs for members that increase their revenues. We’ve been on this for a month, and I’m happy to say that a basic structure for the initial Web-based programs we will be offering is now in place. We’ve begun implementation, and we plan for the programs to roll out over the next three to four months.

The Member Acquisition part now becomes simple. We figure out what kinds of non-member companies would benefit from the programs, and ask them if they want to join.

But I highlighted initial programs because we’re not done looking for clever ideas that will make you money. We need you for that.

To give you an idea of how you can be part of the process, I’ll describe the event that resulted in two of the programs. On Towel Day, while my colleagues Lars and John were on the lower deck of the boat talking to the members who are contributors to the Symbian platform, I was on an upper deck talking to the rest of the Finnish members (and one cheerful Polish bloke who had been seconded to his company’s Finnish office). They all turned out to be providers of Symbian-based training, technical support and design services.

When I asked these members what they most needed from Symbian, they said “Visibility. Both visibility of our companies in the mobile community and visibility into what projects the community are working on.” We thought those were excellent objectives; the program that will help services providers with the first kind of visibility will be rolling out in a week or so. The other, more ambitious one will take a while longer, and we intend for it to benefit the entire community.

(If you want assistance organizing a community event like Towel Day, let us know.)

So here’s how you can contribute. First, keep in mind that almost all our programs have to be low touch (a service available to all members, usually accessible through the Web), because there are a lot of you and Roelof and I are only two. Then tell me what you want – what you really, really want.