Paramedic Futures · The hub · Membership model in design
A standing room where paramedicine and the people building for it are both at the table
Paramedicine has no forum where the people who build technology and the paramedics who use it are in sustained contact. Conferences are annual and transactional. Procurement is adversarial and too late. Vendor advisory boards are chosen by the vendor. The Paramedic Futures hub is the alternative: a professional space where the field sets the agenda and companies are welcome in it on terms the field controls. The membership model is being designed now, in the open, and the questions still unanswered are on this page.
What the hub is
Two-sided by design. On one side, paramedics, paramedic service chiefs, medical directors, educators, researchers, regulators and professional association leaders. On the other, founders, technology companies, established vendors, investors, health systems and other organizations building or buying in this market.
They join for different reasons, and that is the point. Neither side gets what it needs from the other side’s absence.
The hub is Tier 3 of Paramedic Futures. Tier 1 is an independent panel review of a single product. Tier 2 is a negotiated partnership in which TPF may hold a stake. Tier 3 is the standing relationship underneath both, and it is the part that produces the shared reference work nobody currently funds.
Who should join the hub?
- Paramedics and other intended end users of paramedicine technology.
- Paramedic service chiefs and operational leaders, including from small, rural, frontier and Tribal services.
- Medical directors who approve the clinical workflows these products depend on.
- Educators, researchers, regulators, standards experts and professional association leaders.
- Founders, technology companies, established vendors, investors, health systems and other commercial organizations serving paramedicine.
Why paramedics and professional leaders participate
Not as an audience for vendors, and not as free product testers. As the people whose working knowledge determines whether any of this is worth building.
- A real voice in what gets built next, exercised before the assumptions harden.
- A route to put unmet operational and clinical needs in front of people able to work on them.
- Working groups and standards development, where the detail actually gets decided.
- Early visibility into emerging tools and field pilots, so the first time you see something is not in a procurement document.
- Direct conversation with the people building, while the product can still change.
- Peer relationships across services, disciplines and regions.
- A way to make sure new technology works in real settings, including rural, frontier, Tribal, austere and resource-constrained systems, rather than only in well-funded urban ones.
- Recognition as a contributor to the future of the profession.
Individual membership is $50 a year, which is professional dues rather than a price on access. Working group participation costs nothing beyond that. Contributor is a role within individual membership, not a separate paid category.
Why commercial organizations become members
There is a straightforward business case, and it is not access to buyers.
- Continuous, structured conversation with the field instead of one feedback session and a guess.
- A better working model of paramedic workflows, agency constraints, buyer priorities, implementation barriers and where needs are emerging.
- Earlier signal on standards, interoperability expectations, evaluation requirements and other changes that move this market.
- A seat in appropriate working groups, including on precompetitive problems that cost every company in the market money to solve separately.
- Relationships with paramedics, operational leaders, researchers and other builders.
- Lower product and market risk, because real-world perspective arrives before the build rather than after the pilot fails.
- A way to find collaborators, candidate pilot sites, research questions and genuine gaps in the market.
- Visible standing as an organization investing in the field’s shared infrastructure, within recognition rules defined carefully enough that the recognition means something.
What a membership fee does not buy
Stated plainly, because the value of the hub to the field depends on it.
- Procurement access, or an introduction into one.
- Customer leads.
- Endorsement, certification or validation.
- Preferential treatment of any kind.
- Influence over what TPF advises an agency.
- Control of an open standard.
- A softer panel review, or selection into a Tier 1 cohort.
- Exclusive access to work that belongs to the profession. Open work publishes to members and non-members at the same time.
How both sides gain from being in the same room
Founders get the thing money cannot reliably buy: honest working knowledge from people with no reason to flatter them. The field gets influence at the design stage instead of a vendor demo after the specification is written. Both get a shared reference layer, published openly, that neither would build alone.
What keeps the arrangement honest is that the field’s participation is not for sale and a company’s money does not buy standing. A member and a non-member get the same answer to the same question. TPF will say that to a paying member as readily as it says it here.
Annual dues
Membership categories and what they cost
Membership runs annually. Three categories, and a company’s dues depend on its size rather than on a flat rate, so that a two-person team can afford to be in the room alongside an established vendor.
$50 a year, or $25 for students
Paramedics and other individual professionals in and around paramedicine: paramedic service chiefs and operational leaders, medical directors, educators, researchers, regulators and professional association staff. Students and new graduates pay $25. If your service holds an institutional membership, you are covered by it at no cost to you.
$500 to $15,000 a year
Companies and other commercial entities. Five bands, from an unfunded startup at $500 to an organization above $10 million at $15,000. Each band includes a number of named seats. Full table below.
