New Member BOF

What is a Debian Member?
 - https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMembership
 - includes a fancy lifecycle graph
 - not all contributors become members. Some contributors work for 10+ years
   before getting recognised (some even do not want to be members)

When should one apply to be a Maintainer or Member?
 - for Maintainer: when comfortable with packaging, and a sponsor is comfortable advocating
 - for Member:
   - uploading:     should be maintainer for six months (but exceptions are made)
   - non-uploading: when your ongoing contributions should be recognised
 - in all cases: there should be a body of work in Debian that can be reviewed
 - however, you do not need to know everything before applying. the application is also a learning journey
 - the key question is "do I know how to find answers, even if I don't know them yet?"
 
Experience
 - lots of delays involved by multiple people
   (arrrgh still)
   - front desk do chase NMs, but it's difficult to do that full time
   - encourage applicants to contact FD in the introductions mail?
     - at least in my process last summer, the introductory mail said:
         "I hope you have a good time, and if you need anything please mail nm@debian.org."
   - jmw tends to find 3 months is a normalish duration, though no stats to back it up