Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Access Copyright Proposed Governance Changes

As a member of Access Copyright, I am posting AC's latest email missive to the membership. My comments may or may not follow. In the meantime, reader's comments are welcome.

HPK

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Dear Affiliate,

Access Copyright's Board of Directors wishes to notify you of proposed changes to AC's governance structure and a potential vote on the changes at the April 2014 AGM.

Access Copyright's traditional licensing is facing considerable challenges, particularly in the education sector. At a membership summit last spring representatives of our creator and publisher communities gathered to consider the future of Access Copyright and to begin the process of re-shaping the organization to meet these challenges.

In the past year the Board has endorsed a transformation agenda and much progress has been made. Access Copyright will continue to advocate on behalf of the copyright of creators and publishers, however, as a renewed organization, we must also re-dedicate ourselves to the service of content users. Our continued service to creators and publishers likely depends on our ability to develop new ideas and customer-facing digital services-specifically, content clearance and access tools integrated across digital platforms.  

In addition to the work on business strategy and communications, the Board is seeking to support the transformation agenda with a revised Governance structure.  


The proposed changes originated from the work of a Governance Advisory Group. The six-person Advisory Group included creator and publisher representatives with experience in organizational governance. The group reported to the Board of Directors and its mandate was to assess the current governance structure and recommend changes or enhancements that could support the strategic vision. 

The Advisory Group completed its work last August and made recommendations to the Board in September. And, after much reflection and minor amendments, the Board approved substantially similar recommendations in December, for the consideration by the membership.

At the heart of the proposed changes is the establishment of a member-driven Nominating Committee to enable the targeted recruitment of the most appropriate skills and expertise-while, of course, maintaining the essential character that defines Access Copyright.  

We believe a smaller, competency-based structure will be more agile, cost-effective and conducive to the task at hand; however we also recognize that this is a significant change and want to ensure our affiliates are well informed prior to the vote taking place.  

Please see the attached backgrounder for a more detailed overview of the proposed changes. If there is sufficient support to proceed, the proposal will be voted on by the member organizations at the 2014 AGM scheduled for April 25, 2014. Affiliates with questions or concerns about these changes are encouraged to contact their respective member organization. [sic - note that the final words "member organization" appeared in the e-mail as a non-functional link - HPK]

Sincerely,
Nancy Gerrish  James Romanow
Nancy Gerrish             James Romanow
Co-Chair                     Co-Chair

  

1 comment:

  1. It appears that Access Copyright is very belatedly trying to implement the governance recommendations in the Friedland Report. They were good recommendations at the time, but this is likely too late.

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