Home · About · A-Z Index · Search · Contacts · Press · Register · Login

Customer Council - Charter

Members_Only

Governing Board Election

Newsletters

Events

Contact

Documents

Standards Information Base

Supplier Council

Mailing Lists

You are here: Customer Council-> Charter

15 January 2003
Replaces previous version adopted on 28 February 2001

Definition

The Customer Council is an association of those members of The Open Group who are customers of Open Systems based products and services.

Mission

The mission of the Customer Council is to promote the customer voice throughout The Open Group. Promote means to identify customer issues and seek means and resources to achieve their resolution. Promote also means to facilitate active customer involvement in The Open Group's technical and business activities and support The Open Group visibility and voice in the general customer community.

The following functions derive from this mission:

• Raise, discuss and initiate action on items of general interest.
• In coordination with the solution provider organizations, 
  • Define, analyze, and endorse Open Systems requirements for consideration by The Open Group
  • Identify pervasive trends, issues and opportunities across all of The Open Group activities and prioritize the best opportunities for consideration by The Open Group
• Promote the value of The Open Group to the entire Open Systems community (member and non-member) to enhance the visibility of The Open Group's role and contribution.

Specific Activities

• Strategic Planning
  Ensure that there is customer participation at all levels of strategic planning within The Open Group, including, but not limited to:
  • The Board of Directors
  • Conference planning
  • Forum planning, existing and proposals for new areas of work
  • Issue challenges
    
• Forum Activities
  • Identify customer participants for Forum activities
  • Populate business scenario activities
  • Facilitate formation of vertical market groups 
  • Help identify cross forum conflicts and synergies
  • Be available to forum to sanity check ideas and approaches from forums and to clarify customer needs
    
• Conferences
  • Identify customer speakers for conference plenary sessions
  • Provide forum for discussion of customer perspective on plenary theme
  • Produce input to white papers on customer perspective on plenary theme
    
• Promotion
  • Build links to CxO level in customer organizations
  • Host promotion events
  • Provide input for case studies
  • Host "town hall meetings" for local members
  • Invite business partners to conferences

Organization

The Customer Council shall biennially elect a Chair, Co-Chair, and three (3) representatives to the Governing Board.

It shall also seek to appoint up to two (2) liaisons (primary and alternate) with each Forum or Work Area.

These persons shall constitute the Steering Committee for the Customer Council.

Policy

The elected Chair, or in his/her absence the Co-Chair, shall lead all Customer Council and Steering Group meetings. A member of The Open Group staff shall serve as secretary for the Council and execute all record-keeping requirements of the Council including submitting copies of minutes to the Council for approval and facilitating information exchange via email and The Open Group Web site.

Procedures

The Chair presides over Customer Council meetings and leads Customer Council activities.  The Co-chair works closely with the Chair in all Council matters and acts on behalf of the Chair in his/her absence. The Chair and Co-Chair may also serve as a Forum Liaison for a Forum for which he/she qualifies or may represent the Customer Council on The Open Group Governing Board as a Director.  

Three Customer Council members will be elected to serve on the Governing Board as Directors to represent all customer members in matters relevant to Governing Board, including issues of particular interest to customers of Open Systems products and services.

Up to two Forum/Work Area Liaisons (Primary and Alternate) are charged with ensuring effective communication and coordination between each Forum/Work Area and the Customer Council.  

Customer Council representation will also be proposed in any steering groups formed as part of the structure of Open Group Forums.

In general, Customer Council elected positions are not available to Open Group members that earn equivalent positions as an entitlement of their membership category.

Voting for Customer Council officers as defined above may take place via voice, electronic or written ballot. An affirmative vote requires a simple majority of those members voting. Abstentions are not counted.

Committees of the Customer Council shall be established as necessary to carry out activities of the Council. The committee structure will provide for small groups of interested members to engage in specific activities as charged by the entire Customer Council.  It will also provide an accountability mechanism for follow-through on those activities.

There shall be at least one Committee of the Customer Council: the Steering Committee, as defined in the Organization section above, has responsibility for planning the agenda and work of the Customer Council and setting the meeting schedules.  Other committees may be formed as required. 

A majority of Customer Council meeting time should be spent on substance,  i.e. in the dual role of validating issues that the rest of The Open Group is working and proposing issues or opportunities for the rest of The Open Group to address. It is envisioned that processes, votes, elections, charters, and other administrative tasks will be carried out via email and/or the Customer Council area of The Open Group Web site.

Any Member of the Customer Council may propose changes and/or additions to this Charter, which will then be reviewed and voted upon by the entire Council.  Passage and adoption occurs when a simple majority of Members present vote in the affirmative.  Issues are discussed and addressed in the same manner if a yes/no decision is possible.  Votes may be taken by via email or at Customer Council meetings occurring during the regular quarterly The Open Group Conferences.