By Katherine Bethany, FSAVE – Immediate Past President, SAVE International
The SAVE International Board of Directors recently approved a formal standard operating procedure for an Ethics Review Committee. This policy is a direct result of several member requests and is based on similar ethics procedures from other professional societies.
If you are interested in serving on this committee or know of someone who should be considered, please contact the SAVE business office at info@value-eng.org. The policy can be found on the SAVE website at www.value-eng.org/About, but the balance of this article highlights a few areas of this new procedure.
Through its Standards of Conduct (Standards), SAVE promotes ethical behavior by its members and those who have been certified by the Society. These Standards provide aspirational principles of ethics and represents the ideals and behavior of how SAVE members and certificants should function. If matters involving unethical behavior arise, SAVE offers a formal ethics complaint process. All ethical matters are taken seriously and are investigated by the Ethics Review Committee (ERC) on behalf of the SAVE Board of Directors and Certification Board.
The ERC investigates and resolves ethics complaints related to violations of the Standards that have been filed against:
- SAVE members,
- Non-members who hold or previously held a SAVE certification,
- Non-members who apply for a SAVE certification,
- Non-members who serve SAVE in a volunteer capacity, and/or
- Organizations with SAVE members and/or non-members as noted above.
The ERC is authorized to resolve and decide all ethics matters brought to the Society, and to order disciplinary or remedial actions.
The ERC consists of a minimum of five (5) members, serving staggered two (2) year terms. Membership on the ERC is volunteer and not compensated, and committee members are not anonymous. The ERC members are SAVE members in good standing and generally are appointed from those who have held elected positions in SAVE in the past, but no longer are on either the SAVE Board or Certification Board.
The SAVE Executive Committee and the Certification Board Chairperson make the appointments to the ERC. Suggestions for people to serve on the ERC can be solicited from the membership at any time. Members observe strict confidentiality requirements and may not discuss any matters publicly. They may not participate in reviews if a possible conflict of interest exists.
Filing a Complaint
Any entity or individual may file a complaint concerning a possible violation of the Standards, regardless of whether the entity or individual is a member of SAVE. A complaint must be submitted in writing to the SAVE business office using the designated online form.
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