PROPOSE · ADOPT
The Governance Disclosure Pledge
Seven commitments. Adoptable by resolution at your next meeting. Each one maps to a published review practice, so anyone can check whether you kept it — including without our involvement.
Nearly every governance failure TASFGA has documented was legal at the time. The body was not obliged to publish the statement, answer the request, compete the contract, or explain the refusal — so it did not. Waiting for the statute is one answer. Committing in advance, in public, without being made to, is the other. It costs a board nothing but the discomfort of being held to it.
The seven commitments
Written to be adopted verbatim. They are deliberately modest — a body that already does its job well is probably meeting most of them already, and the ones it is not are the interesting ones.
- 1
Financial disclosure on a deadline
We publish our annual financial statements and adopted budget to every member, in full, by a stated date each year — and we state that date in advance rather than after the fact.
Measured by: Audit & Financial Records Review
- 2
Elections a losing candidate could verify
We give notice in the time our governing documents require, give challengers and incumbents the same space and the same deadline, disclose how quorum was calculated, and permit any candidate or their designee to observe the count.
Measured by: Election Conduct Review
- 3
Records answered, or refused in writing
We answer a member’s records request within a stated period. If we refuse, we refuse in writing and say which provision we rely on — so the member has something to take to a lawyer, a regulator, or a court.
Measured by: Records Retention & Access Review
- 4
Contracts competed and conflicts declared
Above a threshold we publish, we seek more than one bid and record why the winner won. Any board member or officer with an interest in a bidder declares it before the discussion and takes no part in the vote.
Measured by: Procurement Integrity Review
- 5
No retaliation for asking
We do not use fines, fees, access, enforcement discretion, or legal threat against a member because they asked a question, requested a record, ran for office, or criticised us in public.
Measured by: Member Speech & Retaliation Review
- 6
Member data and payments handled with care
We say what member data we hold, who can reach it, and what happens if it is exposed. Payment channels we direct members to meet current security practice.
Measured by: Data Governance & Payment Security Review
- 7
Vendors and professionals who check out
Before we engage a professional whose work carries a licence, credential, or insurance requirement, we verify it against the issuing authority — and we keep the record of having done so.
Measured by: Vendor & Professional Credential Review
How to adopt it
- Put it on an agenda. No permission is required and there is nothing to register. The Pledge is free to use, and free to abandon.
- Pass the resolution. Language below, drafted to be moved as written.
- Tell your members. A pledge the members do not know about cannot be enforced by the people it was made to, which makes it decoration.
- Record what you cannot yet meet. A board that adopts six of seven and says which one it is has done something more useful than a board that quietly adopts all seven.
Model resolution
RESOLVED, that the Board adopts the TASFGA Governance Disclosure Pledge (seven commitments, as published at tasfga.com/pledge) as the standard of disclosure and conduct by which this body will operate; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Pledge be furnished to every member of this body and to every member of the association, and be published with the minutes of this meeting; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Board review its compliance with each of the seven commitments annually and record the result in the minutes, and that any commitment the Board determines it cannot presently meet be recorded, with the reason, rather than omitted.
Adapt freely to your own quorum, notice, and minute-keeping conventions. This is a template, not a form, and it is not legal advice — see Terms.
What this is not
It is not a certification, and TASFGA does not verify signers. There is no register, no badge, no audit, and no fee. TASFGA is pre-incorporation and has neither the standing nor the staff to vouch for anybody. A body that adopts the Pledge and then breaks it has made a public statement its own members can hold it to — that is the entire mechanism, and it is deliberately the entire mechanism.
It creates no legal obligation by itself. Whether adopting it changes what your body owes its members depends on your governing documents and your jurisdiction. Ask your own counsel.
It does not replace the law. Where a statute or your governing instrument requires more than a commitment here, the statute governs. Nothing in the Pledge licenses a lower standard than the one you are already held to.
If you are a member, not a board
You can ask your board to adopt it. The useful version of that request is specific: send the seven commitments, ask which ones the board already meets, and ask that the answer go in the minutes. A board that declines to answer has told you something, and a board that answers has given you a document.
If the answer is unsatisfactory, the review practices let you test the position yourself against records you can already obtain. If what you find is worth documenting, send it to us.
Adopted the Pledge, or been refused? Either is worth knowing — contact@tasfga.com. TASFGA does not currently publish a list of adopting bodies; if enough exist to make one meaningful, we will say so here first and ask permission before naming anyone.
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When the Pledge changes, you will know
Revisions to the commitments, new review practices behind them, and what adopting bodies report back.