abstract
| - CSA member corporations fall into two distinct categories: voting sponsors and contributing sponsors. Voting sponsors are the most powerful and influential corporations in the Sector, if not the galaxy. Each one has a permanent seat on the CSA's Direx Board and receives the best discounts on Authority raw materials and services. To become a voting sponsor requires a significant investment in the Authority. The original voting sponsors each paid over fifty quadrillion credits worth of currency, equipment, facilities, stocks and bonds. Contributing sponsors are a secondary class of CSA member company. They don't receive the same privileged discounts as voting sponsors, but do enjoy preferential prices that make for a competitive advantage over non-CSA companies. These companies also do not have permanent representation on the Direx Board, limiting their participation in the Authority's decision-making process. Instead of permanent positions, a third of the board's seats are reserved for contributing sponsors and rotated amongst their representatives. This lower level of corporate sponsorship logically requires a smaller, though still significant, investment. Each of the Authority's original contributing sponsors bought their status with payments of over fifty trillion credits.
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