Member Standards of Professional Behavior
1.0 Introduction
The following “Member Standards” establish a shared standard for professional behavior for members (also referred to as “experts”) of Lee Enterprises Consulting (“LEC”). The success of every LEC engagement is predicated on the professional behavior of the parties involved – particularly the clients and experts. Any expert who violates these Member Standards may, at LEC’s sole discretion, be temporarily or permanently barred from membership within LEC, depending on the severity of the misconduct. LEC will update these Member Standards from time to time, though there may be unforeseen situations leading to membership revocation that are not explicitly listed in this policy.
2.0 Professionalism and Quality
LEC members are expected to communicate professionally, ethically, and in good faith – always displaying candor, courtesy, and integrity.
LEC reserves the right to temporarily or permanently revoke membership for experts deemed by LEC or our Clients, to have displayed a lack of professionalism or quality.
3.0 Fraud and Misrepresentation
LEC expects members to present themselves truthfully and accurately and will revoke any membership associated with fraudulent activity. Specifically:
- All information provided to LEC by members must be true, accurate and complete. Members agree to provide LEC with true, accurate and complete personal, education and experience information, and to promptly notify LEC if that information changes. LEC or a third-party background check service provider may verify information provided by or about a member. If requested, members must assist LEC or such third party in the verification process.
- Members must have legal right to use any materials they utilize for a project or client interaction. Work product must not include any fraudulent or misrepresentative data. Experts are required to disclose any sources used in work product in accordance with generally accepted research practices (i.e., proactively cite primary or secondary information sources that are not their own) as a matter of general practice and upon request from the client or LEC.
4.0 Discrimination, Harassment, and Abusive Conduct
LEC maintains a no-tolerance policy regarding all forms of discrimination, harassment, or abuse. Members may not refuse to provide or accept services based on a person’s race, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law. All reports of discrimination, harassment or abusive conduct are taken very seriously and may result in permanent revocation of LEC membership. If you feel that you have been treated inappropriately by another member or a client, please email info@lec-exec.com.
5.0 Conflicts of Interest
Members must declare a conflict of interest (real, potential, or perceived) to LEC. This includes, as an example, consultants making recommendations that may financially benefit themselves, their relatives, or associates (including promoting technologies or developers that consultants are associated with in any way).
Once a conflict has been clearly identified and disclosed to the client, the member will be allowed to continue the project if agreed to by both LEC and the client.
No preferential treatment will be given to relatives, friends, and/or associates.
6.0 Confidentiality
Members are expected to keep the business and affairs of LEC confidential.
Members are expected to keep all interactions with the client confidential, whether a Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) is signed or not.
- In projects where an NDA is signed, NDA’s between LEC and the client applies to all LEC members participating in that project. Members should strictly abide by its terms.
- In projects where no NDA is signed, members should only discuss client matters with LEC leadership and other LEC members involved in the project.
Failure to abide by these confidentiality terms could result in permanent revocation of LEC membership.
7.0 Promoting LEC
Members will make their best effort to promote LEC and its services to the marketplace and contribute to the financial success of LEC.
Members are expected to bring business opportunities to LEC. In such cases, LEC will provide compensation to the member for such business.
8.0 Mediation Processes and Procedures
LEC may assist in the fair and timely resolution of a complaint or dispute between members. LEC may take the following actions, including but not limited to:
- Contact all members involved to obtain information;
- Review project-related data and correspondence;
- Request additional materials evidencing communications between the involved parties;
- Coordinate mediation between the members involved in the complaint or dispute;
- Determine an appropriate outcome, including, but not limited to, membership revocation, partial payment, payment refund, and/or project re-staffing;
- Communicate the outcome to all involved parties; and
- Promptly carry out the mediation outcome.
LEC expects all members to cooperate with any investigations or other activities by LEC in furtherance of the above procedures.
LEC reserves the right to any other remedies available under applicable law.
9.0 Project Quotes for Clients
Unless specifically approved otherwise, only LEC leadership provides project or cost quotes to the client. Members should never discuss their billing rates or fees with the client directly.
10.0 Member Project Terms
10.1 Capabilities
Members should only accept engagement where they have the credentials, skills, experience, and training to carry out the work requested.
10.2 Estimating Work Required for a Project
Member estimates for project work should go only to LEC leadership, and should include: Scope, Deliverables, Methodology, and Expert’s cost to perform work:
- Scope of Work: Clients often do not know exactly what they want, or cannot properly articulate what they are looking for. If, after the business has been awarded, the scope changes, the expert should make every reasonable effort to accommodate the client. If more hours are required, and a new quote is necessary, it will be done through LEC. Any changes in scope must be in writing, approved by both LEC and the client.
- Deliverables: The deliverables are what the expert is promising to deliver to the client for the quote submitted. Consulting engagements require us to be clear and concise as to the deliverables (i.e., no vague commitments). Please ensure to include the quote timing, travel (if applicable; often half-rate is used for travel time), and the manner of delivery of the final report (e.g., electronic, PDF) are included. Deliverables may have to be adjusted to fit the budget of the client.
- Methodology: Experts should define how they will be investigating the scope and performing the deliverables.
- Costs: Quotes are often on a project basis, where the expert must estimate the number of hours to carry out the work. We encourage experts to include a small “buffer” in this type of quote, but please remember that estimates should be reasonable for the task.
10.3 Anticipation of Project Failure/Impossibility
If the client requests a study or other work on a project that will likely not succeed, the member is obliged to warn LEC leadership of the unlikely success of the project before beginning the work.
10.4 Charge-Out Rates
LEC has standard rates we utilize for client work, based on the consultant(s) level in the organization. These rates serve as a guide, as they are generally found to be acceptable in our industry and work. Each consultant has the final say on their hourly billing rate for every project. Consultants are free to charge a rate that is different from the LEC standard, keeping in mind that the total quote given to the client will be a significant factor in whether the client awards LEC the project. It is understood that LEC will raise the consultant quote to cover its business costs, and that higher rate will be included in the final quote that is sent to the client.
10.5 Post-Project Considerations
If hours are remaining (based on the quote) after the completion of deliverables, consultants are encouraged to provide further assistance to the client at no further cost, up to the total hours in the original quote.
All clients belong to LEC, not the consultant unless the consultant can demonstrate a business relationship with the client in the past 24 months. LEC will have a first-right-of refusal for all subsequent business with the client and related entities for the following 24 months from the completion of the deliverables to the client.
10.6 Member Payment
LEC is responsible for payment to the member. Members will be paid upon receipt of funds in full to LEC from the client.
11.0 Questions
If you have any questions about these Member Standards, please contact info@lec-exec.com.