Bylaws

The Ghent PDF Workgroup bylaws define how the workgroup functions and what its objectives are. This page highlights some important parts of the bylaws and (at the very bottom of the page) provides a link to download the full text of the bylaws in PDF format.

Mission Statement

The mission statement of the Ghent PDF Workgroup has been slightly expanded in the last revision of the bylaws so that it covers best practices in graphic arts workflows rather then only covering issues that are directly related to PDF documents. It now reads: "To establish and disseminate process specifications for best practices in graphic arts workflows".

Objectives

To realize that mission statement the following objectives are defined:

1. Streamline and coordinate the decision process between industry associations (worldwide) interested in best practices for graphic arts workflows.
2. Develop and maintain process specifications and associated documentation for best practices in graphic arts workflows.
3. Develop and maintain reference implementations for those process specifications to ensure the practical applicability of such specifications.
4. Actively promote adoption of the established process specifications by the worldwide user and vendor community.

Structure

The Ghent PDF Workgroup consists of different membership classes. Association members are graphic arts industry associations representing a membership of printers, publishers, design agencies, prepress houses or similar companies. Vendor members are software and/or hardware companies with an active interest in supporting the process specifications developed by the Workgroup. The group also accepts educational and industry members.

While the different classes of members are essentially equal, the strategic focus of the Ghent PDF Workgroup clearly lies with the association members as they are direct representatives of the graphic arts industry. This is reflected in the bylaws in two ways:

1. The Chair of the Ghent PDF Workgroup has to be taken by representatives of association members; vendor members can apply for the other positions in the Executive Committee.
2. While voting a system is in place that ensures that the majority of the votes always lies with the association members; regardless of the number of association and vendor members in the GWG at any time.

Each member is represented by two representatives; these do the communication between the Ghent PDF Workgroup and their respective organizations and represent their organization in Ghent PDF Workgroup meetings. The goal is to always have at least one representative of each organization present at meetings.

The Ghent PDF Workgroup is lead by an Executive Committee that consists of seven officers. For more information on the Executive Committee, follow this link.

Download

The full text of the Ghent PDF Workgroup bylaws is available for download as a PDF document by clicking the link below. Remark that the English language version of the bylaws is the only official and legally counting version:

Download Bylaws (en, pdf)