As thought leaders in the IT industry, corporate affiliate members are a vital component to NASTD. They provide insight, research, and products and services that can transform state IT operations. While NASTD was founded to connect information technology professionals from the fifty states, the association recognizes and encourages these public and private sector relationships to facilitate operational efficiencies in state government.
To ensure that member interactions and meeting culture stays focused on the mission of NASTD, that collaboration is done in a productive and ethical manner, and that member equity is maintained, we have developed this corporate affiliate member policy.
Eligibility for Corporate Affiliate Membership:
- Corporate affiliate membership is open to for-profit businesses that provide technology equipment, facilities, and/or services to the public sector. These businesses have more than fifteen full-time employees or annual revenues exceeding $1 million.
- Small/Micro Business Affiliate Membership is open to private sector companies in the business of offering/providing information technology, hardware, software, facilities and/or services to the public sector. A small/micro business is defined as an entity with fifteen or fewer full-time equivalent employees or annual revenue of $1,000,000 or less. Small/micro business affiliate members are subject to this corporate affiliate member policy.
- Corporate affiliate members should have an overriding interest in promoting the success of NASTD and be prepared to actively participate to ensure a viable organization.
It is the policy of NASTD to make corporate affiliate memberships available on a non-exclusive basis. Membership will be made available to companies with competing products and services.
Who Should Join?
Memberships are held in the name of the company. Note that NASTD dues are nonrefundable.
- Primary Membership Contact: The corporate affiliate primary membership contact is the liaison between NASTD and your company. NASTD staff will communicate with you regarding your membership questions, annual dues, and company listings. This individual is responsible and will be held accountable for company adherence to the NASTD corporate affiliate member policy.
- Additional Member Profiles: Corporate affiliate members are welcome to add additional individuals under their membership that represent the state and local government and education market. All individuals listed under a corporate member company must have an email address that corresponds with the member company.
- Media entities and editorial publications that are part of or owned by a corporate affiliate member company cannot be listed under the corporate entity’s NASTD membership or receive corporate affiliate member benefits.
Corporate Affiliate Member Application Process:
- Corporate affiliate membership dues must be received before the application will be processed.
- The corporate affiliate member logo and name provided for membership cannot include a division, product promotion tagline, or a parent company tagline.
- Upon review of the application and processing of dues, the primary membership contact will be sent an email with login information, in addition to a link where they can add additional individuals that can receive member benefits under that company’s membership.
Event Participation
- NASTD events are structured to promote relationship building as opposed to selling. Successful corporate affiliate members understand that relationships take time to build. State members welcome the opportunity to meet and socialize with corporate affiliate members during events; however, it would be inappropriate for a corporate affiliate member to make a sales pitch at an NASTD event.
- NASTD corporate affiliate members should be aware of the rules and laws to which state government members and attendees must adhere, respecting the procurement and ethics codes of state member attendees.
- Vendors or other organizations involved with NASTD activities shall be specifically instructed not to use the NASTD name or logo without permission of the Executive Board and NASTD staff. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Advertising and promotional items
- Event invitations
- Email addresses from the association’s database
- Event registration
- Off-schedule vendor events should not conflict with scheduled NASTD agenda items. Events should finish no later than 30-minutes prior to the first scheduled event agenda item and should be scheduled no earlier than 30-minutes following the last event agenda item.
- Registered state attendees should not receive invitations that take them away from event programming. This assures all corporate affiliate members equal opportunities to utilize NASTD events to establish and build their relationships with state members.,
- NASTD Corporate Affiliate Committee leaders (chair, vice chair and secretary) may not coordinate in their CAC leadership roles or leverage their leadership roles to organize, advertise, fund or promote off-schedule vendor events.
- NASTD state member representatives and staff may not coordinate or be leveraged to organize, advertise, fund or promote off-schedule vendor events.
- Vendors organizing/hosting off-schedule events are advised to add disclaimer language stating that their event is not affiliated with NASTD. The association will assume no liability for these events.
- Corporate members are not permitted to register or bring non-member guests to the conference.
- NASTD event registration will have a stated close date, and no onsite registrations will be accepted. Name changes and substitutions are not permitted onsite.
