The beginning place for any consideration of professional behaviour has to be a recognition of, as well as a rededication to, our fundamental professional service mandate. With this central raison d'etre in mind, our profession has been constituted as a self-governing institution. Generally speaking, the form of professional self-governance is shaped by the following goals: (i) ensuring individual and institutional accountability to the public, (ii) ensuring standards of excellence, (iii) recognizing that membership entails privileges with corresponding obligations, and (iv) ensuring that the self-governance mandate is democratically instituted. Published in the January/February 2012 issue of the Arctic Obiter, Volume XVI, Issue 1.