The Council
The people behind every check, described by their role
Halal Community Council is being built as a small body of people who check, sign, advise and decide. HCC describes them by their role, never by name.
What matters to you is not who they are but what each role must do, what none of them may do, and how they are kept apart from money and from anyone with a stake in the result. This page sets that out, role by role.
Roles, never names
Every record shows who signed it by role: checker, second reviewer, and imam where he took part.
HCC does not publish the name of a director or officer unless that person agrees in writing and the board approves. It never names its imam or his institution.
Names stay private. The rules each role keeps are public.
On every check
Who checks, who signs, who advises, who decides
Four roles touch every seal. Nothing is published until the people its level needs have signed, and no one in these roles is paid more for a pass than for a "not yet".
Checks
The checker
Reads the supplier invoices and certificates, makes the visit (in person, or by live video walkthrough at Cornerstone), puts the five counter questions to staff, builds the file and proposes an outcome.
- An HCC employee, paid per visit through a payroll service. The pay is the same for any outcome.
- Hired by a knowledge exam on the Standard and the halal supply chain, and a supervised visit. Never by a faith test.
- Records only with notice, announced at the start of every visit and video call. No covert recording, ever.
Signs
The second reviewer
A different person, who did not do the visit. Reviews every document, the recording or notes, and the proposed outcome, then signs the file or sends it back.
- Every check has a checker and a second reviewer, always two different people.
- Paid a flat fee per file, the same for any outcome.
- Steps out of any file where they have a tie to the business, a competitor or a supplier, like everyone else who touches a check.
Advises
The imam, HCC's Scholarly Advisor
A qualified scholar who answers the religious questions HCC will not answer on its own. HCC follows qualified scholars and makes no rulings.
- Keystone opens when HCC's Scholarly Advisor is in place.
- Reviews every Keystone file and every religious question, joins other checks whenever possible, and reviews each proposed change to the Standard.
- Will work through his own institution under a written services agreement, paid per file, never by the hour and never by result. He is not an HCC employee and never a director.
- Advises; he does not grant, withdraw or change a seal. He issues no ruling to a business or the public in HCC's name and endorses no business, supplier or product.
- Until he answers a question, the item it touches is left out of the check and listed on the record as "Referred". The check of everything else goes ahead.
Decides
The standards committee
A committee of HCC's board that decides every seal on the signed file, under the published Standard: whether a place is verified, at which level, its renewal, a refusal, a lower level, and any withdrawal.
- Its voting members are independent directors, at least two. No director with any tie to HCC's sole voting member, or to a business under the same ownership, may serve on it.
- Non-voting advisors: the imam, and up to three people with food safety, consumer protection or food trade expertise.
- In HCC's first year of checks, the full committee decides every seal. After that, one member with no part in the check may confirm an agreed Cornerstone or Pillar pass; every Keystone decision and every other outcome stays with the full committee.
- Every decision is written, gives reasons, and names the lines of the Standard it rests on.
The Scholarly Advisor
An honest answer, never a bought one
The imam gives his own opinion. No one at HCC, including its member, a director, a business, a partner or a funder, may direct, pressure or reward a particular answer. HCC does not edit or soften his written opinion; it may only ask a question to clarify it. He may record a view in the file that differs from the standards committee's.
If he believes HCC is misusing his review, or that something HCC published is wrong, he tells the chair of the board in writing, and HCC answers in writing within 10 business days. He may take it to the full board. He may also speak publicly about misuse of his review, after giving the chair 10 business days' written notice.
He steps out of any check or case where he, his institution or a relative has a tie to the business, a competitor or a supplier, including serving as the business's own imam or issuing its certification. An alternate who meets the same criteria takes over. HCC may say, where true, that "an imam reviewed the file". It never says a religious body approves or endorses HCC unless that body says so in writing.
Governance
Who governs HCC, and what none of them can do
Halal Community Council is a South Carolina nonprofit in formation. It has no owners and pays no one a share of anything. Its board runs the work; seal decisions belong to the standards committee alone. The board and the standards committee are being formed now, and no seal is decided until they are.
-
Governs
The board of directors
Three directors to start, two of them independent. A majority must always be independent; if that ever slips, it is restored within 90 days. Directors serve unpaid.
No seal-related matter, conflict approval or change to the Standard goes ahead without at least two independent directors. The board does not overturn a committee decision: if it finds a failure of process, its only remedy is a fresh decision by people who took no part in the first. Two people sign any payment above $2,500.
-
Runs the work
The officers
A president, a secretary and a treasurer, elected by the board. The president manages day-to-day work and staff, and has no authority to decide, change or overturn a seal decision.
The secretary keeps the minutes, the yearly conflict disclosures and HCC's private never-seal list. The treasurer keeps the books and makes sure every refund goes out on time under the published terms.
-
Hears appeals
The appeal panel
A new panel of three for each appeal of a seal decision, a check result or a closed case. Its chair is an independent director, or a named alternate, with no tie to HCC's sole voting member or to the business. The other two had no part in the check or the decision.
Where a religious question is involved and the imam took part in the decision, a different qualified scholar sits on the panel. It may order a fresh check by a different checker, and it decides within 20 business days, with written reasons.
-
Elects the board
HCC's sole voting member
HCC will have one voting member once its articles are filed. That member elects and may remove directors, and it approves or blocks changes to HCC's articles and bylaws, a merger, a sale of HCC's main assets, or dissolution.
It can never decide, check or review a seal. It can never receive HCC's money: HCC never pays, lends to, borrows from or contracts with it, and South Carolina law bars any distribution. No business under the same ownership or control may ever carry the seal.
-
Carry the seal
Businesses with the seal
In everyday speech they are member businesses, and they have member perks. In HCC's bylaws they are participants, with no vote on directors or anything else.
The board may form a council of participants to advise HCC. It has no vote, and no role in the Standard, checks or seals.
-
Shapes the Standard
The public
Every change to the Standard is published for at least 30 days of public comment before the board adopts it. The committee proposes, the imam reviews, and the board adopts the change or sends it back once with reasons. The board may not adopt Standard text the committee did not recommend.
For every role
Rules every role keeps
- Nobody who checks, reviews or decides is paid more for a pass than for a "not yet".
- Anyone with a tie to a business, its competitor or its supplier steps out of its check, its review, its decision and any appeal. A tie includes ownership, employment, a leadership role, a family relationship, close friendship, an active dispute, and any payment or gift. It is disclosed in writing before the work is assigned.
- The person who helps a business prepare through HCC Services never checks that business, with no end date.
- No one who checks, reviews or decides accepts a gift, meal, discount or favor from a business, a supplier or a partner. HCC pays for anything it orders on a visit.
- Every director, officer, committee member and advisor signs a conflict disclosure on taking the role, every year by November 30, and within 10 days of any change.
- No one with an interest in HCC's sole voting member, or in a business on the never-seal list, sits on the standards committee or acts as checker, second reviewer or imam reviewer.
- HCC's systems do not send check evidence or case material to an artificial intelligence service, and the website opens files only through logged links.
- HCC records the reasons for every decision, so they can be explained later.
See what the council checks.
Every record says what was checked, when, and who signed it, by role.