What membership supports

Membership carried for others

At least a tenth of what membership brings in is set aside so that membership itself can be provided to those who cannot carry it. Three things are counted there, and all of them are written to the same ledger:

• Sponsored memberships. A membership carried on behalf of a member, at no charge to them and with no obligation created by it.
• The steward fee waiver. Stewards are not charged for their own membership while they are actively serving. The waiver begins when a steward role is confirmed and ends when that role ends — it follows the role itself, not a separate setting anyone can switch on. It covers only a steward’s own individual membership tier. It never covers a business membership or any business listing fee, and it grants no preference of any kind: listings, search, matching, verification, disputes, and Corner provision all work exactly the same for a steward as for anyone else.
• Hardship exemptions. Where a member cannot carry their membership, a steward may raise an exemption with a written reason, and a second steward has to agree to it before it takes effect. It can apply to any membership tier. A member owes nothing for having received it, and nothing about their standing in the Storehouse changes — an exemption is never visible to other members and grants no preference anywhere.

Every one of these, granted or ended, is recorded in the same provision ledger, counted against the same 10% commitment, and disclosed in the annual aggregate below in the same way. Nothing about them is held back to be discovered later.