Membership Presentation

Membership Discussion
Ed Reniker
Program Director
GSA / Accessibility Forum Staff

Questions Being Asked
“How do I become involved with the Accessibility Forum?”
For the present, we have just asked them to sign up as a participant. 
“What if lots of folks from the same organizations sign up and all cast their votes?”
There is some potential for organizational or segment viewpoints being recorded in a way that does not reflect the diversity of the stakeholders.

What are these Stakeholder Organizations?
We have been using the following categories of stakeholder organizations
EIT
AT
User
Government
ARS (Academic / Research / Standards Organizations)

The Real Question
“What constitutes MEMBERSHIP for the purpose of decision making and voting on issues?”
Context is Forum-wide issues as opposed to sub-group issues
$100 ballots for the Project Team raised the issue.
Future such efforts provide opportunities for asking it again.

Basic Principles of Operation Established
1. The Accessibility Forum meetings must be open to all interested stakeholders.
2. Membership, however defined or offered, must be offered on an equal basis.
3. The Accessibility Forum, because of the wide range and diverse spectrum of stakeholders, should not disadvantage any particular stakeholder group.

Our Experience -- The Project Voting
Participants came from a wide variety of organizations.
Ballots went to all individual participants with no restrictions placed on voting responses.
Ballots often went to multiple individuals within the same organization.

Results of Project Voting
Virtually all the organizations submitted a single ballot for their entire organization. 
This pattern showed restraint and professionalism by participants.

Membership Issue Today
Is the Forum ready to establish the principle that, for voting purposes on Forum-wide issues, membership is “one per organization”?
Each organization would provide one coordinated response for their organization.
That response would be considered their voice on a given issue.
Multiple responses from an organization would be returned by the Forum Staff for resolution (if some difference existed).
Voting membership organizations need to have at least one participant registered with the Forum.

How Does This Principle Help?
Helps the Forum to have voting administered fairly.
Provides minimal level of discipline and order without limiting voices in the process. 
Helps keep decisions more representative of the whole stakeholder community.

Why Not More Voting Limitations?
Further limitations could be defined based on:
Level of participation in Forum activities
Definition of what constitutes an ‘organization’
• Size of organization
• Multiple product lines
However, additional limitations are:
Too cumbersome to administer
Work against the spirit of inclusiveness we need to foster
Not warranted given past self-restraint and professionalism
Can always be added later, if events show they are warranted