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Founders Assembly
Summary Record of Fellows Roundtable 1
Chair: Robert Nikic, Founder and Founding Chair of the Platform Council, presiding
Sittings: Asia-Pacific, 06:00 UTC; Europe/Africa/Americas, 16:00 UTC
Attendance: As of 20 March, the Assembly had 254 seated members in 46 countries. Reports had been filed from 49 countries.
Agenda: (a) implementation of the Rules of Procedure; (b) the role of Fellows in evidence review; (c) the first reporting position across the councils; (d) the five-part pattern test and safeguards against premature conclusions; (e) public participation and the next session.
Summary of proceedings
The chair opened the roundtable in both sittings and recalled that the Founders Assembly had been launched on 10 February 2026. He stated that the purpose of the meeting was to support careful, comparable work across the councils, not to announce findings or speak on behalf of any company, government or member. Members remained anonymous unless they chose a public seat. The chair noted that the Assembly was a nonprofit and that its Rules of Procedure, RC/A/2026/2, had been adopted by ballot on 19 March.
The chair outlined the order of work applicable to each problem: reports, a five-part pattern test covering Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread and Corroboration, a draft fix, public consultation, an Assembly ballot and, if adopted, letters to the chief executives able to adopt the measure. He emphasized that the sequence was intended to separate evidence gathering from recommendations. A reported incident, by itself, did not establish a pattern, and a proposed remedy was not an adopted standard.
Mei Lin Tan, a member from Singapore, said that the evidence process would be more useful to small operators if members could distinguish what they had personally experienced from what they had heard from others. She supported recording the type of practice, its timing and the practical consequence, while withholding business names and identifying details. She urged Fellows to preserve that distinction in summaries so that a collection of reports would not be presented as independently verified evidence unless corroboration had actually been obtained.
Omar Haddad, a member from Amman, Jordan, addressed the difference between an individual dispute and a recurring practice. He said that members could describe how a process affected a small business without asserting that every business faced the same problem. He recommended that reviewers record the relevant context, including the kind of service or transaction involved, and identify gaps where reports did not provide enough information for comparison. He also supported giving members an opportunity to correct an inaccurate or overgeneralized summary before it was used in a draft.
Ana Lucía Pérez, a member from Bogotá, Colombia, spoke about the importance of geographic spread. She observed that a practice reported in several places might still operate differently under local laws, payment systems or business customs. She recommended that evidence summaries identify the country associated with a report when the member had consented to that use, but avoid treating country counts as proof that the experience was identical across jurisdictions. She further urged the councils to describe practices rather than name companies, except where a future CEO seat required an identified recipient.
Thabo Mokoena, a member from Johannesburg, South Africa, discussed corroboration. He said corroboration could strengthen a record, but reviewers should not imply that a member’s account had been confirmed when it had not. He supported documenting the form of corroboration available, such as another independent account or a dated record, without exposing private commercial information in a public summary. He also asked that Fellows flag missing evidence rather than fill gaps with assumptions. The chair agreed that the method should make uncertainty visible instead of disguising it.
Priya Nair, a member from Kochi, India, raised the issue of participation across time zones and levels of digital access. She supported the two-sitting format used for Open Table meetings and recommended that written contributions remain available to members unable to attend live. She said that a process described in plain language would help members understand what happened to a report after submission. The chair noted that Open Tables were intended to be monthly and that the Secretariat would continue to communicate the route from evidence gathering to any eventual ballot.
Elena Rossi, a member from Bologna, Italy, urged the Fellows to keep the councils’ remits distinct while recognizing that a single business experience could touch more than one issue. She recommended that duplicate or related reports be linked for review rather than counted automatically as separate corroboration. A member should not have to decide the correct council before describing a problem. The chair noted that the councils describe practices, and that referral between councils could be used when an issue crossed their working areas.