$150 to $2,500 a year
Paramedic services and public agencies, universities, professional associations, health systems and other public-interest organizations. A service membership covers every member of its staff, not a fixed number of seats. Priced on size, and structured so a university or an agency can charge it to a federal award. Full table below.
Commercial bands
| Band | Who it is for | Annual dues | Named seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | No institutional capital raised, and under $500,000 in trailing twelve-month revenue | $500 | 2 |
| Under $2 million | Funded or revenue-generating, below $2 million | $2,500 | 3 |
| $2 to $5 million | $2 million up to but not including $5 million | $5,000 | 5 |
| $5 to $10 million | $5 million up to but not including $10 million | $10,000 | 8 |
| Over $10 million | $10 million and above | $15,000 | 12 |
How a band is determined. By the greater of two figures: trailing twelve-month revenue, or cumulative capital raised to date. A well-funded company that has not yet earned revenue is not a startup for this purpose. Bands are self-certified at joining and at renewal. An organization that crosses a band during a term moves at renewal rather than mid-term, which keeps the administration simple and avoids arguments in the middle of a year.
What every band gets equally. Working group eligibility, standing in any discussion, and access to open work are identical across all bands and identical to what a non-member gets on the open work. Dues and named seats vary. Weight does not. A company that pays $15,000 is supporting the hub more than a company paying $500. It is not carrying more influence in it, and that is not a nicety: it is the reason paramedics will be in the room at all.
Institutional and supporting members
A paramedic service membership covers every member of its staff rather than a fixed number of seats. That is deliberate. Counting seats is administration nobody needs, and the service that most needs to be in the hub is the one that cannot send anyone anywhere, so the whole roster is the right unit.
| Organization | Annual dues | Who is covered |
|---|---|---|
| Paramedic service or public agency, under 10 field staff | $150 | All staff and active credentialed volunteers |
| 10 to 24 field staff | $250 | All staff and active credentialed volunteers |
| 25 to 99 field staff | $500 | All staff and active credentialed volunteers |
| 100 to 499 field staff | $1,000 | All staff and active credentialed volunteers |
| 500 or more field staff | $2,000 | All staff and active credentialed volunteers |
| University department, school or research centre | $500 | Ten named faculty or staff. Enrolled students join individually at the $25 student rate, or the department may fund student memberships |
| Professional association, or nonprofit serving paramedicine | $500 | Ten named staff or officers |
| Hospital or health system | $2,500 | Fifteen named staff |
Notes on the service bands. Field staff means paramedics and other credentialed field personnel, counted once, whether career, part-time or volunteer. A service staffed principally by volunteers is placed in the band that reflects its operating budget rather than its headcount, because a forty-volunteer service and a forty-paid-staff service are not the same organization. Tribal services, frontier services and single-station services are priced from the same table as everyone else; the table is already low enough at the bottom that no separate concession is needed. If dues are still the reason a service cannot join, write and say so.
Why service membership is priced well below the per-head individual rate. A nine-person service pays $150, under $17 a person against the $50 individual rate. That is intentional. The hub is worth more to paramedicine when a whole crew is in it than when one enthusiast is, and the services least able to fund participation are the ones whose absence damages the hub most.
For universities and public agencies: dues designed to be chargeable to a federal award
A university department or a grant-funded agency usually cannot join anything unless the dues survive a grants office. The hub is structured so they do.
Under the federal cost principles at 2 CFR 200.454, the cost of membership in a business, technical or professional organization is allowable, while membership in an organization whose primary purpose is lobbying is not. The Paramedic Foundation is a professional and technical organization. It is not a lobbying organization, and lobbying is not among its activities. Four design choices follow from that, and they are choices rather than accidents:
- No portion of dues funds lobbying. TPF does not lobby. Its public policy work is analysis, community education, stakeholder engagement and policy development, and it is named that way rather than loosely.
- No portion of dues funds hospitality or entertainment. Receptions, meals and social elements of a gathering are funded from sponsorship, never from dues. Entertainment costs are unallowable on a federal award under 2 CFR 200.438 unless the award specifically includes them, so keeping them out of dues keeps dues clean.
- The invoice says what a grants office needs to read. Every institutional invoice states that the charge is annual dues for membership in a professional and technical organization, the membership period it covers, that no portion is allocable to lobbying, and that no portion funds entertainment or hospitality.
- TPF invoices on institutional terms. Purchase orders accepted, net terms available, and the membership period can be aligned to a project period on request rather than to a calendar the grant does not follow.
None of that is a determination that dues are an allowable cost on any particular award. Allowability is decided by the awarding agency and the recipient’s own grants office against the terms of that award. What TPF undertakes is to make the paperwork straightforward and the facts verifiable.
