Chapter Lead Agreement

The CIO Club  •  thecioclub.com  •  Version: 1.0  •  Effective: 01/04/2026

Between Caresoft Foundation, 311, Mahesh Industrial Estate , Silver Park, Mira Road East , Thane -401107, Mumbai, India ("the Foundation", "we") and the member appointed to lead a chapter ("Chapter Lead", "you").

Thank you for offering. Chapters are the part of this Club that will decide whether it becomes a community or stays a website, and they only work because members volunteer to run them.

1. The role

You are appointed to lead the [chapter name] chapter — a country, city or regional group within The CIO Club.

You remain a member and are bound by the Membership Terms and Community Guidelines as everyone is. This Agreement adds to those; it does not replace them.

2. Not employment, not paid

• This is a voluntary role. It creates no employment, agency, partnership or worker relationship with the Foundation.
• It is unpaid. There is no fee, honorarium, commission or revenue share, and none will be introduced without a new agreement.
• Agreed out-of-pocket costs are reimbursed (§12).
• You are not insured by us and do not act on our behalf except as §5 allows.
• Your own employer's time is yours to manage. We will never ask you to prioritise the Club over your job, and if the role becomes too much, say so — stepping down is normal (§18).

3. What you do

4. What good looks like

• Meetings happen when you said they would. Cancelling is fine; silence is not. Six people reliably beats twenty occasionally.
• More than three people speak. A chapter where the lead talks and everyone listens is a webinar.
• New members get spoken to. The first session decides whether someone comes back.
• Someone asks a real question. That only happens once people believe the room is safe, which is mostly about how you handle the first awkward one.
• You are not doing all of it. Hand sessions to members. A chapter that depends entirely on you will not survive you.

5. What you cannot do

Where someone asks you for any of the above, say you will refer it and do. Nobody expects a volunteer to adjudicate.

6. Your job in the room

6.1 Open every session with this

6.2 If it comes up anyway

• Interrupt. Immediately, out loud, without apologising for it. "Sorry — that's one we can't go into. Happy to talk about how the implementation went."
• Do not let it move to a side conversation, a breakout or a WhatsApp group.
• Report it to [email protected] afterwards, with what was said and by whom.
• Record in the minutes that the subject was raised and stopped. That record protects every person in the room, including you.

6.3 Things you must never do

• Put pricing, benchmarking or "what are we all paying" on an agenda.
• Circulate a spreadsheet, poll or survey asking what members pay.
• Relay what one member told you about a vendor's pricing to another.
• Organise a joint approach to a vendor, or a collective position on terms.
• Facilitate a discussion about staff pay between members who compete for the same people.

7. Member data

• Use it only to run the chapter. Invitations, follow-ups, introductions.
• Never export, copy, download or retain member contact data — not to your own CRM, not to a personal spreadsheet, not to a mailing tool.
• Never use it for your own business, another organisation, recruitment or research.
• Never pass a member's details to a third party, including a venue or a speaker, without that member's consent.
• Use blind copy for any email to more than one member. A visible recipient list is a disclosure.
• You process this data on the Foundation's behalf and under our instructions, within the Privacy Policy.
• On stepping down, delete everything and confirm in writing that you have (§18).

8. Confidentiality

• Everything in a members-only session is Chatham House (Terms §11), and that binds you more than anyone — you heard it because you were convening.
• Do not repeat, attribute or publish what a member said, including to another member who was not there.
• Do not share chapter material, member lists or attendance with anyone outside the Foundation.
• Where a member tells you something in confidence as the lead, keep it — except where §17 requires escalation.
• These obligations survive the end of your appointment and your membership.

9. If you work for a vendor

That includes consultancies whose clients are healthcare technology vendors, and it applies to any company connected to the Foundation exactly as it applies to anyone else.

• If you move to a vendor role, tell us immediately. You stay a member under the Membership Terms as they apply to you, but the chapter lead role ends. That is not a judgement on you — it is what makes members willing to speak in your chapter.
• Where your role is genuinely borderline — an adviser, an academic with industry funding — tell us and we will take a view with the member advisory group. Disclosed and discussed is always fine; discovered is not.

10. Conflicts of interest

• Declare in writing any financial interest you or your family hold in a healthcare technology company, any paid advisory role, and any board seat.
• Do not use the role to benefit your own employer, a company you have an interest in, or a friend's business.
• Do not invite a speaker you have an undisclosed financial relationship with. Disclose it and we will usually say yes anyway.
• Where you are personally in a dispute with a member or a vendor, step out of anything in the chapter that touches it.
• If a member could reasonably perceive favouritism, that is a problem even if nothing improper happened. Manage the perception.

