The Council
The council is the standard's governing body — its founders and founding members. It holds final authority on what the specification says and when a release is ratified.
Mandate
The council exists to make the calls a standard can't avoid: what ships in a version, when a draft becomes ratified, who joins as a member, and how disputes resolve.
The council's design keeps those calls neutral and accountable, so the standard serves the industry rather than any one vendor.
How it functions
- Interim steering
- During the founding phase the founders run the council. A standing steering committee is seated as founding members join.
- Decisions
- Ratification, versioning policy, and membership are decided through the open process. Substantive changes require a public comment period first.
- Quorum & voting
- Once the founding cohort is seated, ratification requires a member vote with quorum. Members recuse from votes touching their commercial interests.
- Cadence
- The council reviews open proposals and release readiness on a regular cadence; a release is ratified only when feature-frozen and partner-reviewed.
What it brings
- Accountability
- A named body that stands behind the standard, rather than an anonymous spec on the internet.
- Neutrality
- Final authority sits with a governed council — not any single vendor.
- Credibility
- Founding members lend the standard the industry weight it needs to be adopted.
Composition
Today the council is its three founders. Founding-member seats are open to the organizations that adopt and shape v1 — DMS, CRM, and website platforms, AI-agent vendors, dealer groups, and agencies.
Help shape the standard.
Founding partners get a seat on the council and a hand on v1 of the spec. Anyone can contribute revisions in the open today.