1. (a)

   1. (1) Membership on the Advisory Board for Interpreters between Hearing Individuals and Individuals who are Deaf, Deafblind, Hard of Hearing, or Oral Deaf is solely at the invitation and discretion of the Secretary of the Department of Health.
   2. (2) In order to avoid any potential conflict of interest with the responsibilities of the advisory board, the following statement has been adopted to guide the advisory board on issues of potential influences on judgment, disclosure, and recusal.

2. (b) Declaration.

   1. (1) Appointees to the advisory board must:

      1. (A) Be free from conflicts of interest and undue influence; and
      2. (B) Sign a Conflict of Interest Declaration, attached hereto as Appendix A.
   2. (2) Said declaration shall be signed annually.

3. (c) Conflicts of interest are identified as follows:

   1. (1)

      1. (A) A sitting member on a credentialing panel.
      2. (B) This includes, but is not limited to, persons who serve as raters when evaluating interpreters sitting for the QAST, RID Certification, EIPA, or BEI;

   2. (2)

      1. (A) An employer with the authority to hire or employ interpreters.
      2. (B) This includes, but is not limited to:
4. (i) Persons who hire or fire interpreters for:
5. (a) (a) Colleges or universities;
6. (b) (b) Video relay service (VRS) call centers; or

7. (c) (c) Human resource departments for public school systems; or

   1. (ii) Any individual working for an entity with the authority to hire or employ interpreters; and

   2. (3)

      1. (A) An owner and/or individual who runs an interpreting agency.

      2. (B) This includes, but is not limited to, persons who run an interpreting agency in which interpreters are subcontracted to work for the business.

         1. (d) Disclosure.
   3. (1) Members shall disclose in writing to the advisory board any person to whom they are closely related or organization with which they are affiliated that presently transacts business with the Department of Health or might reasonably be expected to do so in the future.
   4. (2) Each disclosure shall be updated and resubmitted on an annual basis.

8. (e) An affiliation with an organization will be considered to exist when a member or his or her immediate family or close relative:

   1. (1) Is an officer, director, trustee, partner, employee, or agent of the organization;
   2. (2) Owns five percent (5%) of the voting stock or controlling interest in the organization; or
   3. (3) Has any other substantial interest or dealings with an organization.
9. (f) Abstaining from participation. Any member shall abstain from voting and actively participating on any matter in which said member may be considered to have a conflict of interest.

10. (g) Abstaining declaration. An abstaining declaration shall be:

    1. (1) Made for the record at the beginning of any such motion or discussion; and
    2. (2) Recorded in the official minutes of the meeting.

11. (h) Other affiliations. A member shall not serve in a fund development or grants management capacity for another nonprofit or healthcare organization if such service would represent a conflict of interest.

    1. (i) If, during their service on the advisory board, a member’s situation changes in such a manner as to create a conflict of interest, the member shall immediately inform the secretary.

Codification Notes: "BEI" means Board for Evaluation of Interpreters. "EIPA" means Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment. "QAST" means Quality Assurance Screening Test. "RID" means Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.