- Corporate affiliate members are responsible for ensuring event attendees from their company are registered by the posted deadline.
- Event name badge sharing is not permitted under any circumstance. Badges can be picked up and used only by the attendee named in the registration. Badges must be always worn during the event.
- Registrations are for the full event. No single-day registrations are offered.
- By participating in any NASTD event, attendees agree to the NASTD Event Code of Conduct.
- Event attendee rosters should be used appropriately. Please be respectful and courteous when sending emails and mailings to fellow NASTD members.
- Event attendees should always maintain professional conduct.
Sponsorships
- Corporate affiliate members are encouraged to support NASTD through sponsorships of conferences and other NASTD events. NASTD is committed to creating value for sponsorships by providing visibility, advertising and other meaningful tangible benefits. Below are the terms and conditions for sponsorship:
- Event sponsorships are available as an option to corporate affiliate members only. Annual membership dues must be current and paid in full through the entirety of the event to participate.
- New association members must join and pay their dues by the posted deadline to sponsor an event.
- Sponsors must pay the full sponsorship fee for the event by the posted deadline before the company is eligible to use complimentary registrations, to have its logo recognized on the website, the event slide deck, in any seminar promotions, and in the NASTD newsletter.
- Purchase orders are not considered a form of payment. If purchase orders are used to secure sponsorship, NASTD must receive payment by check or credit card prior to or on the cut-off date before benefits can be granted.
- Sponsorship fees are non-refundable except for unforeseen circumstances that force a cancellation of the entire event.
- Co-branding of sponsorships is not permitted.
- The inclusion of a parent company tagline, a division, or product promotion tagline in the sponsor company name is not permissible.
- Any complimentary registrations received through sponsorship must be submitted by the posted registration deadline.
- Registration name changes and substitutions must be submitted to NASTD by the posted deadline.
- Registration name changes and substitutions are not permitted onsite. No registrations are allowed onsite, including any unused complimentary registrations.
- Any seminar content, including but not limited to photos, videos, slides or papers, are considered property of NASTD, and shall not be posted or disseminated by Sponsor without express written approval of NASTD.
- Vendors or other organizations involved with NASTD activities are specifically instructed not to use the NASTD name or logo without permission of the Executive Board and NASTD staff. This includes, but is not limited to:
o Advertising and promotional items
o Event invitations
o Email addresses from the association’s database
o Event registration
- NASTD explicitly prohibits sponsors from holding events that run concurrently with NASTD sessions, meetings, meals, receptions, or any other NASTD related events. Events should finish no later than 30-minutes prior to the first scheduled event agenda item and should be scheduled no earlier than 30-minutes following the last event agenda item.
- Sponsors organizing/hosting off-schedule events are advised to add disclaimer language stating that their event is not affiliated with NASTD. The association will assume no liability for these events.
Acquisitions, Mergers or Rebrands
- For NASTD membership, the acquiring company would become the member. If a non-member company acquires a current member company, they will inherit that membership through the current membership period.
- If a member company rebrands and the original name no longer exists, and no acquisition or merger has occurred, NASTD will update the member’s name accordingly.
Subsidiaries
- For organizations that are umbrella/parent companies, subsidiaries may be covered under the membership of the umbrella group; however, all individuals must have a valid email address that corresponds with the member company name. Membership does not permit co-branding/co-sponsoring of these companies on the NASTD website or sponsorship materials. A parent company tagline is not permitted in the company membership name.
- Both parent companies and subsidiaries may choose to have corporate affiliate memberships if they would like both to receive member benefits.
o For example, Kellogg company may have a membership to promote their products and services. Those individuals receiving benefits must have a valid Kellogg.com email domain. Their subsidiary, Eggo, may also have a membership if they wish to promote Eggo’s products and services separately. Those individuals must have a valid eggo.com email address. Eggo cannot join NASTD as “Eggo – a Kellogg company.”
Violations
Violations of these policies will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. NASTD reserves the right, in its sole but reasonable discretion, to suspend or revoke the membership privileges of any corporate affiliate member found to be in violation of these policies. All violations will be recorded and addressed with the primary member contact.