Terms of Reference (July 2008)

Title
The body will be known as the Security Professionals Task Force (SPTF)

Objectives
The SPTF will coordinate activities of security professionals by:

• Seeking security association agreement to the in-principle statement for the advancement of security professionals
• Refining and advancing five cross grouping initiatives of:
  • New Security Umbrella Entity Project
  • Security Professionals’ Education Council
  • Security Professionals’ Certification Board
  • Security Professionals’ Information Sharing Project
  • Multi-security association/group/interest conference

Membership Criteria
The membership of the SPTF shall be considered against the following criteria:

1. Demonstrated commitment and engagement to the security profession and issues considered at the Congress
2. A willingness to allocate appropriate commitment of time to the activities of the SPTF (eg 100 hours over a 12 month period)
3. The ability to commit additional resources and support to the work of the SPTF
4. To be selected for their individual characteristics that broadly reflect the profession including their experience and professionalism as judged by their peers or the breadth and depth of their professional expertise

Management
The SPTF will have regard to advancing the cross-group initiatives and the in-principle statement of agreement established at the 2008 Security Professionals’ Congress, but is not limited to these.  The SPTF will work to forge consensus on its decisions and statements concerning the issues under consideration. Where consensus is not reached a two thirds majority will be seen as determining the SPTF position on an issue.

The SPTF shall:

• Develop an order of business with appropriate action and project plans;
• Ensure that appropriate cross-section security disciplines are reflected in the SPTF and its working groups;
• Engage with relevant Security Associations and the general security profession to advance the SPTF activities;
• Members should effectively share the workload and balance the allocation and completion of tasks across the SPTF;
• By internal agreement may coopt members to the SPTF to ensure the achievement of SPTF goals and activities;
• Engage with government at all levels; and
• Be cognisant of international and trans-national developments in the security profession.

To advance the five cross-group initiatives the SPTF members will:

• Establish a working group for each initiative.
• Elect to assist and oversee one working group.
• Report to the SPTF at each meeting ont eh progress of the working group.

That the work of the Task Force should be reviewed quarterly and the Task Force to complete its work and report to the security associations and wider security profession by the end of May 2009.

Communications
The SPTF will develop a Communications Strategy with the following characteristics and objectives:

• The Communications Strategy will identify and define the key messages.
• The Communications Strategy will have quality, compliance and control mechanisms to ensure that information promulgated from the Task Force supports and sustains the reputation of the security profession and in no way diminishes it.
• The Communication Strategy will create an awareness of the Task Force and its role, advise of access and opportunities for the public, the security profession and governments to engage with the Task Force and its work and, further, ensure mechanisms to inform stakeholders of progress towards agreed goals.

Output
The SPTF will provide papers by the end of May 2009 making recommendations concerning the future leadership, management and development of the security profession in the context of, but not limited to, the following areas of work;

• New Security Umbrella Entity Project
• Security Professionals’ Education Council
• Security Professionals’ Information Sharing Project
• Security Professionals’ Certification Board
• Multi-security association/group/interest conference

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