Proposed, pending board approval
Sponsorship of the hub
Membership dues cover participation. Sponsorship funds the things dues do not stretch to: the annual gathering, the open reference work, and getting paramedics from small and rural services into the room. Sponsorship sits on top of membership rather than replacing it, and is open to commercial and institutional members in good standing.
The five levels and the amounts below are proposed and not yet adopted. Every benefit is designed so that sponsorship buys visibility and capacity, never standing.
| Level | Proposed annual amount | What it includes, in addition to the level below |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | $5,000 | Named acknowledgement on this page and in the annual report, with name, logo and a link. Two additional named seats. Recognition at the annual gathering |
| Silver | $10,000 | Two further named seats, four in total. A demonstration table at the annual gathering |
| Gold | $20,000 | Two further named seats, six in total. A hosted networking session at the annual gathering carrying the sponsor’s name, with three minutes of introductory remarks |
| Platinum | $35,000 | Four further named seats, ten in total. Five minutes of remarks rather than three. Named support of a working group, acknowledged in its outputs |
| Diamond | $60,000 | Six further named seats, sixteen in total. A substantive session slot at the annual gathering on a topic agreed with TPF. Named support of an open standard release or a published field report, acknowledged in its front matter |
Other sponsorship worth offering
Available at any level, and named separately from the ladder because each funds something specific that paramedicine currently goes without.
- The contributor participation fund. Travel, backfill and time cost for paramedics from small, rural, frontier and Tribal services to take part. This is the single most useful thing a sponsor can fund, because without it the hub fills with the services that have conference budgets and the field it most needs to hear from stays home.
- An open standard or reference release. Underwrite a specific piece of open work, acknowledged in the front matter, published openly to members and non-members alike.
- A field report or survey of the profession. Underwrite the research, acknowledged, with the design and findings TPF’s own.
- Educator, student and new-graduate seats. Fund individual memberships for people entering the profession or teaching it.
- The annual gathering itself, or a named component of it: the venue, the recording and publication of sessions, or hospitality.
Rules that apply to every sponsorship
These are what make sponsorship worth having rather than worth suspecting.
- No category exclusivity. No sponsor can buy the exclusion of a competitor from the hub, from a working group, or from the gathering. This is a common sponsorship ask and the answer is always no.
- Speaking time is a contribution, not a pitch. Topics are agreed with TPF in advance. No product promotion, no pricing, no comparative claims about competitors.
- Named support is acknowledgement, not editorial control. A sponsor of a working group or an open standard has no say in its content, its conclusions, or its timing, and no seat by right beyond ordinary member eligibility.
- Sponsorship does not touch Tier 1. It has no effect on selection into a panel review, on who sits on a panel, or on what a panel says. It may, if the board so decides, be credited against the fee for a place won on merit; it can never buy the place.
- Sponsorship does not touch TPF’s advice. No sponsor gets procurement access, leads, endorsement, preferential treatment, or influence over anything TPF says to an agency. Where TPF advises on a procurement, a sponsor relationship with a bidder is disclosed to that agency first.
- Recognition is value-neutral. Name, logo, location and a link. TPF does not publish qualitative or comparative claims about a sponsor’s products, and a sponsor may not describe its support as endorsement, certification or validation.
What is settled, and what is still open
Four questions were put to TPF’s board. Three now have answers, published here rather than held until everything is finished.
Settled in principle
- Annual, not per event. The hub is sustained participation, and charging per event would recreate the problem conferences already have.
- Paramedics and other individuals pay $50 a year. Set at the level of professional dues rather than at the level of access. A company is not buying a room full of people who paid to be accessible; individual members are joining a professional body that happens to include the companies building for them.
- Commercial entities pay, and pay according to size. A flat rate would either price out the two-person team building the most interesting thing in the field or charge an incumbent a rounding error for identical standing. Five bands, self-certified, on the greater of revenue or capital raised.
- Institutional membership covers a whole service, from $150 for a service under ten staff, and is structured so a university or a grant-funded agency can charge it to a federal award.
- Students and new graduates pay $25.
Still open
- A hardship or retired rate below $50, and whether one is needed now that a service membership covers its whole roster.
- Whether the membership year runs on TPF’s fiscal year of July 1 to June 30 or from the join date, and how a part year is prorated.
- Sponsorship amounts and benefit details, which are proposed above and not adopted.
- Recognition wording: exactly what a member or sponsor may say, and how TPF acknowledges them.
- How a company that is also a paramedic service is classified, which is a real and growing case.
