Once a project steering committee has reviewed all of the comments submitted during the public and member commenting period and made any revisions to the draft report, members of NQF vote on the candidate standards that are recommended by the committee. All candidate consensus standards that are recommended with the results of the voting by the membership will proceed to the next step in the consensus development process: decision by the Consensus Standards Approval Committee (CSAC).
Submission of Member Ballot
All NQF member organizations are eligible to vote on any consensus development project. Each voting period is open for 15 days.
When a voting period opens, email notification is sent to NQF member organizations. Voting information is also available on the NQF website.
Each NQF member organization may cast one vote in favor of or against approval of a steering committee’s recommendations. A member organization may also abstain from voting on a particular consensus development project. All voting is conducted electronically and can be accessed via the email notification or the NQF website.
Conducting a Second Round of Member Voting
In rare instances, the Consensus Standards Approval Committee (CSAC) may request a second round of member voting. In such cases, NQF follows the same procedure to notify the membership and conduct the voting as outlined above.
