DiagDebug chapter charter

Chapter name	DiagDebug [Region]
Region served	[for example, the Pacific Northwest]
States or metro areas	[list]
Chapter site	[slug].diagdebug.com
Steering Committee	[3 to 5 practitioner members]
Practitioner Founding Members	[names]
Honorary Vendor Founders	[names, or "none"]
Date adopted	[YYYY-MM-DD]

1. Purpose and independence

DiagDebug [Region] is an independent, community-led user group for practitioners who design, deploy, and operate Fortinet technologies across [the region]. The group exists to foster peer-to-peer technical knowledge sharing, open problem-solving, and professional community building.

Independence guarantee. DiagDebug [Region] is entirely owned, governed, and operated by its practitioner members. It is not an official organ, subsidiary, or sales channel of Fortinet, Inc., nor any value-added reseller (VAR). While vendor support is welcomed, the community retains sole ownership over its agenda, governance, branding, digital assets, and platforms.

2. Membership and participation

Membership is open to all IT, networking, and cybersecurity professionals working with or evaluating Fortinet products in a professional capacity, including:

• Network and security engineers, system administrators, and architects
• CISOs, IT directors, and security managers
• MSP and MSSP technical delivery engineers
• Students and early-career professionals pursuing network security certifications

Vendor participation. Employees of Fortinet, channel partners, VARs, and competitor vendors are welcome to attend open community events as individual technical peers. However, vendor personnel may not:

• Hold voting seats on the Steering Committee
• Exercise veto or voting rights on community governance
• Control or veto the event agenda
• Use community rosters, registration lists, or communication channels for unsolicited sales, recruiting, or marketing outreach

3. Leadership and governance

3.1 Steering Committee

DiagDebug [Region] is managed day to day by a volunteer Steering Committee of three to five practitioner members.

Operational authority. The Steering Committee holds decision-making power over routine operations, including event scheduling, speaker approvals, venue selection, platform administration, and community moderation.

Terms and rotation. Steering Committee members serve one or two year rotational terms. Open seats are filled by community vote or consensus appointment by sitting members.

3.2 Founding Members and guardian status

Founding Members are the original organizers who established DiagDebug [Region] and adopted this charter.

Honorary Vendor Founders. Vendor personnel (including Fortinet SEs) who assisted in the group's creation are designated as Honorary Founding Members. This is a lifetime title granted in recognition of foundational support. Honorary Vendor Founders hold no voting rights, veto power, or administrative control over community assets.

Practitioner Founding Members (Mission Guardians). Practitioner co-founders hold lifetime Practitioner Founding Member status.

Charter veto power. Any proposed amendment to this charter (specifically sections 1, 2, 5, or 6) that alters the group's core mission, vendor independence, or practitioner control is subject to a veto by a simple majority vote of the active Practitioner Founding Members.

Operational continuity. Stepping off the active Steering Committee does not diminish a Practitioner Founder's standing. Practitioner Founders retain permanent advisory status, standing invitations to strategy meetings, and full authorization to lead subcommittees, host events, or mentor incoming committee members.

4. Content, programming, and the Chatham House Rule

Content is driven strictly by member demand. Acceptable programming includes architecture deep dives, configuration workshops, troubleshooting case studies, and certification preparation.

Vendor technical presentations. Vendor-led presentations must be strictly technical, educational, or architectural in nature. Sales pitches, roadshows, pricing discussions, and competitive FUD are prohibited.

Chatham House Rule. To encourage honest discussion and technical transparency, all DiagDebug [Region] meetings operate under the Chatham House Rule: participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers, nor that of any other participant, may be revealed outside the community without explicit prior consent.

5. Sponsorship and vendor relationship policy

Sponsorship terms. Fortinet or approved third-party sponsors may provide monetary support, meeting venues, food and beverage, or raffle items for community events.

Sponsorship boundaries. Sponsorship grants logo acknowledgment and a brief introductory greeting (under two minutes). Sponsorship does not purchase agenda influence, member contact lists, or voting privileges.

Equal access. The Steering Committee reserves the right to accept or decline sponsorship from any vendor or partner at its sole discretion.

6. Domain, digital assets, and IP

Asset ownership. The chapter's brand, registration lists, communication channels, and member data are owned and maintained directly by the practitioner Steering Committee and Founders. The chapter's public site is served at [slug].diagdebug.com, a subdomain of the DiagDebug network directory, and a chapter may also run its own domain. Sharing a subdomain with the national directory does not transfer ownership: the chapter's brand, content, lists, and data remain strictly chapter-owned. The subdomain is administered by the network on the chapter's behalf, and its release or repointing follows the network offboarding policy.

Trademark acknowledgment. "Fortinet," "FortiOS," "FortiGate," and associated terms are registered trademarks of Fortinet, Inc. DiagDebug [Region] makes no claim of ownership over vendor trademarks and uses them solely for nominative fair use to describe technical topic scope.

Liability and endorsements. Views, configurations, scripts, and opinions expressed during DiagDebug [Region] meetings belong solely to individual contributors and do not constitute official recommendations or warranties by DiagDebug [Region] or Fortinet, Inc.

7. Community standards and enforcement

DiagDebug [Region] is committed to a respectful, collaborative, and inclusive environment. Unsolicited commercial solicitation (spamming), harassment, or deliberate violations of the vendor participation rules will result in immediate revocation of membership and removal from community platforms by action of the Steering Committee.

8. Amendments

This charter may be amended by a two-thirds majority vote of the active Steering Committee, subject to a mandatory 14-day open comment period for community members and the Practitioner Founder veto power defined in section 3.2.

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Adopted by the Steering Committee of DiagDebug [Region] on [date].

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