JOINING

Joining the Consortium is straight forward, requiring mainly an interview to agree on terms of Consortium involvement. Anyone interested in joining should contact us and tell us, briefly, why they are interested in joining. The Consortium leader will then contact the candidate member to gather some background of your work experience and to review the expectations of membership. The Consortium leader will review the new member request with the existing Consortium members. If there is a fit, the member can proceed to complete joining the Consortium, paying the requisite annual dues.

Willingness to participate in the Consortium’s meetings and discussions is one of the basic expectations. Appropriate company support, e.g., to attend meetings and to share/present experiences and expertise related to the member’s skill set. Time commitments for in-person meetings are typically two days. Virtual meeting sessions are typically spread over parts of four days or less. Between meetings, time expectations are very minimal. They mostly consist of reading and sometime responding to occasional emails asking about thoughts and preferences.

Initial membership is for one year.  Beyond that, there is no specified duration of membership.  Provided they continue to qualify, members can stay in the Consortium for as many years as they prefer. Historically, one-year memberships have been very rare.

Membership does not require contractual or non-disclosure agreements because proprietary information is not discussed.

Member Exclusions

It is important that members feel comfortable sharing personal information among the group. That makes it necessary to exclude from membership people who have responsibilities for competitive products at other companies. Similarly, consultants whose company is or could be a provider to a Consortium member’s company will also be grounds for membership exclusion.

Although there is no limit to the length of membership, if a member moves to job or situation that creates a conflict of interest, then their membership may need to be reevaluated.