The IDESG became an independent nonprofit corporation on October 21 having been registered in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Next the corporation is pursuing tax-exempt status with the IRS. This move is a major first step toward implementing an identity ecosystem that is driven by business and organizational leaders in partnership with a broad and diverse group of stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

The new Board of Directors is made up of the elected members of the Management Council to maintain continuity and ensure the continued representative governance provided by the Rules of Association (ROA). The new Board met on November 26 and elected the corporate board officers who are Peter F. Brown, President; Kimberly Little, Treasurer; and Kay Chopard Cohen, Secretary. The corporate Bylaws were approved as revised by Plenary input from the comment period in September 2013 and incorporating the entire Rules of Association by reference.

Next the new Board will take on the tasks of raising revenues to ensure sustainability and creating the infrastructure of the organization to ensure a viable and robust membership body. 

2. Membership Transition

Memberships now transition to the IDESG, Inc. as the unincorporated organization no longer exists. Official notice of the transition has been sent to all Member Representatives and Individual Members informing them of the transition to IDESG, Inc. No action is needed at this time. No other changes will be made at this time. As always members may choose to terminate their membership at any time by submitting written notice.

Included in the notice of the transition is also notice that membership fees will be coming in the future. However the amounts and timing have yet to be determined. Notice of membership fees will be given no later than 30 days in advance and will likely be given with 90 days or more notice before collection of any fees will begin.

3. Goal of Self Sustainment 

With the exciting first steps of standing up a new nonprofit, the first order of business for the new Board of Directors will be creating a budget and securing sources of revenue to sustain the new organization. The Board has begun the steps necessary to receive IRS tax exemption status and the administrative requirements to apply for and receive federal grants.

Over the last six months the Management Council has provided research into the membership fees of other similar nonprofit organizations and provided a straw man proposal of a possible membership fees schedule for the IDESG. As plenary feedback has been received the straw man proposal has been modified and refined. Now that IDESG, Inc. is official, it is necessary that the Board of Directors make a decision on the fees schedule and the timeframe for implementing fees. The current proposal and information from the online Plenary on membership fees is posted on the IDESG website at https://www.idecosystem.org/November20. In addition a Discussion Forum topic has been opened on membership fees, https://www.idecosystem.org/content/membership-fees-discussion, and everyone is encouraged to provide comments and feedback for this important decision. Comments are due online by December 6, 2013. After that the IDESG Board of Directors will compile the feedback and the research done previously by the Management Council to make decisions on membership dues and a fee schedule. Your input is very important.

4. Pilots Presenting their Updates and Lessons Learned

The NSTIC Pilot projects that have been ongoing since the start of federal fiscal year 2013 will be providing their updates on progress and lessons learned in a dedicated webinar on December 16. Five presentations will be made with time for questions and answers. Please be sure to participate and learn about their critical work and find out what discoveries they are making as they contribute to the creation of the identity ecosystem as well.

The webinar will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be recorded and made available on the website after the event. Jeremy Grant, director of the NSTIC NPO, will be the host and moderator. Don't miss out on the opportunity to hear directly from the pilots in this dedicated web event. 

Webinar login information at:  https://www.idecosystem.org/dec-16-pilots-webinar. 

5. A Look Back at the Accomplishments of 2013

The year began with an incorporated IDESG adopting its Rules of Association and creating a governance structure to proceed. The members approved the formation of eight committees and their charters and the committees began their work in earnest.

Work Plan and Priority Objectives Adopted

The Management Council through its Work Planning Subcommittee put forward a Work Plan and Priority Objectives Report which provided high level guidance to the IDESG. Presented in three parts, the first section focused on Priority Objectives answering the question "What must the IDESG accomplish in 2013?" The second portion focused on structural issues to reexamine the organization as a whole and answer the question "Is the current Committee structure appropriate for achieving the IDESG's goals?"  The last portion of the report made recommendations for Priority IDESG Activities in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of creating the identity ecosystem framework. The Management Council approved this Work Plan in April 2013.

Strategic Planning Engagement

The Communications and Outreach Subcommittee of the Management Council began working on messaging and requested that the full organization engage in a strategic planning process. Outside consultants were retained and representatives of the plenary and the stakeholder categories were engaged at the individual, small group, and plenary-wide levels. Reports on the culmination of the input will be reported at the January 2014 plenary with mission statements, vision statement and value proposition as well as looking at what makes the IDESG different from other organizations. This work will dovetail and be aligned with the work plans and action steps also underway in the committees.

Priority Action Dashboard

The Work Planning Subcommittee coordinated with the Chairs and officers of the Committees along with the Management Council to create a Priority Action Dashboard. The Dashboard tracks progress of priority work items, interdependencies between committees and work products, and documents the flow of work in the organization. The Dashboard is maintained by the Chairs and the Management Council in the biweekly All Chairs call and is posted on the website at http://www.idecosystem.org/sites/all/files/dashboard.htm 

or by clicking "Dashboard" in the main menu.

Collaboration Tools Enhanced

The Secretariat continued to support the work of the IDESG to be able to collaborate on the work needed to establish the identity ecosystem framework through the work of the Committees of the Plenary and the Management council. Some of the tools created and implemented during 2013 include group calendars posted on the website for committees, ad hoc groups, the Management Council and the Plenary. These group calendars include information on scheduled meetings and the access information along with agendas when available and the roster of members. These calendars are open to the public and maintain the openness and transparency of the work of the IDESG. A Wiki was also stood up providing the Committees with work space to do collaborative work on specific items. Each committee also has a document repository to share documents within their committee and plenary-wide.

The Secretariat has continued to enhance the remote access for participants at all levels. The committees use mail listservs to communicate with members and nonmembers who have joined and the archives are available to the public. Committee meetings are held by teleconference with web tools as well as WebEx environments. More importantly the plenaries have been held both virtually and as combination in-person and remote meetings. The culmination of these enhanced capabilities were showcased when the government shutdown forced the closure of the NIST conference facilities slated to host the October plenary and the IDESG through its Secretariat was able to quickly transform into a virtual plenary with satellite remote locations hosting small in-person groups simultaneously with the virtual broadcast.

6. Register to Attend the 7th Plenary Meeting