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
Co-Chair Co-Chair
Posts
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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