Standards committee terms of reference
The rules the standards committee will run under, published before anyone sits on it. Nobody has been seated yet, so this is a draft written to be argued with rather than a record of what a committee already agreed.
Members seated today. This document exists so that anyone considering it can read the terms first.
Members, an odd number, with five needed for a quorum.
Vote for the founder, the same as everyone else, and no veto over the body of knowledge.
Year terms, staggered so the whole committee never turns over at once.
1. What the committee is for
The committee holds the body of knowledge. Specifically it owns the eight domains and their contents, the weighting between them, the revision schedule, and the pool of people who write assessment items. Those four things are what make the credential mean something, so they sit with practitioners rather than with whoever founded the organisation.
2. What it is not
There are two bodies and they are deliberately separate. Confusing them would let the people who define the standard also decide who passes it.
| Decision | Sits with |
|---|---|
| What the standard contains, and how the domains are weighted | The standards committee |
| Whether a named individual is certified, and appeals against that | The certification governing board |
| Fees, timelines and commercial terms | NBOP, published in the candidate handbook |
| The cut score | A formal standard setting study, not a vote by either body |
A committee member never sees an individual candidate's result and never adjudicates an appeal. If you join expecting to decide who gets certified, this is the wrong body.
3. Who can serve
- A majority of the committee must be practising operators, or have been within the last two years. This is the same currency test the eligibility rule applies to candidates, and for the same reason.
- No more than two members may come from the same employer, so that no single organisation can shape the standard around its own operating model.
- At least two members must have no prior working relationship with the founder. A committee assembled entirely from one person's contacts is that person's opinion with more signatures on it.
- Holding NBOP-CP is not required and confers no advantage in selection. Nobody holds it yet, and requiring it would make the first committee impossible.
- Nobody who sells or profits from preparation material for any NBOP assessment may serve. That includes the author of the book series, in respect of item writing, which is why he does not write items, see them, sit on scoring or adjudicate results.
4. How members are chosen
The first committee is drawn from the job task analysis. Anyone who answered that they would consider serving is in the pool. Selection is by the founder for the first intake only, against the composition rules above, and every appointment is published with the member's operating background so the choice can be judged.
After the first intake the committee selects its own new members. That handover is the point at which this stops being one person's project, and it is written here so that failing to do it is visible.
5. Terms
- Three years, renewable once, so a maximum of six consecutive years.
- Terms are staggered. In the first intake, roughly one third are drawn for two years and the rest for three, so the committee never turns over wholesale.
- The chair is elected by the committee from among its members, for two years. The founder may not be chair.
- A member who misses three consecutive meetings without notice, or who fails to declare a conflict, may be removed by a two thirds vote of the rest.
6. How decisions are made
- Quorum is five members, at least three of whom must be currently practising.
- Ordinary decisions carry on a simple majority of those present.
- A change to domain weighting requires two thirds of the whole committee, not merely of those present, and must cite the job task analysis evidence it rests on. Weighting is the one thing the credential lives or dies by, so it is the one thing that cannot be changed by a thin room on a quiet day.
- The founder holds one vote and no veto. If the committee votes to change the body of knowledge in a way the founder disagrees with, the committee's decision stands and the disagreement is published.
- Dissent is recorded. Any member may have their disagreement published alongside the decision, by name or unattributed, as they choose.
7. Conflicts of interest
Every member declares their employer, any consulting or advisory work in operations, any financial interest in a tool or vendor that the standard might touch, and any preparation or training business. Declarations are published alongside the member's name.
A member recuses themselves from any decision that would materially advantage their employer or an interest they hold. Recusals are recorded in the published minutes, including who recused and from what.
8. Meetings and publication
- The committee meets at least quarterly, and additionally at each six month revision of the standard.
- Meetings are held remotely. Nobody is expected to travel, and no member is out of pocket for serving.
- Decisions are published in the changelog within fourteen days, with the reasoning and any recorded dissent.
- Job task analysis findings are published in full, including findings that contradict the current draft. The committee may disagree with a finding, but it may not decline to publish one.
9. Time commitment, stated honestly
Roughly four meetings a year of about ninety minutes, plus reading time before each, plus a heavier stretch at each revision. Item writing is additional and voluntary, and item writers are paid for that work separately. Serving on the committee itself is unpaid, and no member is charged anything for the privilege.
10. Changing these terms
Until the committee is seated, these terms may be amended by NBOP, and every amendment will appear in the changelog rather than being quietly swapped. Once the committee is seated, changing its own terms of reference requires two thirds of the whole committee.
This document has no signatures on it yet
That is the point of publishing it now rather than later.
Anyone deciding whether to give NBOP their time should be able to read the terms before saying yes, and anyone who thinks a rule here is wrong should be able to say so while it is still cheap to change. The job task analysis is where the first committee will be drawn from.