Officers, directors, or those holding voluntary or elected office on behalf of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) have a fiduciary duty to ASE, including the duties of loyalty, diligence and confidentiality. Despite the self-interests that members inevitably have, those in positions of responsibility, in their fiduciary capacity, must act in utmost good faith on behalf of ASE. In accepting their positions, they undertake to give the association the benefit of their care and best judgment and to act solely in the interest of the association and not for their own personal interest.
Conflicts of interest arise when participants in positions of responsibility have personal or outside financial, business or professional interests or responsibilities that conflict with their duties to ASE. The immediacy and seriousness of various conflicts of interest situations can differ. Of significant importance is the degree to which an actual or potential conflict would tend one toward bias in educational matters, per-disposition on any issue affecting the society or its members or otherwise compromise the interest of the Society in any way.
A conditional, qualified or potential conflict of interest can arise when the outside interest does not relate to any contemplated action of ASE. For example, a personal might hold a minor financial stake in a non-commercial company wishing to do business with the Society. Disclosure is ordinarily sufficient to deal with this type of conflict, provided that there is no reasonable belief that one's decisions could be biased or one's duty of loyalty to ASE is affected.
A direct conflict of interest arises when an individual holds a position of responsibility with the ASE and also holds a material interest in the issues charged to the volunteer or elected position at hand. Direct conflicts of interest arise when an individual engages in a personal transaction with the Society, holds a material interest or position of responsibility in an organization involved in a specific transaction with the ASE, or has loyalties which lie in equal measure with a commercial entity. Such situation place the person in the impossible position of attempting to represent both the ASE and his/her personal interest or those of the other organization. The mandatory course of action in such cases is to disclose the conflict and remove oneself from the deliberations and the vote on the issue. Should the ASE feel that one's conflicts of interest cannot be resolved to maintain the goals or integrity of the position, ASE will revoke invitation to participate or reassign that individual to an alternate position where the identified conflicts will have no bearing on any voting matters.
In rare circumstances, an individual currently seated in a voluntary or elected position may have a serious, ongoing and irreconcilable conflict, where the relationship to an outside organization so seriously impedes one's ability to carry out the fiduciary responsibility to the ASE, that resignation from the position with ASE or the conflicting entity is mandatory.
