GOVERNANCE
The science committee
A specification is only as neutral as the rules that decide what goes into it. This page publishes those rules before there is anything at stake in them: who sits on the committee, what each kind of decision requires, when we can be outvoted, and what gets published afterwards.
- Charter draft
- Nine
- January 2027
01 · TIMING
The committee will be announced in January 2027
No members have been appointed. Nominations open in the autumn of 2026, and the founding committee — all nine seats, named, with affiliations — will be announced in January 2027, before the first version of the specification is published.
The charter, the seat descriptions and the voting rules on this page are published first, deliberately. It is easier to argue about the rules when nobody yet knows who they will favor. Tell us where they are wrong.
02 · COMPOSITION
Nine seats
Seats are held by people, not by organizations, and no organization may hold more than one seat.
Agency scientists — two seats
Practising scientists from federal, state or tribal monitoring programs. These are the people who have to defend a result to a manager, a permit holder or a court.
Academic taxonomists — two seats
Systematists working on North American groups. Taxonomy changes; someone has to say how a name change is carried through the record without breaking what was published under the old name.
End users — two seats
People who commission monitoring and act on it: consultancies, utilities, resource managers, conservation programs. They hold the seats that ask whether a rule is workable in the field.
Indigenous data governance — one seat
A practitioner in Indigenous data governance. Tribal nations are sovereign governments and CARE principles apply to biological data taken from their lands and waters. This seat is not advisory; it votes.
Laboratory representatives — two seats
Drawn from laboratories that compete with each other. Laboratories do the difficult part of this work and their experience belongs in the room. Two competitors sitting at the same table is the structural reason neither can capture the panel.
03 · VOTING RULES
What it takes to change the specification
Common Measure holds no seat and no vote. Company staff attend as secretariat and are recorded in the minutes as present and non-voting.
- Quorum
- Two thirds of seated members, and must include at least one agency scientist and at least one member not affiliated with any laboratory. Without both, the meeting can discuss but cannot decide.
- Ordinary decisions
- Simple majority of members present. Covers editorial changes to the specification, vocabulary additions, scheduling, and the response to a public comment.
- Reserved decisions
- Two thirds of all seated members, not merely of those present. Covers changes to the reference panel, changes to the taxonomic authority, conformance criteria, retirement or merging rules for identifiers, and any change that would alter the meaning of a previously issued identifier.
- Ties
- A tied vote fails. There is no casting vote, and the chair does not break ties. The status quo holds until a majority moves it.
- Recusal
- A member with a direct commercial interest in the outcome declares it and recuses. A recused member is subtracted from the count of members present but not from the count of seated members, so recusal makes a reserved decision harder to pass, never easier.
- Dissent
- Any member may record a dissent. Dissents are published alongside the decision, in full, in the member's own words.
- Public comment before effect
- Reserved decisions are published as proposals and open for public comment for thirty days before a vote. Emergency corrections — an identifier issued in error, a database version withdrawn upstream — may take effect immediately, but must be ratified at the next meeting or they lapse.
Two laboratories that compete with each other, sitting at the same table, is the strongest evidence of neutrality we can offer. It also means the committee hears from people who actually run this work.
04 · PROCEEDINGS
What gets published, and when
- Meetings
- Four scheduled meetings a year, plus special meetings called by the chair or by any three members. Agendas are published seven days ahead.
- Minutes
- Minutes are published within fifteen working days and record who attended, what was decided, the vote count, and any dissent. Votes are recorded by seat, not anonymously.
- The change record
- Every decision that changes the specification appears in the public change record with the date of the vote, the vote count, and a link to the minutes.
- Terms
- Three year terms, staggered so that no more than one third of seats turn over in a year, renewable once. The chair is elected by the committee from among its members and is not a company appointee.
- The secretariat
- Common Measure staffs the committee, funds it, prepares papers and publishes its output. Company staff are recorded as present and non-voting. We do not set the agenda alone; any member may add an item.
Until the committee is seated in January 2027, there are no minutes to publish. The first proceedings will appear in the change record.
Where to go next
The specification
Scope, status, versioning policy, license and citation form.
Read the specification →Nominate or object
Propose a member, comment on the charter, or put an objection on the record.
See how to participate →