We don't take applications and we charge nothing to join. A seat is earned when the independent Certification Center examines your documented contribution to the field and confirms it. Here's exactly how it works.
Two reasons. First, impartiality — if members judged the people applying to join their own field, admission would turn into politics. Keeping assessment outside the association removes that conflict of interest.
Second, we simply have no apparatus for it: no dues, no staff, no paid assessors. So assessment is handled by an independent Certification Center whose only job is to examine evidence — consistently, across every field.
The Center reads your evidence against the same ten criteria used across every GAPOA community. At least four must be confirmed.
If your field has no community yet, get your Certificate of Contribution first, then gather founders. A small group of confirmed members can petition the umbrella to open a community, draft its bylaws, and elect its first organisers.
Link it to your account and your seat opens immediately.