Being a member of the Bebras initiative for a country essentially involves the following two duties: organizing the national Bebras challenge in the country, and contributing to the International Task Workshop.
Bebras members are organizations that are involved with informatics and education. It is their common goal to promote computer science and computational thinking by organizing a challenge with both demanding and attractive tasks.
The first step to join the Bebras initiative is to apply for membership, with the intention of representing a new country in the Bebras community as provisional member. If you are uncertain whether you are strong enough to go on your own, you are encouraged to join forces with other organizations, in order to finally submit a joint application. Once every year, early in November, the steering committee of the Bebras community (the Bebras Board) evaluates new applications. If accepted, the applying organization(s) will be invited to send delegates to the next International Task Workshop, which usually takes place in May. Also, provisional member status will allow you to get access to the Bebras task repository and get a better feeling for Bebras tasks.
Being provisional member, you are already expected to contribute to the work of the Bebras community: by submitting task proposals, by working on task proposals at the International Task Workshop, and by setting up the Bebras challenge in your country. This may be a trial challenge at first, with only a few selected schools participating, but should have the potential to be organized nation-wide. You are invited to co-operate with Bebras members from other countries: on finalizing tasks, on using an online system for running your challenge, and so on.
After two or at most four years, provisional member may apply for full membership. This second application is reviewed and decided on by all current full Bebras member organizations. They will check on your activities and contributions during your time as provisional member. In particular, the national Bebras challenge should be in line with the statutes of the Bebras community: It should be offered nation-wide, to a variety of ages, as a non-profit offering.
Member organizations are required to regularly report about their activities, by submitting statistics to the Bebras Board and a report to the International Task Workshop. The Bebras community wants to make sure that all is going well and whether you may need support.
If you are interested in joining the Bebras Community, contact us via mail@bebras.org
