The bylaws, in plain English.

Plain-English summary

Board composition

The Board has 5 to 7 seats: a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, and 3 to 4 directors-at-large. Terms are staggered (different directors come up for renewal in different years) so no single class of directors ever dominates. No director may serve more than 8 years total.

Executive Director authority

The Executive Director runs the day-to-day operation, hires staff, and enforces the independence rule. The ED reports to the Board, which reviews ED performance annually and has authority to dismiss the ED with a two-thirds vote.

Community council structure

The community council handles disputes, drift judgments, recall escalations, and editorial standards across the eleven coverage categories. Council members are nominated annually from active reviewers in good standing for at least 6 months. Council decisions are public; council meetings are open.

The independence rule

No funder, donor, sponsor, or partner may influence individual listing decisions, the classification engine, the community council, alerts, or editorial direction. The ED enforces this rule and reports any violations to the Board within 30 days. Violations also trigger a public reporting requirement.

Amendment process

Bylaws are amended by a two-thirds vote of the Board, after a 30-day notice period during which the proposed change is published on this site. Amendments are public; redlines against the prior version are linked from this page.

Dissolution clause

If ParentProof.org is dissolved, all assets transfer to a comparably purposed 501(c)(3) (or jurisdictional equivalent) selected by the Board. No funder, sponsor, or director receives residual assets. The directory, ratings methodology, and council decisions log are released to a public archive.

Full document

The current bylaws are v3, ratified November 1, 2025. The PDF will appear here once the filing is complete and the document is countersigned by the Chair and Secretary.

Download bylaws v3 (PDF) · {{TBD-bylaws-pdf}}

Redlines

Substantive changes from prior versions, with the diff against the previous text:

• Redline v2 → v3 · pending
• Redline v1 → v2 · pending