Platform Membership

Membership is the standing that lets a Platform participate in the regime. A member may put its Engagements forward to an Accredited Assayer for Assay against a Stewarded Standard, and, where an Engagement passes, may apply the Hallmark and have it entered on the public Register. The Hallmark is applied to the work, not to the Platform; membership is what makes a Platform eligible to seek it.

Membership is offered in tiers, which differ in scope of participation rather than in the meaning of a Hallmark. The Hallmark certifies the Engagement and the Assay behind it; it does not vary with a member's tier. The tiers are set out in detail on enquiry.

Membership is an undertaking. A member Platform agrees to put forward for Assay only work it stands behind, to represent a Hallmark accurately and not to overstate its scope, and to engage Practitioners on terms consistent with the standard of work the regime expects. A member does not certify its own Engagements; the separation between the Platform that builds the work and the Assayer that tests it is structural, and is not waived by membership.

The obligations are governed by the Hallmark Regulations, and membership may be suspended or withdrawn where they are broken. Engagements already Hallmarked remain on the Register; a change in a Platform's membership is recorded rather than erased.