Founding Chair

Whose agenda

An adviser responds to an agenda set by the company. The Chair sets the Council's annual agenda with its members. The Secretariat may propose items; it may not decide them, and every agenda item records who proposed it.

Who chairs the room

The Chair convenes each session, fixes the question it will address, and approves the invitation list.

Whose name is on the record

A Council publication is approved by the Chair together with a majority of the voting members, under Article 12 of the Charter, and carries her dated written approval and her foreword. Anything issued without that approval is not a Council publication, and the Secretariat must say so when asked.

Who may say no

The Chair may refuse a publication, withdraw the Council's name from an activity, and require the Secretariat to put right a public statement within five working days.

Direction of accountability

An adviser is accountable to the company that appointed her. The Chair is accountable to the Council's stated purpose and holds the Secretariat to it.

Children first

Research involving children proceeds only with informed school and guardian consent, an opt-out that carries no penalty of any kind, including no effect on any commercial relationship the school has with PrepGraph, and the minimum personal data the question requires, deleted on a date stated in advance.

Questions and methods fixed in advance

The question, the method, the primary measure and the analysis are recorded and dated before data collection begins, and published with the study. Any departure from that record is listed in the study, so that a disappointing result cannot later be reframed as a different one.

Negative results are published

A study finding no effect, or an adverse effect, is published within ninety days of completion, on the same terms as one finding a benefit. The Chair may direct publication if it is not offered.

Disclosure of the convener's role

Every publication states who funded the work, who collected the data, whose platform was studied, who drafted it and who reviewed it. PrepGraph's only sight of a draft is the factual-accuracy correction on statements about its own systems: no editorial review, ten working days, silence publishes, and no power to delay, amend or withhold.

Participating schools see it first

Schools that took part receive the findings at least seven days before publication. They may correct factual descriptions of themselves. They may not alter the findings, and the study says so.

Open publication

Council research is published in full, with method and limitations, free to read and without registration or email capture, so that reading it does not generate a sales lead.

Council profile

A profile carrying her designation, biography and approved photograph, published alongside the Council's purpose and its non-statutory status.

Briefing before any appearance

Identification of relevant platforms, and, before each appearance, a written note setting out the current state of the question and what the Council can and cannot claim about it.

Editorial support

Research and drafting assistance for Council publications, forewords, articles and interviews on Council subjects. Nothing attributed to her is issued without her written approval of the final text, and approval of a draft is not approval of a later version. Whoever drafted is named on the output, together with their employer, whether or not that employer is PrepGraph.

Session materials

Invitations, agendas and session papers for Council activities, circulated in good time before each session.

Travel and logistics

Travel, local transport and reasonable lodging for engagements agreed in advance, arranged and paid by the Secretariat so that no cost of the office falls on the Chair, and kept separate from any question of remuneration.

A named coordinator

The Secretariat office accountable for scheduling, records and follow-through is the Executive Director & Secretary-General, Rekha Sharma, who may name one further person to carry the day-to-day work. Both are named in writing and reachable at council@prepgraph.com. If either changes, the Chair is told before the change takes effect.

On whose instruction

The Secretariat drafts, convenes and records on the Chair's written instruction, and the instruction is kept with the record it produced, so that anyone can later see who asked for what.

What the support does not extend to

Support is confined to Council business. The Secretariat does not build a personal profile for the Chair, place her in media unrelated to the Council's agenda, or draft material issued under her name on subjects outside the six pillars.

Time

Roughly four to six hours a month, plus events agreed in advance. If the load exceeds that, the remedy is a smaller programme, not longer hours, and the Chair decides which activities go.

What the hours contain

One agenda and review call with the Secretariat each month, reading and approving drafts, preparing and chairing sessions, correspondence with members she has invited, and the ethics confirmations.

Events

Each appearance is agreed individually. There is no standing commitment to a number of events, no minimum and no target.

Renewal and amendment

Continuation beyond the term is decided by the voting members and requires the Chair's written agreement; PrepGraph holds no vote and no veto over it. This instrument may not be amended during the term without the Chair's written agreement, and may not be amended so as to conflict with the Charter.

Records

Council records are held by the Secretariat, and copies are provided to the Chair within ten working days of a request, during the term and after it.

Confidentiality, bounded

Confidentiality covers PrepGraph's commercial information and the personal data of participants. It does not extend to the Council's conduct, its findings, or the Chair's own account of either.

Expenses

Actual and reasonable expenses for Council engagements, agreed in advance and either paid directly by the Secretariat or reimbursed against receipts. Expenses are not remuneration and are recorded separately.

Specific engagements

A discrete piece of work outside the mandate, such as a commissioned paper or a keynote requested by a third party, may carry an honorarium. It may not be paid by PrepGraph or by any party with a commercial interest in the Council's work, is agreed in a separate written engagement stating the deliverable and the sum before work begins, and is disclosed wherever the engagement is public.

What may never be paid

No payment, during this term or afterwards, may be linked directly or indirectly to PrepGraph's revenue, pipeline, referrals, school sign-ups or valuation.

If such an offer is made, it is declined.

No power to publish alone

She cannot issue a Council publication on her own authority. Approval requires her and a majority of the voting members. Her power over publication is the power to stop, not the power to release.

No power to choose her successor

She does not appoint, nominate or approve the next Chair, and neither does PrepGraph. The succession rules below are not hers to vary.

No authority to bind PrepGraph

She is not a director, employee, officer, shareholder or authorised signatory of PrepGraph, and may not act or be described as one.

No signing authority

She does not sign contracts, proposals, orders, tenders or letters of intent for PrepGraph or for any school.

