Guiding principles
- Acknowledge that the adoption of any recommendations for the
Board of Directors requires a majority vote of the task force members.
- Address issues within the timeline established.
- Affirm that you have no conflict of interest by serving on the
task force and will act in the best interests of ACAPT and those
stakeholders impacted by the work and recommendations of the task force.
- Be mindful to construct recommendations that do not cause harm to other stakeholder organizations or their members.
- Commit to active and consistent engagement throughout the existence of the task force.
- Contribute to the work that may include research, writing, meeting with others, etc.
- Disengage from any commercial interests.
- Endeavor to work toward a positive impact for all parties involved.
- Focus evaluations and suggestions solely on programmatic membership and not individual membership.
- Hold a neutral perspective, setting aside any preconceived
positions or opinions, and consider opinions and concerns of others with
an open mind.
- Involve multiple key invested parties in academic physical
therapy and not the proprietary interests of one practice area segment,
institution, clinic, or other organization.
- Keep confidential the audio recordings, transcription, notes and
any personal information obtained from the work of the task force.
- Pledge to actively listen, approach discussions with curiosity,
openly ask questions to honestly seek clarification and understanding,
speak with respect.
- Strive to address issues within established timelines.
- Vow to maintain the confidentiality of all privileged or
sensitive discussions and information, as well as the privacy rights of
individuals participating in the task force or engaged by the task
force.
- Understand your fiduciary responsibilities to ACAPT and its members:
Top
Duty of care
This duty requires all who work for,
volunteer, and/or represent ACAPT to exercise ordinary and reasonable
care in the performance of their duties, exhibiting honesty, and good
faith. All must act in a manner which they believe to be in the best
interests of the association, and with such care, including reasonable
inquiry, as an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use
under similar circumstances.
Top
Duty of loyalty
This is a duty of faithfulness to the
organization. This means that all who work for, volunteer, and/or
represent ACAPT must give undivided allegiance to the organization when
making decisions affecting the organization. In other words, all who
work, volunteer, and/or represent ACAPT cannot put personal interests
above the interests of the organization. All who work for, volunteer,
and/or represent ACAPT should be careful to disclose even potential
conflicts of interest to the board of directors and should recuse
themselves from deliberation and voting on matters in which they have
personal interests.
Duty of obedience
This duty requires all who work for,
volunteer, and/or represent ACAPT to act in accordance with the
organization's articles of incorporation, bylaws, and other governing
documents, as well as all applicable laws and regulations.
Top
Timeline
- Task force members will meet the timeline provided for each task force.
- The final work product(s) will reside on ACAPT’s website and shall be an ACAPT product.
Top
About ACAPT’s Institutes
ACAPT’s vision is to create a shared culture of
excellence to improve societal health. It’s mission is for member
institutions to be champions of innovation, inclusion, and inquiry in
academic physical therapy, which stems from the Criteria of Excellence,
and the Excellence Framework by which an institution may aspire to such excellence.
ACAPT’s organizational structure is designed to integrate these
criteria into the day-to-day operations, governance, mission, and
vision. To achieve this, the Board has established four Institutes:
The Institute for Academic Advancement
to support and promote characteristics that reflect an intentional
pursuit of excellence within the academic program or clinical sites.
This Institute will encourage institutional programmatic development;
foster leadership excellence; advance diversity, equity, and inclusion;
and facilitate programmatic innovation.
The Institute for Teaching and Learning to support and
promote curricular attributes that ensure outcomes of educational
excellence. This Institute will help to encourage institutional
educational excellence; foster curricular innovation; advance
educational technology; and integrate professional formation.
The Institute for Scholarly Inquiry to cultivate a
culture of scholarship and research and ongoing assessment of outcomes
in academic programs. This Institute will support scientific research to
grow the profession; encourage implementation of discoveries into
practice and education; develop best practices for scientific,
educational, and community-based research; cultivate research leadership
and bolster educational preparation through research outcomes.
The Institute for Community Engagement
to support and promote community and stakeholder engagement in the
shared pursuit of excellence. This Institute will promote institutional
educational partnerships; engage in societal health and wellness; and
enhance engagement across healthcare disciplines.
These four Institutes are supported by the Center for Excellence in
Academic Physical Therapy, established for the purpose of creating a
culture of excellence and assessment for academic physical therapy
through trustworthy and transparent data management and analysis.
Should you apply to a task force, you will be required to consent to the following ACAPT policies and guidelines:
Top
Confidentiality, conflicts of interest, noncompetition & copyright assignment
As a member of the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy
(“ACAPT”) Board of Directors (the “Board”), committee, task force,
and/or any other leadership group of ACAPT, you may be exposed to
certain confidential information related to ACAPT and its programs. We
cannot emphasize too strongly how important it is that this information
be kept confidential and not disclosed at any time nor under any
circumstance, other than as directed by the Board or ACAPT Executive
Director.
Therefore, as a condition of your being elected or appointed to and
serving on the Board or any of ACAPT’s volunteer leadership groups
(e.g., committee, task force, panel, etc.) and in recognition of the
importance of ACAPT programs or activities, you agree to the following:
- You will not disclose or cause to be disclosed to anyone outside
of the Board or any of ACAPT’s volunteer leadership groups any
confidential information related to ACAPT and its programs or
activities, specifically including but not limited to, documents, member
contact information, passwords, and other related information.
- You will keep all such confidential information in a safe and
secure place, such as a password-protected file, and will take all
reasonable steps to protect against inadvertent disclosure or theft of
the information.
- Upon expiration of your term on the Board or any of ACAPT’s
volunteer leadership groups you will promptly return to the ACAPT
Executive Director or designated ACAPT staff person the confidential
information that you have been sent or acquired in relation to the ACAPT
program or activity. If publication is in process, you will return
confidential information following publication.
