Operating rules
How we operate
Most organizations in this field keep their rules in a document nobody reads. Ours are the product, so they live here, in public, in plain language. These commitments appear in our membership terms and in every partnership agreement.
Reviewed access
Every public-sector applicant is manually reviewed before community access is approved. We confirm the agency, role, and work email before a community invitation is issued. Approved applicants receive a separate personal community invitation to create a member account. Nothing on this site creates an account automatically, and no application is approved by a form.
Protected member information
HALSO does not sell member contact data or provide member or applicant rosters to sponsors. Member and applicant information is used to operate HALSO, which means reviewing applications, running programmes, and communicating with members. The service providers HALSO uses to do that work handle it only on HALSO’s instructions and only for those purposes.
Member information is not a sponsor benefit, and there is no browsable public-sector directory. Introductions are double opt-in and brokered by HALSO. We ask both people before making an introduction, and no contact information is released by default.
Problem-led, independently programmed
Working sessions begin with implementation challenges submitted or validated by public-sector participants, not sponsor inventory and not the need to fill an event calendar. Sponsorship never guarantees a speaking role. Contributors and topics are selected by HALSO for relevance to public-sector implementation, and HALSO controls topics, speakers, moderation, findings, and publication.
Sponsor-supported content and programs are clearly identified. An implementation brief may recognize a sponsor while remaining HALSO-authored and editorially independent.
Protected public-sector sessions
Designated public-sector-only discussions are protected. Commercial participants cannot purchase entry to them; any narrow educational exception must be disclosed, policy-compliant, and approved. Working sessions run under the Chatham House Rule: participants are free to use what they learn, and no one may reveal who said it.
Public-sector members operate under state ethics rules and public-records exposure, and every design decision here assumes that. No recording, no streaming, no press in working rooms, and anonymized takeaways written so they are useful without being attributable.
Sponsor integrity
Sponsors support the platform. They do not buy the audience. These rules are contractual, they appear in every partnership agreement, and no one at HALSO may set them aside to close or retain business.
The wall
What a sponsor never receives
- No member contact data and no member or applicant roster.
- No guaranteed access to named public officials.
- No guaranteed speaking role.
- No purchased entry to designated public-sector-only discussions.
- No control over participant selection, findings, or publication.
- No badge scanning or lead retrieval.
- No implied government endorsement.
- No editorial approval over an implementation brief.
What HALSO commits to
- Mutual opt-in introductions only.
- Editorial independence over topics, contributors, moderation, findings, and distribution.
- Clear identification of sponsor-supported material.
- Public-sector travel and hospitality remain subject to applicable agency rules.
An official may decline any form of participation support without affecting membership or standing. See Partners and the Privacy Notice.
Operating rules, published August 2026. These commitments are contractual, not aspirational.