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1. Organizations pay the annual corporate membership fee and commit to abiding by the Declaration of Principles. Non-corporate members of MRIA and non-members of MRIA who wish to register research projects must pay a fee and also subscribe to the Declaration of Principles.
    
2. The Inbound Calling Centre enters the form into its computer system and the Registrant is given an identification number. Monthly invoices are issued by the Administration Office for all projects registered that month by non-corporate members of MRIA and non-members of MRIA.
    
3. The Registrant launches its project into the field. The toll free MRIA telephone number and a Registrant's research registration number must be provided to Respondents upon request. Registrants may decide to have their interviewers volunteer this information to Respondents.
    
4. The Inbound Calling Centre receives a call on the 1 800 line from a Respondent and does one of the following:
   • verifies that the registered research project is a valid one;
   • fails to identify the project;
   • and/or takes down a comment or complaint.
      
5. If it fails to validate the project, the Inbound Calling Centre will advise the Respondent of other phone numbers to call to complain (Bell, CMA, CRTC, etc.). If the Inbound Calling Centre verifies that the registered project s a valid one and the Respondent wishes to lodge a complaint, the Calling Centre will note all details of the nature of the complaint and submit a report to the Administration Office.
    
6. The Administration Office will attempt to resolve the complaint to the satisfaction of the Respondent. If it is unable to do so, the Administration Office will pass the complaint report to an MRIA Information Officer who will contact the Registrant in question, to get their side of the story. MRIA then contacts the Respondent to see if a resolution can be affected through these efforts. Should this fail, the complaint report and the Information Officer's report will immediately be submitted to a Complaint Panel, consisting of three members of MRIA's Research Agency Council and the Research User Council.
    
7. The Complaint Panel will consider the complaint and attempt resolution. If unsuccessful, and the Registrant is found to have conducted a registered research project in contravention of the Declaration of Principles, the Complaint Panel may order a sanction against the Registrant. Throughout this process the Registrant and the Respondent would be kept informed.
    
8. Following this step, a process of appeal would be available to the Registrant or the Respondent. If either party is not satisfied with the decision rendered by the Complaint Panel, it may submit a written appeal to the MRIA Board of Directors, who shall forward the information to an Appeal Panel. The Appeal Panel, appointed by the Board, will consist of a Board member (who is not a member of the Complaint Panel), a consumer representative, and a third party who is appointed by the Board member and the consumer representative. The Appeal Panel's decision and order shall be considered as final.
    
9. Sanctions may be ordered by either the Complaint Panel or the Appeal Panel against a Registrant. Incremental sanctions will take the form of suspensions from using the Registration System for set periods of time. A Registrant will be expelled from using the Registration System on a fourth violation of the Declaration of Principles.
    
10. The MRIA reserves the right to make public final results of decisions and/or appeals in the best interest of the marketing research industry and the public which it serves.