SITC Membership
The Security Innovation and Technology Consortium Ltd (SITC) is a membership organisation incorporated as a not for profit company limited by guarantee (Companies House Registration No. 6455733).
Membership is open to organisations (companies, institutions, partnerships, sole traders) operating in the information security, homeland security or related technology sector, or who have a legitimate interest (as buyers, end users or experts) in developing innovative technology solutions in these sectors. Business Support service providers are also accepted as SITC Members if they have services specifically tailored to the security industry which are likely to be of value to other SITC Members.
By completing the on-line application process you are consenting to your organisation becoming a SITC Member.
SITC reserves the right to reject applications for SITC Membership from organisations that it considers to fall outside of the scope of relevant Security Sector operational engagement or interests as set out above.
SITC also reserves the right to withdraw SITC Membership from any SITC Member whose operations or interests change so that they are no longer within the relevant Security Sector scope or where the SITC Member fails to behave in accordance with the SITC Member's Obligations (set out below).
SITC Members must agree to contribute an amount (not exceeding £1) to SITC's assets, in the event of SITC being wound up during their Membership, or within one year of the cessation of their Membership.
SITC is constituted in this way to ensure that SITC Members have a legal stake in SITC and consequently have the right to vote on SITC policy at SITC General Meetings.
SITC Members each have one vote (i.e. one vote per organisation) which can be exercised through the Lead Contact (normally the person who completes the online application process).
The intention is for SITC, and its Board of Directors, to be directly accountable to the Security Sector it serves (as defined by the scope of relevant operational engagement or interests set out above). SITC Members are therefore encouraged to exercise their rights to influence SITC Policy in this way.
Multiple contacts can register themselves (via the online application process) for each SITC Member organisation. The Lead Contact status can be transferred, if necessary, to any other member of staff within the SITC Member organisation who is registered on the SITC website.
SITC Membership Plans
SITC has always reserved the right to alter its policy on membership to create different classes of Member and/or charge annual fees for Membership, as necessary to ensure its meets its long term objectives. Up until 31 July 2011 SITC Membership was available free to all organisations meeting its membership criteria. This was made possible through grant funding from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).
Following the end of this grant funding in March 2011, SITC Members voted at an EGM on 20 July 2011 to accept a new business plan establishing closer cooperation with ADS (the major Aerospace, Defence and Security Trade Organisation) and the introduction of a £150 p.a. fee (from 1 August 2011) for Full SITC Membership in order to secure SITC's long term future. Under this agreement, SITC would be treated as a Special Interest Group within the ADS Security pillar, and Full SITC Memership would be offered to existing ADS Members without any additional fee being payable.
Full SITC Members will be entitled to use the SITC logo on their website and literature. SITC Affiliate Members may not use the SITC logo.
SITC Membership and ADS Membership are separate and distinct. SITC members are not entitled to use the ADS logo or in any way infer that they are members of ADS unless they are also ADS Members.
In order to preserve SITC's ability to open up the market for early stage, innovative new products and technologies, and to provide Government and other End Users the widest possible visibility of available security solutions, SITC has decided to introduce two new free membership categories: a basic 'Affiliate' Membership category and a Government/End User category.
For further details of SITC's Membership Plans please refer to the document attached below.
SITC's Obligations
SITC will endeavour to act in the economic interests of the Security Sector it serves (relevant scope set out above) and its Members who represent this industry sector.
SITC's Executive Team, Directors and Advisory Group will be expected to:
SITC Directors' or Advisory Group Members' Organisations are not precluded from engaging as SITC Members in SITC supported activities and seeking to derive commercial benefit from this engagement with SITC, provided any conflicts of interest are declared and not allowed to influence SITC policy or decisions.
SITC will publish (primarily via its website) information on opportunities and activities considered relevant to SITC Members and the Security Sector as a whole. It will seek to ensure that all SITC Members have equal access to relevant information.
SITC Members' Obligations
SITC is intended to provide a context in which SITC Members have the opportunity to derive mutual benefit from sharing information, participating in SITC activities and engaging in commercial or R&D partnerships and collaborations with other SITC Members.
SITC Members will be expected to be willing to:
Any failure to act according to the spirit of these obligations would form grounds for complaint to the SITC Board and possible revocation of SITC membership.
*Please note that organisation name, website and short activity descriptions from SITC Member online profiles will be listed in search results on the SITC website. Additional profile content will only be accessible to SITC Members who are logged into the members only area of the website. SITC Members who are logged in will be enabled to make initial contact with each other by email via a contact form on the members area of the SITC Website, but the recipient's email address will not be visible to the sender unless the recipient chooses to reply to any email contact received in this way. SITC reserves the right to edit all content on the SITC website (including organisation and individual profiles) where necessary to ensure consistency of style and accuracy of information and capability coding.
Acceptance
Please note that members may register their acceptance of these revised terms by email to Paul Osborne - but that a formal acceptance process will soon be incorporated into the Membership Plan selection and billing process (once this process is built into the SITC website).