House rules · v1.0
Six rules. One of them ends a membership.
A rule nobody can cite is not a rule. This document is versioned and dated so that members, hosts and applicants are all reading the same thing.
Version 1.0 · in force from · reviewed annually.
The Rule holds, permanently
What you hear at a table is yours to use. Who said it is not yours to repeat — not in a talk, not in a post, not in a vendor meeting, not after you leave. The obligation does not expire when your membership does.
No selling, in any direction
Not to the table, not after the table, not to someone you met at the table. No pitches, no intro requests routed to your vendor, no "I'll send you a deck".
Bring a real decision
A table works because someone is genuinely undecided. Arriving with a conclusion you want validated wastes seven people’s evening.
Disagree with the argument
Say the uncomfortable thing about the decision. Do not say it about the person. Hosts will stop a table that crosses that line.
Say what went wrong
The most valuable sentence at any table starts "we tried that and it failed because". A room where nobody admits a failure produces nothing worth writing down.
Show up, or give the seat back
Eight seats, capped. If you cannot make it, tell your host so the seat goes to someone who can.
What happens when a rule is broken
Breaking the Chatham House Rule ends a membership immediately. There is no warning step, because the damage is already done and the rest of the room has to be able to rely on that.
Every other rule follows a three-step path: a private word from your host, a written warning, then removal. At each step you are told what was reported and given the chance to answer it.
Who decides
The table host raises it; the CIO Cafe team decides. Owner: name the person accountable for this decision
Reporting something
Confidentially, to [email protected]. Reports are not shared with the person reported until you agree the wording, and never with the wider membership.
Changes to this document
This is version 1.0. Changes are versioned, dated and announced to members before they take effect. Superseded versions stay available on request, so you can always see what you agreed to.