11. Running events

• Agree the format and date with us before publishing it, so it does not clash and so we can support it.
• Chatham House is the default. Say so at the start. Do not record a members-only session unless every participant agrees.
• Where a vendor representative attends or speaks, announce it in advance and make their role visible in the room.
• Accessibility: ask about requirements at registration and act on what you are told. Online sessions should have captions available.
• Photography at in-person events is opt-in. Ask the room, and respect anyone who declines.
• Keep the venue's own terms. You are a guest there in the Club's name.
• For anything beyond a routine meeting — a large event, a paid venue, a co-hosted session — talk to us first (§12).

12. Money

• Agreed out-of-pocket costs are reimbursed — venue, refreshments, travel where we approved it in advance — against receipts, within [30] days.
• Get written approval before incurring anything. We will not refuse a reasonable cost, but we cannot reimburse what we did not agree.
• Do not commit the Foundation to a contract, a venue booking or a cancellation liability.
• Do not accept gifts, hospitality or sponsorship personally in connection with the role. Refer any offer to [email protected].

13. Local sponsors

A local company may offer to sponsor your chapter or host a session. That can be genuinely useful — and it goes through us, not through you.

• Refer every offer to [email protected]. We handle terms, labelling and the agreement.
• Never promise a sponsor access to members, contact details, or a speaking slot.
• Where a session is sponsored, it is announced as sponsored when registration opens, not on the day.
• A venue host is not thereby a sponsor and gets no platform. A welcome and a thank-you is the whole of it.
• The Sponsorship Policy binds you as it binds us.

14. Using the name

• Describe yourself as "Chapter Lead, The CIO Club [chapter]" — on your profile, on LinkedIn, in an email signature. Not as staff, a director or an officer.
• Use our materials and templates for chapter communications. Get approval before producing anything carrying the Club's name that we did not supply.
• Do not register a domain, social handle, WhatsApp group name or company name containing "The CIO Club", and do not set up a chapter presence outside the Platform without agreeing it with us.
• Rights end when the appointment does. Remove the title and any Club branding within [15] days.

15. What we give you

• A named contact at the Foundation, who answers within [2] working days.
• Session formats, agenda templates, discussion prompts and the opening script in §6.1.
• Invitation and reminder templates, and help with scheduling across time zones.
• Speaker suggestions, including members in other chapters worth hearing from.
• Platform tools for attendance, events and chapter communications.
• Onboarding before you start, and a chapter leads' call [quarterly] so you are not doing this alone.
• We take the difficult conversations. Escalate and we will deal with it (§16).

16. When to escalate

17. If something goes wrong at an event

• Harassment or abuse: stop it in the room, separate the people, make sure the affected person is safe and has someone with them. Report to conduct@ the same day. Do not attempt to mediate or resolve it yourself.
• Someone unwell or injured: local emergency services first, venue staff second, us third. Your judgement in the moment is the right one.
• Alcohol at an event: your call whether to have it. If you do, make sure there is a good non-alcoholic option and that nobody is pressed. Most conduct problems at professional events involve alcohol.
• You are not expected to manage a serious incident alone. Call your named contact, whatever the hour where we are.

18. Term and stepping down

• Initial term [12] months, renewing by agreement.
• You can step down at any time, for any reason, with [30] days' notice where you can give it — less if you need to. Life happens and jobs get busy; this is a volunteer role and nobody will think badly of you.
• On stepping down: hand over chapter records and upcoming commitments, introduce your successor if there is one, delete all member data and confirm in writing, and remove the title and branding within [15] days.
• You remain a member, and we hope you stay active in the chapter you built.
• Confidentiality (§8) and data obligations (§7) survive.

19. If we end the appointment

Ending the appointment does not end your membership unless the Membership Terms are separately breached. Where a decision is disputed, it is reviewed by the member advisory group, not by club staff.

20. Liability and insurance

21. General

• Governing law: India. Good-faith discussion for [30] days, then arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, sole arbitrator, seated in Mumbai, in English, by video where you are outside India.
• Not transferable. You may not delegate the role or appoint a co-lead without our agreement.
• Amendment on [30] days' notice, except changes required for legal compliance, which may be immediate.
• Survival: §7, §8, §10, §14 and §20 survive the end of the appointment.
• Severability and waiver as standard. An electronic record under the Information Technology Act, 2000.