David Okafor, a member from Accra, Ghana, spoke to the public purpose of the Assembly’s work. He said that small businesses should be able to understand both the evidence behind a proposed standard and the limits of the available record. He supported publishing the reasoning for each stage, including where a problem did not yet pass the pattern test. In his view, a clear account of what remained unknown would strengthen member confidence and reduce the risk that a draft would be mistaken for a settled position.
The roundtable reviewed the reporting position dated 20 March. The Assembly had 254 seated members in 46 countries, while 539 reports had been filed from 49 countries. The recorded council breakdown was Platform, 358; Cashflow, 131; Fair Play, 21; Red Tape, 16; Trade, 8; and Team, 5. Those figures totalled 539. The chair stressed that the report totals described submissions, not confirmed incidents or findings.
Members noted that the Assembly’s work concerned issues with broad relevance to smaller firms. The United Nations describes micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as approximately 90 per cent of businesses, 60–70 per cent of employment and about 50 per cent of GDP worldwide.1 The International Labour Organization estimates that MSMEs account for about 70 per cent of employment worldwide and that roughly 80 per cent operate in the informal economy.2 Participants agreed that these global figures provided context but did not substitute for evidence about any particular practice, sector or country.
In discussing regulatory experience, members referred to the World Bank B-READY 2025 findings, which had been addressed in Secretariat statement RC/SEC/2026/2 of 3 March. The findings were treated as background for the Red Tape Council’s evidence work, not as proof of a specific member’s experience. Members agreed that comparative indicators should be explained with their scope and limitations and should not be presented as direct measurements of every small business’s dealings with public services.3
The chair confirmed that no council had, as of this meeting, completed the five-part pattern test. The Platform Council was reviewing reports; the Cashflow and other councils were likewise at evidence-gathering and organization stages. No draft standard, consultation, Assembly ballot or CEO letter was before the roundtable. Members were asked not to characterize any proposal as an Assembly position unless and until the required process had been completed.
On the Fellows’ role, the chair said that Fellows would assist with disciplined review and clear presentation of evidence. They were not authorized by the roundtable to decide a council’s findings or replace an Assembly ballot. The group supported maintaining a visible distinction between a report, an assessed pattern, a draft fix and an adopted standard. Where a member had chosen to be anonymous, review and publication should preserve that choice.
The chair summarized the discussion as a commitment to precision, confidentiality and procedural fairness. The sittings did not adopt a substantive standard, approve a draft, or make a finding about any named company. Participants agreed that the same reporting discipline should apply across the seven councils and that uncertainty, missing corroboration and uneven geographic coverage should be stated plainly in future summaries.
Decisions and action items
Evidence summaries. Fellows will use the five-part pattern-test headings when helping councils organize reports and will distinguish submitted accounts from corroborated material. Owner: Fellows, in coordination with the relevant council conveners.
Confidentiality and attribution. Council summaries will not name members’ businesses. Member accounts will remain anonymous unless the member chooses a public seat. Summaries will describe practices rather than make company-specific accusations. Owner: Secretariat and council conveners.
Report-count presentation. The Secretariat will retain the dated totals and council breakdown as recorded, identify the date to which figures apply, and avoid treating report counts as verified cases. Any missing council-level figure will be marked as unavailable rather than inferred. Owner: Secretariat.
Member access. The Secretariat will continue to provide opportunities for written participation alongside the two Open Table sittings and will communicate procedural updates to members. Owner: Secretariat.
Next session. The next monthly Open Table was set for 20 April 2026, with the Asia-Pacific sitting at 06:00 UTC and the Europe/Africa/Americas sitting at 16:00 UTC. The session will continue evidence-process discussions and receive council updates. Owner: Secretariat to circulate the agenda.
Sources
External facts cited in this record are limited to sources available by 20 March 2026. Internal procedural references are identified by document symbol in the text.
This document has no standing until adopted under the Founders Charter. Reseated Councils is not affiliated with the United Nations.