Constitutional Protections
The Seven Constitutional Protections
These seven provisions are written into ASF’s founding statutes. They cannot be changed by management decision or standard Board vote. They are the answer to: ‘What prevents ASF from doing what it criticises in others?’
| # | Protection | Change requires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The fee schedule is always public. Any fee change requires 6 months notice, ADC review, and Board majority vote. | 6 months public notice + ADC review + Board majority |
| 2 | Standards are always free and publicly accessible. ASF can never charge for access. | Two-thirds Board supermajority + 90-day public consultation |
| 3 | The non-profit fee tier and income-tier structure are permanent. | Two-thirds Board supermajority + ADC concurrence |
| 4 | ADC independence is permanent. External majority requirement cannot be weakened. | Two-thirds Board supermajority + 90-day public consultation |
| 5 | ASF can never become for-profit. The non-distribution constraint is absolute. | Cannot be changed under any circumstance — written into registration documents |
| 6 | The annual public accountability report is mandatory. Cannot be made confidential. | Two-thirds Board supermajority + 90-day public consultation |
| 7 | A five-year independent external review, commissioned by ADC, published in full, is mandatory. | Two-thirds Board supermajority + ADC concurrence |
JCI began with good intentions in 1994. ISQua began with good intentions in 1985. What prevents ASF from doing what they did is not the intentions of its founders. It is these seven statutory constraints. Read them. Hold us to them.
