Membership Lead

Position: Membership & Seat Completion Lead — The Global Risks Forum (GRF) / Nexus Governance System
Type: Membership growth, seat completion, and legitimacy-by-representation governance leadership role (non-executive; strictly non-executing)
Board: Council leaders are considered for Board/Trustee nomination after joining and serving in good standing
Location: International (distributed, hybrid)
Term: 3 Years
Time commitment: ~15–30 hours per month (build-year cadence; surge periods around onboarding waves, renewals, and major convenings)
Apply here: https://therisk.global/work/job/membership-lead/

Context and Purpose

A whole-of-society forum is only legitimate if representation is real: seats are filled, participation is active, and no single bloc dominates outcomes. The fastest path to failure is predictable: weak onboarding, unclear expectations, participation drop-off, sponsor concentration, and “closed club” perception. Growth without integrity creates capture; integrity without growth creates irrelevance. GRF must do both—at the same time.

The Global Risks Forum (GRF) stewards the standards-and-recognition pillar of the Nexus governance system. Its outputs must be trusted across constituencies and regions. That trust depends on membership discipline: qualified, diverse, active participants who understand due process, handling rules, and claims discipline—and who can sustain the work over time.

The Membership & Seat Completion Lead is accountable for building and maintaining the membership engine and seat coverage needed for legitimacy: pipeline, qualification, fit-and-proper onboarding, participation health, renewals, and re-seating—while enforcing neutrality, anti-capture safeguards, and conflict controls. This is governance—not execution. The role does not sell services, steer procurement, or imply endorsements; it builds the membership system that makes GRF governable and credible.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the annual membership growth plan and quarterly seat completion targets by constituency (public authorities, research, operators, finance, civil society/media, community/Indigenous) and by region.
• Treat membership growth and seat completion as core leadership outcomes: measurable pipeline, conversion, retention, and participation quality.
• Maintain legitimacy-by-representation: ensure balanced coverage and prevent dominance by any employer, sector, funder, or geography.
• Operate the membership pipeline: outreach → qualification → disclosures/fit-and-proper → onboarding → participation health → renewal.
• Define qualification criteria and onboarding requirements: independence posture, handling readiness, due-process literacy, and claims-discipline expectations.
• Ensure Member-in-Good-Standing (MGS) discipline: participation, disclosures, contribution/eligibility, and conduct compliance with time-bound cure pathways.
• Coordinate with COI/Ethics and Safeguards functions to ensure onboarding and re-seating respect independence, recusal needs, and protected participation posture.
• Maintain re-seating and replacement protocols: vacancy management, term clocks, succession planning, and role readiness checks.
• Ensure participation is productive: route members into working groups, reviewer pools, and cycle roles aligned to competence requirements.
• Operate renewal and delinquency pathways: fair notices, transparent cure windows, documented outcomes, and appeal routing where required.
• Maintain claims and communications discipline for membership: prevent “membership” being marketed as endorsement, certification, or privileged access.
• Produce membership dashboards: seat coverage, participation health, concentration metrics, and onboarding throughput.

Compensation, Remuneration, and Expenses

This role is designed to be trust-maximizing and capture-resistant.

• Governance authority is not paid. Compensation is never linked to votes, recognition outcomes, enforcement actions, dispute results, standards outcomes, market outcomes, or influence. No success fees. No pay-to-recognize.
• Operational workload may be compensated (where permitted). If build-year operational work is required (pipeline ops, onboarding systems, renewal administration, dashboards), compensation may be provided only for clearly defined operational services—scoped, time-bounded, deliverable-based, independently approved, and auditable, with conflict safeguards.
• Expenses may be reimbursed. Reasonable, documented, pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses required for the role may be reimbursed in accordance with policy.
• Standing and independence apply. Continued service depends on remaining in good standing and maintaining neutrality and integrity controls.

Opportunities for Leaders to Join

• Build the legitimacy engine of a whole-of-society forum: representation that is real, balanced, and durable.
• Design a membership system that scales without capture: qualification, onboarding, and participation health as operational discipline.
• Create a global pipeline that improves geographic and constituency coverage while sustaining high integrity under scrutiny.
• Strong performance positions leaders for senior governance stewardship and board consideration (without implying entitlement).

Leaders Profile

We are seeking senior leaders (typically 10–20+ years) with credibility across one or more of:

• Membership organizations, standards bodies, professional associations, or multi-stakeholder forums under scrutiny.
• Governance operations, onboarding and qualification systems, or ecosystem development with neutrality constraints.
• Program leadership requiring balanced representation, concentration controls, and participation health management.
• Cross-regional community building in distributed international environments.

Capabilities and Mindset

• Growth with integrity: scales membership while preserving neutrality, independence, and safety.
• Process excellence: builds pipelines, playbooks, dashboards, and closure discipline.
• Fairness and consistency: applies rules predictably and documents outcomes.
• Handling maturity: understands confidentiality, safe participation, and disciplined communications.
• Strong writing: produces clear onboarding materials, eligibility notices, and member guidance.

Eligibility, Membership, and Independence

• Holds a primary full-time role outside the council seat and can sustain the expected cadence and surge periods.
• Willing to fully disclose relevant interests and comply with conflict-of-interest and recusal requirements.
• Not placed in a situation where service creates unmanageable conflicts or compromises neutrality.
• Accepts strict confidentiality, handling discipline, and communications integrity expectations.
• Commits to remain in good standing (participation, disclosures, and applicable contribution obligations).