For owners, architects and specifiers
Writing it into a specification
Model language for a project manual, in three strengths, free to adopt and free to modify. Nothing here requires anything to be bought from the Registrar, and the Standard forbids the Registrar from making it so.
Start with Variant A. It works immediately, requires nothing from the Register, and is the one most owners should adopt.
Why a specifier would
What the clause makes visible
A project manual already asks a bidder to evidence licensure, insurance, bonding and comparable completed work. It does not ask the question that decides whether the trade will exist in fifteen years: who is going to do this work, who taught them, and are they teaching anyone.
On a building whose repair depends on a trade the federal statistical system does not count — and ninety of the register’s 133 terms reach no federal occupation code — the owner carries a succession risk that nothing in the procurement record currently surfaces. Variant A surfaces it at no cost and with no gatekeeping.
The clause costs nothing to adopt and excludes nobody. Variant A adds four lines to a project manual and returns a named individual, a lineage and a succession answer for every Section it touches — information the owner has no other route to.
The language
Three variants
Variant A — disclosurelowest
Asks the question and does nothing with the answer. Requires no register standing, creates no barrier to any bidder, and can be adopted on a project bidding next month. Every owner who wants the information and none of the machinery should use this one.
SECTION 01 43 00 - QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
Insert at 1.5 QUALIFICATIONS.
A. TRANSMISSION DISCLOSURE. For each Section of the Work identified in
Paragraph D, the Contractor shall identify, before commencement of that
Section, the individual who will perform or directly supervise the Work,
and shall state:
1. the number of years that individual has performed the trade;
2. from whom that individual learned it, and approximately when; and
3. whether that individual is presently teaching it to a named other.
B. No qualification, certification or register standing is required by this
Article. The disclosure is for the Owner's record and does not form a
basis for rejection of a bid.
C. The Owner may, at its discretion, publish the disclosure as part of the
project record.
D. Sections to which this Article applies: [LIST SECTIONS]Variant B — preferencerecommended
Gives a preference among otherwise equal bidders and explicitly makes absence of standing non-disqualifying. Paragraph D carries the disclaimer the Standard requires on every use of the mark. This is the variant to hold ready for the point at which the register has entries in the relevant trade.
SECTION 01 43 00 - QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
Insert at 1.5 QUALIFICATIONS.
A. TRANSMISSION STANDING - PREFERRED. For each Section of the Work
identified in Paragraph E, the Owner will give preference, among
otherwise responsive and responsible bidders, to a bidder who furnishes
evidence that the individual who will perform or directly supervise the
Work holds standing on the Root & Branch Register, or is named on a
Transmission Record issued under the Root & Branch Transmission Standard,
current version.
B. Evidence is a Lineage Number and the Record identifier, both of which
resolve publicly and permanently at rootandbranchregister.org.
C. Absence of standing is not a basis for rejection. A bidder who does not
hold standing shall instead furnish the disclosure at Paragraph A of the
Transmission Disclosure Article.
D. The Register does not assess skill, license any person to practice,
certify competence, or warrant workmanship. Standing evidences that a
transmission was recorded and attested; it evidences nothing further, and
the Owner shall not treat it as a substitute for licensure, insurance,
references or examination of the Work.
E. Sections to which this Article applies: [LIST SECTIONS]Variant C — requirementstrongest
Makes standing mandatory, with a written waiver where nobody holding standing is available. Paragraph D is the important one: a record filed by the parties themselves under Open Filing satisfies the clause, so adopting it can never oblige anybody to buy anything from the Registrar. Not adoptable today — published so that the language exists, is public, and can be argued with before anyone has an interest in the answer.
SECTION 01 43 00 - QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
Insert at 1.5 QUALIFICATIONS.
A. TRANSMISSION STANDING - REQUIRED. For each Section of the Work
identified in Paragraph F, the individual who performs or directly
supervises the Work shall hold standing on the Root & Branch Register
as of the date of the bid and shall maintain it for the duration of the
Work.
B. Evidence is a Lineage Number that resolves publicly at
rootandbranchregister.org. The Contractor shall furnish it with the bid.
C. Where no individual holding standing is available for a Section, the
Contractor shall so state, and the requirement is waived for that Section
on the Owner's written acknowledgment. The statement shall be retained in
the project record.
D. A record filed by the parties themselves under the Standard's Open Filing
route satisfies this Article. The Owner shall not require that a record
be purchased from any party.
E. The Register does not assess skill, license any person to practice,
certify competence, or warrant workmanship. This Article shall not be
read to shift to the Register any obligation of the Contractor or of any
design professional.
F. Sections to which this Article applies: [LIST SECTIONS]Standing lookup
Check a Lineage Number
Usable today
What to ask a bidder, with no register involved
The questions below carry no reference to this register and require nothing from it. They are the questions the trial application asks, reduced to what an owner can ask a contractor at prequalification. Adopt them without adopting anything else.
| Ask | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|
| Who specifically will perform or directly supervise this Section? | A named individual, not a firm. If the firm cannot name one at bid, that is the answer. |
| How long have they done this trade, and from whom did they learn it? | A name and an approximate year. Vagueness here is common and is itself informative. |
| Have they worked at it continually, or were there breaks? | Breaks are ordinary. An unacknowledged break is a different risk profile. |
| Is anyone presently learning this from them? How often do they work together? | The succession question. A trade held by one person with no successor is a single point of failure in the building’s maintenance, on a horizon longer than the warranty. |
| If that individual were unavailable, who else could perform this Section? | Two names is comfortable, one is a risk, none is a finding worth recording. |
The clause is free and unowned. It may be adopted, modified, renamed or stripped of every reference to this register without permission or attribution. It is published under the same share-alike license as the corpus. If a modified version is better, the Registrar would like to see it and will publish it.