Vendor Guidelines - Association for Computers and Taxation

Vendor Guidelines

Vendors play an important role in the lives of ACT members, Regular and Associate. If it weren't for Vendor products and advances in technology, ACT members would have very little to discuss. At the very least, we invite vendors to be Associate Members of ACT (see ACT Membership Benefits). As an Associate member, you will get all ACT publications, invitations to webinars, discounts at the ACT conferences, and much more!

What Role Can A Vendor/Associate Member Play in ACT?

Vendors/Associate Members may:

Volunteer to serve on a committee once you are a paid member. However, you cannot serve as a committee chairperson. Additionally, only Regular Members may vote at the annual meeting.
Write an educational article for our electronic newsletter or bulletins.
Sponsor ACT events. ACT provides varying levels of sponsorships. For more information about sponsorships, please contact bjameson@taxact.org or select the Sponsorship Levels page in the "More in this Section" drop-down at the top of this page.
Participate in the Vendor Expo by exhibiting (for an additional charge) in a booth at the conference. By doing this, you are also allowed to provide one piece of marketing material or give-away to ACT that will be placed in each attendee's conference bag.
Volunteer as a speaker on an educational topic at either the conferences or our bi-monthly webinars.
Sponsor with ACT a webinar or survey and provide the presentation or results to the membership.
Announce the ACT conference dates or other activities, such as webinars, in your Vendor publications (we can fax a Press Release to someone in your organization if you'd like).
Link to our website (www.taxACT.org) and list our conference dates in the appropriate area of your website.
Pass out ACT Membership information at your next User's Conference or mail/email ACT information to your clients (we can have information sent to you, or you can provide us with the labels and we will mail them for you).
Be included in the vendor list and the matrix of software and consulting providers on the ACT website.

Vendor/Associate Member Rules of Conduct

In general, conference attendees are there to learn how to better automate corporate tax functions. Our meetings are kept informal to create an open, friendly, educational environment. ACT is a vendor-neutral organization and member and non-member attendees are encouraged to offer additional information or corrections, if appropriate. Unprofessional behavior is not appropriate and will not be tolerated. Specifically:

No solicitation from the conference attendee list. The conference attendee lists are provided to serve as a reference, and you may only contact attendees that are already established clients of your company.
No direct uninvited solicitation at conferences. This includes putting vendor materials or invitations under the attendee's hotel doors.
No signs at Registration table or around ACT conference rooms. If you have an event that you want to announce, let us know and we will post it on the Announcement Board.
Roundtable sessions are scheduled to provide members an opportunity to discuss ideas with each other. Vendors/Associate Members are not allowed to sell or debate their solutions. If this occurs, the violating members will be asked to leave the room.
Vendor demo suites or other vendor functions are not allowed to be scheduled during our conference events/educational sessions. If you would like to host an event at a non-conflicting time, we would be happy to post it on the Announcement Board and/or in the daily newsletter. Additionally, ACT can provide you with the appropriate hotel contact in order to make arrangements.
If invited to present at a conference or a webinar, the vendor/associate member must adhere to the ACT and CPE guidelines for the session. This means that directly selling a product or service is not allowed. According to the CPE Requirements: Sessions Must Be Based on Relevant Learning Objectives This basically means that a "sales pitch" does not qualify for CPE credit, the intent of the presentation must be education. The materials and course must be designed specifically with education in mind. One of the ways to ensure that your course meets this requirement is to include lists of features, descriptions of features, numbers, percentages, and statistics. For example, the following two sentences say basically the same thing, but one is more salesy while the other is more educational: More Salesy - "Our product provides managers with the accurate and important information they need on a timely basis so that they can use that information to make business decisions and effectively run their business." More Educational - "Our product provides a business portal executive dashboard which constantly displays the amount of cash in the checking account; the amount of sales for the day, week, month and year; profitability ratios, live colorful growth charts, and a summary of current sales orders."
No verbal attacks on users of your products/services or on competitor products/services. Educational information is always welcomed, but putting another vendor down or making a user feel uncomfortable would be inappropriate. For example, berating an attendee in your hospitality suite about their choice of tax software would be grounds for termination (see below).
Associate Members may not attend "closed" sessions at the conference. These sessions are for Regular Members and usually entail topics that are meant to allow the members to have open, honest discussions without vendors commenting or discussing their specific solutions.

Violations Resulting in Termination

ACT reserves the right to terminate one's participation at the scheduled event (i.e. conference, vendor expo, hospitality suite, webinar) in the event of a violation of the rules of conduct without a refund of any incurred cost or fees. Furthermore, violation of the Vendor/Associate Member Rules of Conduct can be grounds for termination of a company's membership/sponsorship (entire company, not just the individual) and admission back into the ACT organization will be reviewed by the ACT Board in the following year.

Return to top of page

Edit This Favorite