NRF and Divisional Committees, Councils and Task Forces

A group comprised of NRF retail members interested in the Americans with Disabilities Act and any resulting or pending federal regulations or litigation.

The ARTS Board identifies standards to be developed, sets program priorities, approves new and revised standards prior to public release and maintains budgetary oversight for the Association for Retail Technology Standards, the retail technology standards division of the National Retail Federation.

This committee shapes the future of the ARTS Data Model. Members propose enhancements, prioritize activities and approve all changes to the Model.

Through this committee, NRF and ARTS are developing a library of standard RFPs to assist retailers in selecting the “right” software applications for their specific business practices.

UnifiedPOS, the specification for both OPOS and JavaPOS, provides retailers freedom of choice in selecting POS devices from multiple manufacturers while enabling select POS equipment upgrades without total replacement.

The ARTS XML Committee develops standard XML Schemas and message sets that are used to facilitate – and lower the cost of – integration of applications in the retail enterprise. Participation is limited to ARTS members, although both retailers and vendors may participate.

This council of Associate member companies meets annually and via conference call to ensure the needs of NRF's growing associate member base are met, and to provide feedback to NRF regarding the needs of retailers and how NRF can better meet those needs.

NRF's Awards Committee makes recommendations for recipients of NRF awards and honors, including the NRF Gold Medal, International Retailer of the Year, Retail Innovator of the Year, and the Silver Plaque Awards.

The NRF Board of Directors is the governing body that oversees the activities of the Federation.

This is an invitation-only committee made up of retailing's most prominent chief information officers. It meets in winter, spring and summer to discuss issues of common interest, promising technologies, and to take a proactive stance on creating new technology environments.

This committee serves as NRF's technical committee on labor law and employee relations matters, and is comprised of retail industry corporate executives and independent labor counsel, as well as human resource and employee relations executives from NRF member companies and associations.

NRF’s Compensation Committee was created principally to review the salary and benefits of NRF’s President and CEO in keeping with best practices adopted by many retailers in today’s business environment.

This committee provides NRF with strategic and operational advice related to consumer credit issues, including federal legislative and regulatory policy, the standardized credit bureau reporting format, as well as file integrity among retail credit grantors.

The purpose of the NRF Executive Committee is to serve as a sounding board for management, to tackle corporate governance issues and to discuss strategic matters in depth that affect NRF’s long term health and direction before presentation to the full Board for discussion and approval.

This committee is elected by the Board of Directors and is one of three standing committees of the Board. It oversees the finances of the Federation including reviewing and recommending the Federation's budget to the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors.

The FEC is comprised of senior financial executives of NRF member companies who work with NRF to develop industry financial benchmarks and serve as advisors for industry advocacy efforts with the FASB, SEC, etc.

The FIRAE seeks to promote the free exchange of information among national retail trade associations around the world and works to identify opportunities for cooperation in research and education.

This invitation-only Council is limited to the most senior legal officers among NRF's retail membership. Two to three times each year they meet to share strategy and ideas for addressing cutting edge legal and management issues of concern to retail law departments.

The Working Group addresses the rapidly spreading restrictions on the highly popular gift cards used by many retailers.

The NRF Government Affairs Policy Council is the Federation's principal policy making body on federal legislative and regulatory issues.