Local Chapters Sponsorship Policy
Adopted by the Board of Trustees on: February 13, 2003

In order to provide members with quality local meetings and maintain the costs to its members as low as possible, the Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc. ("LES") will permit paid sponsorship at its local chapter meetings taking into account LES' culture and tradition in providing educational meetings and a positive atmosphere for networking.

Meetings at which sponsorship is available

Sponsorship in accordance with this policy will be available at the local chapter meetings only.

Goals of local chapter meetings

The goals of local chapter meetings is to provide a local forum to further develop knowledge in the field of licensing and technology transfer and provide an effective networking environment for its members and guests.

Sponsorship guidelines

The intent in setting up sponsorship guidelines is not to discourage such sponsorship but merely to define the parameters that are aligned with the LES culture and tradition. Local chapters should take advantage of the many possibilities offered to them by the LES office with respect to mailings, e-mails, faxes and web hosting in order to cut down on the operating costs of a local chapter.

• While LES recognizes that sponsors need to have a certain visibility, sponsorship of an event should not take over the event, the overall visibility of sponsors should remain low key. More generally, the benefits provided to the sponsors should not overpower the local meeting event with logo presentations, sponsor signage, etc.
• Brochures or e-mail information with respect to a local event should be preeminently showing the LES logo and LES as the organizer of the event, sponsors should be recognized as sponsors only.
• Sponsors are not permitted to make a "sales speech" to the members and guests in attendance at a local meeting.
• Acknowledgement of sponsors on the registration forms should be placed at the end of the form and should be small and discrete. Generally it is preferred that only the sponsor's logo appears. If the chapter chair believes that some text should appear, this should be no more than one or two sentences. In no event should acknowledgments take more than 15 to 20% of the entire document (including logos).
• Sponsorship at the local event may take the following forms:
  1. Loaning of a conference room for the meeting;
  2. Subsidizing of audiovisual equipment;
  3. Subsidizing free cocktail prior to a dinner;
  4. Subsidizing all or part of the food expenses at a lunch or dinner; All these may be acknowledged by (i) the meeting chair at the beginning or at the end of the event, (ii) space on the registration documents and publicity for the event or (iii) a reasonable prompt or sign at the door outside the room for the event.
  5. Reservation of a full table and putting up the name of the organization on a discrete sign at the reserved table at a lunch or dinner event may also be considered (it also generally helps increasing the attendance for an event).
• All material necessary for providing the benefits to sponsors should be furnished in advance to the meeting chair (or organizer) by the sponsor.
• Full payment should be required prior to the event.
• A maximum number of sponsors should be decided upon in advance for each event (not including table reservations) and sponsors should not exceed four at one event except in special circumstances.

It may be in the interest of a local chapter to hold a joint event with another organization. Such other organization must be a non-profit organization with goals that are compatible with the LES goals. A joint event should not be a way for a local chapter to disguise otherwise unacceptable sponsorship.

All joint events should show, at least equally, the LES organization (including the LES logo) and the co-organizer(s) on all documentation and publicity in a way that fully demonstrates the involvement of LES in the preparation, organization and holding of such event.

The Trustee responsible for the local chapter intending to hold a joint event, must be notified within a reasonable period of time prior to the date of any such joint event.

Q&A

If you have any questions with respect to the implementation and interpretation of these guidelines, do not hesitate to call on the trustee designated for your area, the vice-president in charge of local chapters or the office of LES, they will be glad to help. Their names and contact information is shown in the web page concerning local chapters.