There are several ways you can help make COIN-OR better:

Download and use COIN-OR software

Our download page describes how to download COIN-OR components. After downloading, read the INSTALL files for instructions on installing.

Check out the documentation available on COIN-OR software.

If you have any trouble, send us feedback!

Send us feedback

Whether you're having a little trouble getting a component to work, you've found a bug, you have a suggestion, or you just want to let us know about your experience using COIN-OR software, we'd like to hear about it.

Send an email to the appropriate mailing list. We'll try to answer any questions promptly, and all kinds of input will help us improve COIN-OR.

If you'd like to keep up with COIN-OR developments or take part in discussions about COIN-OR, consider subscribing to one or more of the lists.

Volunteer your time to help with odd jobs

Running the COIN-OR Foundation is a lot of work and we need your help! If you would like to donate your time, we need help with many different tasks, including Web development, coding, and general administration. Please check the Help Wanted wiki page or e-mail "tlc-chair" at this Web site's domain name..

Become an Associate Member of the COIN-OR Foundation

The COIN-OR Foundation, Inc. is the non-profit educational/scientific foundation that manages the COIN-OR initiative.

Associate Membership in the Foundation is available to any individual who makes a donation to the Foundation to support COIN-OR. The minimum donation is $10 (USD), or $5 (USD) for students. An associate membership extends to the end of the calendar year in which you join plus one full calendar year, and is renewable on an annual basis thereafter. Your contribution will be used to support COIN-OR outreach efforts and infrastructure. Associate Members receive a periodic email newsletter and recognition on this website.

To become an Associate Member, send your contribution as a check made out to COIN-OR Foundation, Inc. along with your name and e-mail address to:

COIN-OR Foundation
c/o Ted Ralphs
ISE, Lehigh University
200 W. Packer Ave.
Bethlehem, PA 18015-1582

or use PayPal to donate with a credit card.

Note: The PayPal link may not work in some versions of Netscape. It should work in recent versions of Internet Exporer, Mozilla, and Firefox.

Contribute code or documentation

If you would like to contribute to COIN-OR, we'd love to have your help.

For bug reports, just send an email with your contribution to the appropriate mailing list. Minor changes are generally made fairly quickly.

For contributions to existing projects or submission of new projects, see our Contributions page, which has details about the procedures we use.

If you'd like to help but don't have a particular task in mind, we can probably help you find one. First, however, you should get familiar with COIN-OR. Download and try out any of the projects you're interested in and subscribe to the coin-discuss mailing list to get a sense of what's going on. When you know what basic area(s) you'd like to help with, send an email to coin-discuss indicating what parts of COIN-OR you're most interested in. We should be able to suggest something at that point.