Sep 24, 2018
The ASAE Great Ideas Brouhaha - (Recorded
September 21, 2018 - 12:30 EST)
A seemingly simple post sharing the ASAE Great Ideas Call for
Speakers was posted to the members-only Association Chat Facebook
Group on Friday, September 6, 2018.
This post sparked a controversy over ethics issues concerning
plagiarism, intellectual property, and equity of membership.
A rough timeline of the ensuing events and key topics at issue:
- On September 6th a link to ASAE's Great Ideas Call for Content
Leaders is shared. Part of this Call for Content Leaders includes a
PDF of "prototypes" for sessions that are open for speaker
submissions. - The prototypes offer descriptions of each session
that would be ideal for the conference.
- Within hours, a comment from an Association Chat member is posted
suggesting the session prototypes seem to be descriptions of
well-known consultants' work.
- Soon after, another member posts some examples of descriptions in
published articles (from sources like Harvard Business Review,
KPMG, Salesforce, Deloitte, etc) that they have found using
plagiarism tracking software.
- A concern is raised about plagiarism and intellectual property
violations. Is this unintended negligence, a glimpse at deeper
cultural issues at hand, or something else?
- More comments soon follow. Many are focused on the most recent
speaker agreements from ASAE that some interpret as requiring each
speaker to sign over to ASAE their content, IP, and rights to
future sale and distribution without further compensation. (In
addition, Association Chat members post that the agreement includes
an additional request for speakers to create 15 questions and
answers to help sell their material for ASAE's profit.)
- Requests are made for transparency into the plagiarism auditing
process.
- Requests are also made for a more in-depth look at the way ASAE
receives its content (including speaker contracts).
- ASAE's Ethics Committee's mission comes into question – what is
their role? What is the process for submitting that a violation has
occurred?
Chat Host KiKi L'Italien interviews ASAE's Chief Executive Officer John Graham, Chief Learning Officer Rhonda Payne, and Chief Information & Engagement Officer Reggie Henry for today's Association Chat.
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