1. Membership Fee:  The membership fee is $9 per year. The fee keeps the lights on while also being the least invasive path for  human verification. It is required to protect our Google Groups distribution system from automated bots as well as accurate measurement of active interest year over year.   As of now there is no auto-renewal. If you like, you pay again next year. You get lifetime access to any member resources you purchase via downloading whats there when your membership expires and or via renewing. If you don't want to renew one year but do the following, when you do the current version of any purchased member resources are available to you again with no additional fees. 

2. Google Email Address: Your membership ID must be a standard @gmail.com or a Google Workspace email address. We use Google Groups to grant access to the documents and google sites.   

3. Chrome Browser: You must be logged into a Google Chrome browser with your registered email address to view the resources. Think of the Chrome browser like Adobe Reader—it is the required software to view our living documents.

Why are we doing it this way with the Google Platform Focus?

Google Docs, Sheets, and Sites provide a massively powerful publishing platform. It allows us to edit and update curriculum "on the fly" without requiring you to constantly download new, static PDFs. We are utilizing this platform as a direct, live publishing network.

Why the $9 Membership Fee given Google has secure networks?

Because we distribute valuable curriculum, our systems are targeted by automated scrapers, card-testing bots, and spam swarms. The $9 fee acts as a hard filter to ensure only humans enter the system and absorb the advanced material quickly.

This fee also allows us to provide free and fee based advanced material that should come with some cost, while maximizing your privacy. We do not use third-party membership software, tracking cookies, or tracking pixels. We only know who our members are and what they request. We have no visibility into when, how, or where you download or read the material.  

What about Countries where $9 is a bigger deal to aspiring students globally who need this most?

Not every student has to have Membership access to enjoy the Free to Members curriculum. Our goal is maximum distribution. There are many ways to achieve that, but we have to do it in a responsible manner that protects our infrastructure and our copyrights. The Members Only Free documents can  be distributed freely in a personal network for sharing. The paid documents should be handled differently. 

1. The Membership Fee:  You pay an inital $9 fee via our secure checkout. This establishes your human membership and blocks bots.

2. The Access PIN: Once paid, our system automatically issues a 3-digit Access PIN to associate with your email address. Think of this like the CVV security code on the back of a credit card. 

3. Accessing Member only resources:  When you want a Paid Member Resource  you will submit your verified Email and your 3-digit PIN. This pin may or may not be required for some of the Free to Member resources too (to be determined). 

4. Gaining Access to the Resource:  If your Email and PIN match our records, you will be provided with a secure payment link directly or via email. 

5. No Shopping Carts:  We do not currently use standard website shopping carts for paid resources. You request the item using your Email and PIN first and pay for items one at a time. 

The Membership Fee is for access to the documents and services offerred today, plus any and all changes, edits or updates for the next year -- assuming no changes in the google delivery technology we are using that might prevent the real time update systems found in their current offerings.