Through adherence to our stewardship model, the AtoM Foundation aims to further the development and sustainability of the AtoM software to better serve the descriptive needs of the AtoM user community and its various stakeholders into the future.

We recognize that the development and maintenance of the next generation of the AtoM software is a shared responsibility of the Foundation, vendors and developers, cultural institutions, and users of the AtoM platform. All of these stakeholders have a vested interest in ensuring reliable description and access to the archival holdings of cultural and government institutions. The Foundation will lead this sustainability initiative by setting direction, making decisions, providing oversight, facilitating collaboration, and operationalizing plans with its membership, the broader AtoM community and its many stakeholders. As such, our stewardship governance model promotes:

• transparency and openness with regards to decision-making and development goals;
• agility and support with managing the uncertainty inherent in an open source software project; and
• coordination of resources and stakeholders

Within the context of the development of the AtoM software, stewardship will be defined by the careful management of three core components:

1. Community – Foundation members, user groups, the international archival community, Artefactual Systems and other interested vendors, educators, the institutions that deploy AtoM, etc.
2. Resources – Foundation Board and committee members, volunteers, membership fees, grants and donations, and staff/contractors.
3. Code – design principles; development roadmap; code maintenance; user and technical documentation; licensing 

As resources and capacity grow, the Foundation will take on increasing responsibility through a staged approach. Currently, the Foundation is focused on community-building and communication as well as articulating design principles and roadmap development goals. Over time, the Foundation aims to play a more active role in code maintenance and vendor relations.