Dues and sponsorship amounts do not take effect until TPF’s advisers have completed the tax and exempt-purpose review that any membership and sponsorship income requires of a 501(c)(3). If you have run a membership or sponsorship program in a professional or standards body, or paid into one and found it worth it or not, that experience is directly useful right now.
How to join, or to shape it
One message to info@paramedicfoundation.org, with the subject line for the route you want.
Paramedics, service leaders, medical directors, educators, researchers
Subject line: Paramedic Futures hub contributor. Tell TPF what you do, where, and what is not working in the tools you have. If there is a specific problem you would want a working group to take on, name it. No fee under the current design.
Companies, vendors, investors, health systems and institutions
Subject line: Paramedic Futures commercial membership. Tell TPF what your organization builds, sells or buys in paramedicine, roughly how large it is, and what you would want from sustained contact with the field. You will be told where the model stands rather than given a number that might change. If you have a view on the four questions above, include it.
The other two routes into Paramedic Futures, an independent panel review and a vested partnership, are on the Paramedic Futures page.
Straight answers
Questions about the hub
What does membership cost?
An individual pays $50 a year, or $25 as a student or new graduate. A paramedic service pays from $150 a year and that covers its whole staff. A university department or a professional association pays $500, a hospital or health system $2,500. A company pays between $500 and $15,000 depending on its size. Sponsorship of the hub is separate and sits on top of membership. Every amount is subject to board approval and to a tax and exempt-purpose review that TPF’s advisers have not yet completed, so treat them as the intended schedule rather than an invoice.
Do paramedics have to pay?
$50 a year, at the level of professional dues rather than a price on access. If your service holds an institutional membership, you are already covered and it costs you nothing. A company is not buying a room full of people who paid for the privilege of being accessible; individual members are joining a professional body that happens to include the companies building for them.
Can my service pay for the whole crew instead?
Yes, and it is cheaper per person than individual memberships. Institutional membership is priced by field staff count and covers every member of staff and every active credentialed volunteer, not a fixed number of seats. A nine-person service pays $150, which is under $17 a head against the $50 individual rate. A service staffed principally by volunteers is placed in the band that reflects its operating budget rather than its headcount.
Can a university or a grant-funded agency charge dues to a federal award?
The membership is built so that question has a clean answer. Under 2 CFR 200.454 the cost of membership in a business, technical or professional organization is allowable, while membership in an organization whose primary purpose is lobbying is not. TPF is a professional and technical organization and does not lobby. No portion of dues funds lobbying, and no portion funds hospitality or entertainment, which are handled through sponsorship instead. Institutional invoices state all of that along with the membership period, purchase orders are accepted, and the membership period can be aligned to a project period. Allowability on any particular award is still decided by the awarding agency and your own grants office, not by TPF.
I am a student. Is there a rate for me?
$25 a year, for anyone enrolled in a paramedic or related program and for the first year after initial credentialing. A university department holding an institutional membership can also fund student memberships directly, which is the easier route for a whole cohort.
What does sponsorship buy that membership does not?
Visibility and capacity. Acknowledgement with a name, logo and link, additional named seats, a demonstration table, a hosted networking session with a few minutes of remarks, and at the upper levels named support of a working group, an open standard release or a field report. What it never buys is standing: no category exclusivity, no editorial control over anything it supports, no effect on Tier 1 panel selection or on what a panel says, and no influence over what TPF tells an agency. Speaking time is a substantive contribution on a topic agreed with TPF, not a product pitch.
Will a larger company get more say than a small one?
No, and the structure is built to make that hard to drift. Dues, sponsorship amount, named seats and event visibility scale. Working group eligibility, weight in a discussion, and access to open work do not, at any band or any sponsorship level, and open work reaches non-members at the same time it reaches members. A company that pays more is supporting the hub more, not carrying more weight in it.
Is this a standards body?
Not in the formal sense, and TPF is careful about the word. The hub maintains a small set of open reference work and runs working groups on shared problems. Where a genuine standard is needed, the right home for it is usually an established standards organization, and part of the hub’s job is to get well-formed problems to those bodies rather than to duplicate them.
I work for a small rural service with no travel budget. Can I take part?
That is the participation the hub most needs and most easily loses, and the pricing is built around it: your service can cover its whole roster for $150, and sponsors can underwrite a contributor participation fund for travel, backfill and time. Dues were never the real barrier; unpaid time and no travel budget are. If you would take part given a format that worked for you, say what that format is, because the format is not settled and your answer would change it.
The membership model is not finished. That is the invitation.
Categories, levels, fees and the first working group priorities are all still open. If you are a paramedic with a problem worth solving, a service leader tired of software that arrives finished, or a company that would rather understand this field than guess at it, this is the moment your view actually changes the design.