Disclosures of Affiliation

An affiliation, as defined in the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws, 5.2.1.5, is an individual deemed “affiliated” with an individual or entity that has been, or will be, financially or materially supporting that individual’s participation in a particular IEEE standards activity. This includes, but is not limited to, his or her employer and any individual or entity that has or will have, either directly or indirectly, requested, paid for, or otherwise sponsored his or her participation.

An employer is typically the entity that would be reporting an individual as an employee for tax purposes.

If you are consulting or contracted with another entity, your employer and affiliation will typically be different [e.g., your employer, self-employed, or your consulting firm name as the employer; the client(s) as the affiliation].

Do not assume that the IEEE SA will conclude your affiliation is the same as your employer. You must declare any affiliation even if it is the same as your employer.

Standards development meetings are open to all interested parties and are not to be dominated by any particular entity or interest category. The disclosure of affiliation allows all participants the information necessary to assure these principles are adhered to. The requirement applies to both individual and entity-based standards development projects. It is consistent with the IEEE Code of Ethics requirement to disclose conflicts of interest.

Industry participants and users of the standard will benefit from an open and transparent development process. The disclosure of this information adds to openness and transparency.

You should disclose your information only when asked as part of the IEEE SA standards development process. It will be required at various points within the process.

When joining a technical activity area in myProject, you will be asked to declare your affiliation. At an in-person meeting, it will typically be included in the meeting attendance sign-in, but on a teleconference meeting may be done verbally. When joining a Standards Association ballot group, you will also be asked about affiliation.

Employer and affiliation of participants will be included in the minutes of a standards development meeting. Because minutes are to be available to all participants, the declarations are considered public information.

All standards development group employer and affiliation declarations will be considered if there is an appearance of dominance in the standards development project or governance body.

As outlined in 5.1.2.4 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual, a participant who fails to disclose all affiliation(s) shall not accrue any participant rights, including rights of or towards voting membership or ballot participation, until such disclosures have been made. Failure to disclose affiliation(s) shall result in loss of membership or balloting privileges, and may also result in loss of other participation privileges within the IEEE SA for such participants and any affiliated entities.

If they are financially or materially supporting your participation you should declare all of them. A small number of entities are more likely to be influencing your positions. With a large number of entities, with none explicitly or implicitly influencing your positions through financial or other incentives, it is less likely that your positions would be influenced by the relationship. The person disclosing has to honestly judge if their positions are “materially supported” and if so, declare it.

If they are influencing what positions you take on issues (e.g., continued work is probably dependent on taking an agreeable position), then you are materially supported by that affiliate.

It is recognized that some IEEE SA participants may participate on their own time on standards development projects (e.g., Standards Association ballot participation). In this case, it may be factually accurate to list your employer but for affiliation indicate that you represent yourself or are self-funded on that particular IEEE SA activity. A participant is encouraged to check with their employer or legal advisor that this participation is consistent with any employee agreement to which they are subject.

If you are not financially or materially supported by another person or entity (e.g., you participate as a volunteer for the good of the industry), you could declare employer as self employed and affiliation as the same.

If parent entities are not obvious and are material to the standards development activity, certainly you may disclose them. This is one area that is likely to be pursued in the event there is ever an investigation of domination of a standards development activity.

In the event of an investigation on possible domination, this information may be required, independent of financial support of your activity.

The rules regarding Standards Association ballot groups are detailed in the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws, 5.2.2.3.

There are no exceptions defined regarding minutes. If though, a participant makes a declaration that is obscene, defamatory to an individual or group or otherwise through publication would be likely to be injurious to IEEE, the issue of publishing the declaration should be escalated to the Standards Committee.

If a Working Group Chair becomes aware of a participant who provides potentially false or misleading disclosure, the participant shall be notified and requested to clarify the disputed affiliation. If the participant continues to provide potentially false or misleading disclosure, or fails to provide the requested clarification, the Working Group Chair shall notify the Standards Committee.

During Standards Association balloting, if a potentially false or misleading disclosure of affiliation is identified, the Working Group Chair shall notify the Standards Association ballot participant and request that the participant clarify the disputed affiliation. If the participant continues to provide potentially false or misleading disclosure, or fails to provide the requested clarification, the Working Group Chair shall submit the disputed affiliation and corrective action(s) recommended by the Standards Committee to the Secretary of the IEEE SA Standards Board for review by the IEEE SA Standards Conduct Committee (see subclause 6.6.1 of the IEEE Standards Association Operations Manual for details regarding the IEEE SA Standards Conduct Committee).

Any participant, including an officer of a standards development group who believes that a participant’s disclosure is materially incomplete or incorrect should report that fact to the appropriate Standards Committee(s).

If it is determined that a person has made a false or misleading declaration of affiliation, their participation privileges may be suspended or revoked. This may be limited to the particular project or may, if warranted, cover all IEEE SA activities. Similarly, if warranted, penalties may extend to the participant’s employer and/or any person or entity that is considered an affiliate.