Any legal entity can become a corporate member. In doing so, it promotes the goals of the GfSE and supports the GfSE in fulfilling its purpose.  

Unlike personal membership, corporate membership is limited to the GfSE. Companies and institutions can also become directly involved with INCOSE as members of the INCOSE Corporate Advisory Board (CAB). Further information on this can be found on the INCOSE website. 

The following companies are already corporate members of GfSE: (Link)

Advantages for corporate members (Flyer corporate member)

The organization:

• Representation in the GfSE
  Corporate members are represented in the association by an authorized representative. Each corporate member has a simple voting right in the general meeting, which can only be exercised by the authorized representative. 
• Contact with other companies involved in SE and the German-speaking SE community in general
• Opportunity to actively network with industries in which SE is already well established (e.g. aerospace, defense, automotive industry)
• Participation in knowledge transfer between industry, institutions and universities, e.g. in the SE Best Practice Industry Circle (SE-BPC)
• Access to the homepage of GfSE and its international parent organization INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering) with numerous high-quality pages and publications
• Access to training events, seminars, conferences, and presentations
• Opportunity to participate in and influence standardization via GfSE (DIN/ISO, OMG)
• Participation in working groups and user forums on current systems engineering topics (e.g. SysML, MBSE, Safety)
• Participation and co-determination in the organization of the GfSE and its internal activities and objectives
• Familiarization with established systems engineering processes and standards

The authorized representative:

• Becomes a personal member of INCOSE

Every employee:

• Discounted access to GfSE events subject to membership fees, like ordinary members 
• Optional inclusion in the GfSE information distribution list (newsletter)
• Active participation in one or more GfSE working groups (nomination by the authorized representative). The decision on the appointment lies with the GfSE Board. 

Membership fees - based on the number of employees (status as of: November 18, 2022): 

Number of Employees		Yearly Membership fees in €
Colleges (Institutes) / non-profit associations			250.-
Companies	- up to 10 employeees		250.-
	- 11 up to 100		350.-
	- 101 zp to 500		700.-
	- 501 up to 2000		1,500.-
	- 2001 up to 5000		2,500.-
	- 5001 up to 10000		5,000.-
	- 10001 and more		10,000.-

• All employees who work in GfSE's area of operation must be included.
• A corporate membership can also be entered into for sub-organizations, as long as they operate as an independent legal entity.

If you would like to join the GfSE, please use the membership forms.

If there are no organization-specific stipulations that preclude this, we would like to ask you to pay by direct debit. Otherwise, payment will be made by invoice. Please use the linked direct debit application form for applications, changes or cancelations.

Please inform us in written form of any change of the authorized representative. Membership fees already paid to INCOSE on behalf of the previous authorized representative cannot be refunded. The authorized representative remains a member of INCOSE until the end of the membership year. Therefore, in the event of a change during a membership year, an additional membership fee will be charged in the amount of the membership fee for personal INCOSE members valid for the remaining period.

Associated persons

We have expanded our range of services for our corporate members:

• As a corporate member, you will be able to register some of your employees as so-called “associated persons” with the GfSE free of charge in future.
• This will give these employees access to GfSE and INCOSE publications and, as GfSE members, they can also actively participate in GfSE working groups. 
• However, unlike personal members, “associated persons” do not have the same benefits, e.g. with SE-Zert, nor do they have the right to vote. The details are still being worked out by the GfSE Board and Advisory Board. 

How many employees can be registered as “associated persons” free of charge? 

This depends on your corporate membership (see above). We offer you the following key: 

Employee corp. Member GfSE	Fee € / year	Included number „associated  persons“
- 500	700	0
501 - 2000	1,500	10
2001 - 5000	2,500	25
5001 - 10000	5,000	50
10001 and more	10,000	100

The representative of the corporate member remains unchanged in the status of a personal member, nothing changes here.

What can I do if I would like to register more employees? 

In order to be able to serve corporate members with less than 501 employees and for companies for whom the number of “associated persons” included free of charge is not sufficient, we continue to offer this service: 

• Each additional “associated person” can be registered for €35 / year, the €35 will be added to the membership fee of the corporate member. 

How do I register an “associated person”?

• Registration takes place via the GfSE office (Email to office@gfse.org and to christian.vonholst@gfse.org). 
• The representative of the company at the GfSE (and only this person and any deputy) informs the GfSE office of the (new) associated persons with their full name and company e-mail address. Registration with GfSE and INCOSE is then carried out by GfSE. 
• The associated person will then receive an email from GfSE containing the membership numbers for INCOSE and GfSE. If no such email has been received after approx. 14 days, there may be a transmission error, e.g. in the email address. In this case, please contact the GfSE office and inform them that the email has not yet been received. 
• Registrations directly with INCOSE can neither be supported nor administered and it is requested that you refrain from attempting to register directly with INCOSE as an associated person. 

What do I do if an “associated person” leaves the company? 
If an associated person leaves the company, please inform the GfSE office immediately. A short, informal email to office@gfse.org is sufficient. The person will then be deregistered, the company e-mail address will become inactive and there will be capacity for another free associated person. 

What happens if I exceed the number of free “associated persons”? 
The GfSE office will endeavor to inform the company's representative by email in good time before the number of free associated persons is exceeded and to draw attention to this situation. This is why it is so important that the person representing the company at the GfSE makes the registrations and is aware of the exact number. 
Additional associated persons are then registered as usual but incur additional fees of € 35.00/person in the annual statement. It is the responsibility of the company, represented by the representative at the GfSE, to manage the number of associated persons. 
The company's representative can also deregister associated persons and register new ones in order not to exceed the exemption limit. 

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Christian von Holst (christian.vonholst@gfse.org).