As I mentioned in the ‘Getting this association started’ post, the Formation Advisory Board (FAB) will be formed to determine and approve various aspects of getting the Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) started. These include initial goals and strategies, governance, organization management, membership policies, and financial requirements. This process was developed after consulting with a number of industry leaders.

Scope

The FAB will be comprised of a fixed number of industry representatives, as follows: Two merchants, two affiliates, two networks, two agencies and three ‘other’ (including consultants, solutions providers, specialists, journalists, etc), for a total of 11 people. It is important to have an odd number of members so there can be a tie-breaker on split decisions.

Because the FAB will be formed with the sole purpose to help launch the PMA, the FAB will be disbanded after they vote in the Board of Directors. The FAB members will be eligible for seats on the Board of Directors. Most likely, after the Board of Directors is voted in, new and specific advisory boards will be formed to help guide the association on addressing specific issues like fund raising and industry relations. FAB members, as well as all dues-paying PMA members, will be eligible to sit on these future advisory boards.

Responsibilities

The FAB will be presented with proposals from formation working groups (more information to follow on a separate post). The FAB will have an opportunity to review, debate, challenge, propose alternatives, and ratify the proposals. There will also be a FAB meeting in August 2008 around the time of Affiliate Summit East, being held in Boston, to further discuss the proposals.

FAB members shall agree to the following:

• They will act in the best interests of the industry and the PMA
• They will participate in the FAB meetings and voting process
• They will commit the appropriate time to review proposals and complete the voting process (which we hope to keep to a minimum!)
• They will not delegate their participation to others
• They will agree to abide by decisions voted in by majority vote
• They will commit on good faith to be dues-paying members when the membership period is opened

Nominations

Nominees for the FAB have come from a list of over 40 industry leaders that have already been interviewed to validate the formation of this association. Nominees have been selected for their individual experience and contribution to the industry, and not necessarily because their company has a history of involvement.

This initial list of nominees has been given the following options: accept or decline their nomination, and nominate other industry leaders. Then this group of nominees will vote their peers on to the FAB.

The initial list of FAB nominees were notified last week of their nominations. The nominees will have a couple of weeks to respond to their nominations. The voting period will follow shortly after the nomination period closes. Elected FAB members will be announced once the voting period closes.

You might ask why we’re going with this process. This process was based on input from several people and the following assumptions:

• A small group of people can come to agreement on decisions faster than a large group of people.
• The industry leaders nominated for the FAB have extensive knowledge of the industry, not only in their own roles but in other areas.
• These industry leaders have a proven track record of success in performance marketing, and therefore we can assume they have a lot to add to the PMA.
• The nominees are active and well known members in the performance marketing community.
• As active community members, they are likely to know and nominate other ideal candidates and vote in an effective FAB.

Performance marketing professionals who were not nominated will have many opportunities as active PMA members to participate in future policy decisions, be elected onto future boards, and vote in future board members. And everyone is eligible for working groups; this is where we need involvement from the community.

–Rebecca