No commercial representations

She does not quote prices, discounts, commercial terms or delivery commitments, and is not asked to.

No commitment of funds

She does not commit PrepGraph's funds. The Council's budget is proposed by the Secretariat and borne by PrepGraph. Her power over it is the power to refuse an activity, not to spend.

No certification, rating or approval

The Council does not certify, rate or approve schools, curricula or products, and the Chair therefore holds no such power to lend, in this term or in any future arrangement.

No procurement role

She does not recommend, shortlist, introduce or influence any purchase, by any school, of PrepGraph's product or any other.

A request that she do so is a breach of this framework by the person making it, whoever they are.

No data authority

She has no access to and no control over student personal data, and requires none for the office.

No obligation to endorse

She is never required to make, repeat or approve a claim about any product, including PrepGraph's, that she does not independently hold to be true.

No obligation to open doors

She is never asked to influence a procurement decision, arrange a commercial introduction, or make an approach on PrepGraph's behalf. She may decline without giving a reason.

Approval over her name and image

No use of her name, designation, photograph, likeness, voice or words in any publication, advertisement, presentation, proposal or channel without her written approval of that specific use. Approval of one use is never approval of another. This obligation survives the term.

The right to decline

Any appearance, interview, quotation or association may be declined at any time, including after acceptance, and without explanation.

No fundraising or solicitation

She is not asked to raise investment, solicit customers, or lend the office to a commercial pitch.

No student personal data

No access to identifiable student data is required of her, and none is routed to her.

Defence of the office

If the Council's administration is criticised publicly, PrepGraph answers for it in its own name, within five working days. The Chair is not asked to defend the Secretariat's conduct.

A clean exit

Within fourteen days of the end of the term her name, photograph and designation are removed from live channels, and the Secretariat confirms in writing that each has been removed.

Publications already issued keep her foreword, marked with the term she held.

What is declared

School, trust and board positions; directorships and shareholdings; paid advisory or speaking arrangements in education technology; family interests in any of the above; and any engagement with a school likely to appear in Council work. A person who is an employee, director, shareholder or paid adviser of any supplier of AI products to schools, or who otherwise derives material income from one, may not hold office as Chair, Founding Member or Expert Fellow and may not vote. Vendor staff may be heard as invited Observers only. PrepGraph is a supplier of AI products to schools and is inside that bar, not outside it.

Recusal

She withdraws from any Council decision, session or publication touching a declared interest, and the record shows who took the decision in her place.

The office is not a lever

The office is not used in her own institutional or commercial negotiations, and is not cited in support of any organisation other than the Council.

Third-party payments disclosed

Any honorarium or hospitality received from a third party for an appearance made as Chair is disclosed within fourteen days.

Gifts

Gifts of more than token value, from any party with an interest in the Council's work, are declined.

Removal

PrepGraph cannot remove the Chair and cannot end her term early. Removal is by two thirds of the voting members other than the Chair, on grounds stated in writing, put to her with an opportunity to answer before the vote is taken. The grounds, the vote and her answer are published.

When the office is vacated automatically

The office is vacated without a vote on death, on written medical incapacity certified by a registered medical practitioner, or on failure to discharge the duties of the office for ninety consecutive days without leave.

Announcement

A resignation is announced within seven days, plainly and without characterising her reasons. If she supplies a statement, it is published unedited alongside the announcement.

Her account is hers

She may state her reasons publicly at any time. No confidentiality obligation in this framework prevents her from describing the Council's conduct or her own, and PrepGraph waives any claim arising from that account.

Withdrawal of name

Her name, designation and photograph are removed from live channels within fourteen days. Issued publications retain her foreword with her term dates.

Succession

The voting members elect the successor. PrepGraph takes no part in that election and proposes no candidate, and the successor's declared interests are published before the successor takes office.

Commitments in flight

Engagements already accepted may be honoured, transferred or cancelled at her election.

Being used as a door-opener

Someone may treat an introduction from the Chair as a commercial asset.

The request is declined. A repeated request is stated grounds for resignation, and this framework says so in advance so that it need not be argued later.

Guidance a school can act on

When a deployment goes wrong anywhere, a body that speaks about responsible AI will be asked what it said.

The answer is specific, dated guidance that a school could actually have followed.

Time

Four to six hours a month in a steady month, more in a session or publication month.

The remedy for a heavy month is fewer activities, not longer hours.

Questions at her own institution

Colleagues, boards and peers may ask why she lends her standing to a company's forum.

The declaration of interests, the absence of any payment, and this framework are the answer.

Protections that last

A company's priorities, funding or leadership can change.

The publication licence, the confidentiality waiver and the right to state her reasons survive this framework and do not depend on who runs PrepGraph.

A published agenda

The Council's agenda for the year, set with its members and published, including the questions declined.

Members who can say what they did

A founding membership drawn across the constituencies the Charter names, each of whom can name a specific contribution. Number is not the measure.

Work a school could use on a Monday

Outputs a principal who buys nothing can apply directly: a governance checklist, a question set for reviewing a vendor, or a policy template, published free and without registration.

Evidence handled rigorously

Any research issued states its method, its limitations and its funding, and would survive review by a reader hostile to its conclusion.

The independence record

A complete record of the Council's decisions, with the Chair's refusals and the Secretariat's corrections stated.

Interests on the record

Declarations complete for the Chair and every Founding Member, published on the day each appointment takes effect and updated within fourteen days of any change.

Nothing sold in the Council's name

No procurement recommendation, no shortlist, no endorsement, and no use of Council contacts for solicitation.

The annual public record

The Charter's annual public record, published at the end of the term: what the Council did, what it cost, and what it learnt. There is one such document, under one name.