The Glitter Standard · document
The Standards Council
Who owns the Ten, how members are chosen, the independent chair, and where the mark may go.
Terms of reference, how members are chosen, the invitation to join, and the role of the independent chair. Published, as promised on the governance page.
1. What the Council is for
The Standards Council owns the content of The Glitter Standard. The Ten, the Testing Protocol and the training are its to approve and to change. The company that runs The Glitter Standard cannot alter any of them alone, and that separation is the difference between a standard and a marketing scheme.
In one line. The board runs the organisation. The Council owns what the badge means.
2. What the Council decides
- The Ten: any addition, removal or change of wording.
- The Testing Protocol, including what Ambassadors check and the published visiting rates.
- The content of the Inclusion Lead course and the team module.
- The recognition schedule: what other training and accreditation counts.
- Delisting appeals at stage two, and any question referred by the board about whether a venue should keep the badge.
- The annual published report on area pass rates, the Welcome Gap and delistings.
- Any adaptation of the Ten for a territory outside the UK, and whether the mark may be licensed there at all (section 8).
What the Council does not decide: pricing, partnerships, staffing, spending or anything else about running the organisation. Those belong to the board, which reports to the Council on them.
3. Who sits on it
Ten members, plus the independent chair attending as the link to the board. Never fewer than eight.
| Seat | Filled by | How |
|---|---|---|
| LGBTQIA+ organisation | A national organisation working on LGBTQIA+ safety, hate or community support | Invited |
| Neurodiversity organisation | A national organisation working on autism, ADHD or related differences | Invited |
| Disability organisation | A national organisation or a disability-led consultancy | Invited |
| Race and faith organisation | An organisation working on race equity in hospitality or the night-time economy | Invited |
| Students' union | An officer or senior member of staff from a venue-owning union | Invited |
| Licensing professional | A licensing officer, solicitor or practitioner, ideally an Institute of Licensing member | Invited |
| Hospitality operator | Someone who runs venues: an area manager, an operations director or a licensee | Invited |
| Lived experience (three seats) | People who sit for themselves, not for an employer, and who have experienced being failed on a night out. At least one seat is held by a disabled LGBTQIA+ person | Open application |
| Independent chair | The CIC's independent chair | Attends, does not hold a seat |
3.1 How invited members are chosen
The founders approach a named person rather than an organisation's general inbox, explain the commitment in writing, and confirm the appointment in an exchange of emails. An organisation may nominate an alternate. Members are named on the website as they accept.
3.2 How the lived-experience seats are filled
- Applications open publicly on the website and through Ambassador recruitment, community groups and students' union societies.
- A short form: who you are, what you want to change about nights out, and what you would bring. No CV, no qualifications, no interview panel of strangers.
- Selection by the two founders together with one member already appointed to an organisational seat, so that the seats meant to be independent are not filled by the founders alone.
- If more good applications arrive than there are seats, the Council may co-opt additional lived-experience members for a single year.
3.3 Terms
- Two years, renewable once. The first Council is appointed with half the seats for one year and half for two, so that terms stagger from the start.
- Unpaid. Expenses reimbursed on receipt on the same basis as Ambassadors.
- A member may resign at any time. A member may be removed only by a vote of the Council itself, never by the board.
- Nobody sits who has a commercial interest in Glitterbomb Events or in any company connected with a founder. Every member declares interests on joining, at every meeting and within fourteen days of a change.
4. How it works
- Chair of the Council elected by the Council from among its members for two years. Never a founder and never the CIC's independent chair.
- Four meetings a year, online, two hours, with papers a week in advance. Extra meetings by request of the Council chair or any three members.
- Quorum of five, including at least two lived-experience members and at least one organisational seat.
- Decisions by consensus where possible, otherwise a simple majority of those present. The chair has no casting vote; a tie means the proposal falls and returns to the next meeting.
- Changes to the Ten take effect no sooner than ninety days after the decision, and every accredited venue is notified in writing. Nothing changes mid-cycle for a venue already assessed against the previous version.
- Minutes published on the website within fourteen days, with anything commercially confidential or personally identifying redacted and the fact of redaction noted.
- Accessibility. Papers in plain English, sent a week ahead, in any format a member asks for. Meetings captioned. A member may send comments in writing instead of attending and they carry the same weight.
5. The invitation, as sent
Model invitation
"The Glitter Standard is an inclusion accreditation for pubs, bars, clubs, students' union venues and events. It sits on top of Best Bar None as ten things a venue does, with trained staff, unannounced visits by community Ambassadors and a badge that can be taken away. We are forming a Standards Council that will own the content of the Ten, the way venues are checked and the training. The people who run the organisation will not be able to change any of it without the Council. We would like to invite you to hold the [seat] seat. It is four online meetings a year of two hours, papers a week in advance, unpaid with expenses, for a two-year term. You would be named on our website and in our published minutes. Everything about us is published before you decide: the Ten, the protocol, the governance, the prices and the evidence. If you would rather send someone else from your organisation, or would like to talk it through first, both are welcome."
6. Until the Council has met
The founders hold the Ten, the Testing Protocol and the training unchanged. They may correct an error of fact or a broken link and must report every such change to the first meeting. They may not add, remove or reword a point of the Ten. Appeals are heard by the two founders jointly, and from the day the independent chair is appointed by the chair together with a director not involved in the decision.
7. The independent chair
A director of the CIC who is neither founder and has no interest in Glitterbomb Events or in any company connected with a founder. Chairs the board. Appointed before the CIC is incorporated, by agreement of both founders as members, for a three-year term.
7.1 What the role is
- A full director of the CIC with the same legal duties as any director, and the chair of the board.
- Sets and approves every payment from the CIC to a founder or to a company connected with a founder under the published remuneration policy, with the connected founder abstaining.
- Benchmarks and approves any delivery contract with a company connected with a founder against a third-party quote, and records the benchmark.
- Receives and decides any complaint about the firewall between The Glitter Standard and Glitterbomb Events, or about the conduct of either founder.
- Sits on delisting decisions and on appeals until the Council takes them over.
- Attends the Standards Council as the link to the board.
- Signs off the annual report before publication, including the published figures for founder pay and connected-company contracts.
7.2 Who we are looking for
Someone who has run something and been accountable for it: a chief executive or trustee of a charity, a licensing or regulatory professional, a finance or governance specialist, or someone with lived experience of the communities The Glitter Standard serves who has held a board role before. No sector experience is required. A fee may be paid; whether one is paid and how much is set by the members and published. Expenses are reimbursed. The commitment is four board meetings and four Council meetings a year, plus decisions by email between them.
7.3 How the post is filled
Advertised on the website and through the partner network, with a plain-English role description, a short written application and a conversation with both founders. The appointment is minuted, published and recorded in the register of interests. If no suitable candidate is found before the first venue is accredited, the founders will say so publicly on the governance page rather than let the promise pass unremarked.
8. Where the mark may go
The mark is licensed only in territories where the people the Ten protects are lawful. Where same-sex relationships or gender transition are criminalised, the Ten cannot be delivered as written, and a version with those parts removed would not be The Glitter Standard. No exception. Any territory licence, and any local adaptation of the Ten, needs the Council's approval before it is granted.