- You will fully disclose any actual or potential conflicts of
interest of which you are aware or become aware that could conflict with
your duty of loyalty to ACAPT, its programs or activities, and will
avoid all such conflicts of interest that could be detrimental to ACAPT.
- In case of any such conflict, you shall refrain from
participating in the decision, present during deliberations and/or
discussion prior to the making of the decision.
- You will not use any of the confidential information described
above, or any other information derived from your service on the Board
or any of ACAPT’s volunteer leadership groups in any way to the
competitive harm or other detriment of ACAPT.
- You agree that all material and/or information in any manner
created, conceived or modified in whole or in part by you relating to
your service (the “Work”) shall be a “work made for hire,” and that
ACAPT, as the organization for which the Work is prepared, shall own all
right, title and interest in and to the Work, including the entire and
exclusive copyrights and patents in the Work and all rights associated
with the copyrights and patents, including but not limited to,
reproduction rights, distribution rights, the right to prepare
translations and other derivative works, moral rights, and rights to the
Works in all formats and media. You assign, and hereby do assign, to
ACAPT, on your own behalf and on behalf of your employer (if
applicable), all right, title and interest in and to the Work.
- You shall not have any authority or right to distribute,
publish, copy the Word, or create information or material derived from
the Work without the written permission of ACAPT, which may be withheld
for any reason.
Top
Antitrust compliance guidelines
Introduction
The antitrust laws are designed to insure that business is conducted
in an open, competitive atmosphere and that competition is not
unreasonably or unfairly restricted. These laws prohibit any agreement,
combination, or conspiracy that may result in an unreasonable restraint
of trade or an injury to competition. There are two antitrust statutes
which are of principal concern to individuals and firms who take part in
non-profit organizational activities: the Sherman Act and the Federal
Trade Commission Act. These laws prohibit contracts, combinations, and
conspiracies in restraint of trade.
Background
Certain kinds of conduct are exclusively presumed to be unreasonable
and therefore unlawful. Such conduct, which is considered to be
unlawful per se, consists of certain practices which clearly restrain
competition and have no other redeeming benefits. Examples of such
practices include:
- Agreements to fix prices, including agreements on the terms and conditions which affect the price of a product or service;
- Agreements to control markets or limit the production of a product or service;
- Agreements to engage in a group boycott or a refusal to deal with certain competitors, suppliers, insurers or patients;
- Agreements to allocate or divide markets.
The basic principle to be followed in avoiding antitrust violations
in connection with organization activity is: to see that no illegal
agreements, expressed or implied, are reached or carried out through the
organization. Members should also avoid engaging in conduct which may
give the appearance of an unlawful agreement. As a result, strict
compliance with the antitrust laws is essential to safeguard against
possible anti-competitive actions that could result in substantial costs
and damages.
Guidelines for compliance
Meetings are a normal, legitimate function of associations. However,
because association meetings bring together competitors, they must be
conducted with a view toward future antitrust scrutiny. To avoid
possible liability under the antitrust laws, the following broad topics
should not be discussed in a meeting:
DO NOT…
- Discuss prices, fees or rates, or features that can impact
(raise, lower or stabilize) prices such as discounts, costs, terms and
condition of sale, warranties or profit margins. Note that price fixing
may be inferred by involvement in price related discussions – whether
or not an agreement was made among competitors.
- Share information regarding current or future prices or fees for
products or services because such actions can have a substantial impact
on price and therefore be deemed price fixing. This includes not
sharing prices that members pay for products or charge for services
whether actual prices, averages or ranges. Sharing of prices that have
been made available publicly in literature, government prices, or that
have been made available on websites are permitted.
- Discuss refraining from selling products or services and do not
discuss customers or groups of customers to which certain products and
services are not to be sold or provided.
- Discuss boycotting or refusing to deal with certain competitors,
insurers, suppliers, patients, or groups of suppliers or patients.
- Discuss allocating territories or markets in which products and services can be sold.
- Discuss costs, inventories, product capacities, profits, profit
margins, market studies or surveys, market shares, or other current or
future business matters which may affect competition.
DO…
- Understand the purpose and authority of each group or meeting in which you participate.
- Ensure that staff sends out all correspondence and that
officers, directors, committee members, or other members do not hold
themselves out as speaking or acting with the authority when they do
not, in fact, have such authority.
- Adhere to prepared agendas for all meetings and object any time
meeting minutes do not actually reflect the matters which transpire.
- Ensure that if questions arise about the legal aspects or your
individual responsibilities under the antitrust laws, you seek advice
and counsel from your own counsel or from the staff and counsel of
ACAPT.
- Leave any meeting (formal or informal) where improper
discussions are held that might border on antitrust violations. Tell
everyone why you are leaving.
- If you believe a discussion or action may violate the antitrust
laws, speak up to say the discussion of that topic should end until
legal counsel is consulted. If the discussion does not end until counsel
is consulted, leave the meeting and contact counsel.
Top
Resources
The following resources will be provided to each task force:
- Use of ACAPT Qualtrics account to conduct stakeholder surveys, and in accordance with ACAPT’s policies and procedures for survey and data collection. (Surveys must be approved by ACAPT’s Center for Excellence Data Advisory Committee to ensure coordination and avoidance of redundant data collection by other ACAPT leadership groups).
- Use of a dedicated Basecamp project management space within
which to conduct online discussions, share documents, schedule meetings,
and more.
- Support from ACAPT staff and the ACAPT Board of Directors.
- Other resources may be made available upon request and evaluation by the Board and Executive Director.
- A budget determined by the Board of Directors to support the work.
Top