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The following amendment has been proposed to Article 7c. — new text in bold:
ARTICLE 7c. BUSINESS MEETING. The business meeting is open to all meeting attendees, although attendance is optional except for members of the Executive Committee. Because some business items (e.g., propositions) may be linked to an ongoing online vote, the business meeting must happen at some time prior to the last day of the Group meeting. The purpose of the business meeting is to discuss the business of the Group, including elections, financial status, and membership updates. In particular, the current Secretary-Treasurer is required to report on the Groupâs finances during the preceding calendar year, including presentation of the yearâs balance sheet to meeting attendees. Another key objective is to select a host country or region for the next Group meeting. Any Group member may nominate their own country or region to host; they should contact the Chair of the Group in advance if they will be unable to attend the business meeting. The nomination should include a list of suitable candidates to act as Local Arrangements Organizer. The name of the host institution and the venue should also be included where possible. The Executive Committee will discuss the nominated host countries (or regions) and select one by the end of the business meeting. The Chair of the Group will then begin the process of identifying and appointing a Local Arrangements Organiser; the Local Arrangements Organiser for the upcoming meeting should be in place within four weeks (28 days) of the end of the current meeting. If no Local Arrangements Organiser can be identified within this time period, or if any issues arise that appear likely to hinder a successful meeting, the Executive Committee may select an alternative host country or region from those proposed at the business meeting.
Additionally, any Group member may nominate their country or region as host for the Group meeting to be held two years from the current meeting. Nominations should include a list of suitable candidates to act as the Local Arrangements Organiser. The name of the host institution and the venue should also be included where possible. A Group member who intends to make such a nomination should inform the Chair of the Group in advance of the business meeting, especially if unable to attend that meeting, so that the Chair can advise the rest of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee will discuss nominations for the host country (or region) at the business meeting, and may either make a selection or table the nominations for discussion at the next Group meeting. If selected as host, the Local Arrangements Organiser should be in place no later than four weeks (28 days) after the next Group meeting, and sooner if possible. As noted above, the Executive Committee may select an alternative host country or region if issues arise that appear likely to hinder meeting success, including an inability to identify a Local Arrangements Organiser.
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The purpose of this amendment is to allow the Executive Committee to select a host country or region for a group meeting two years in advance, if a suitable nominee is put forward. In addition, some of the revised wording gives the Executive Committee flexibility to select an alternate host if unforeseen problems arise. Please feel free to discuss in this forum. A group-wide vote on the amendment will coincide with this year’s meeting in Ottawa (end of August – early September).Hi Salla,
Darren is working on a Google-Drive-based space for sharing materials. There are still some quirks to address, but stay tuned!
Frank
I don’t know many marketers who work for free, and we have no budget. Besides, we’re not selling shoes (a case where we might actually have a budget for marketing). We just need a name that describes the group reasonably well, gives those outside the group a point of reference, and isn’t too awkward in conversation. Yes, we’re a bunch of scientists — if the name was too creative, pithy, or catchy, our bosses would probably become suspicious (and starting poking their noses into our business, which would be the worst possible outcome).
At the very least, the four candidate names satisfy the constraints I mentioned in an earlier post (that the name should include “pest risk” and “international”).
DC,
Your acronyms are catchy, I’ll give you that. However, there are a couple of other constraints on the name that maybe aren’t captured in this forum: (1) the name should include the phrase “pest risk” so we can maintain a straightforward link to our URL (pestrisk.org, pestrisk.net), and (2) the name should include the word “international” to reflect the scope of the group.
Hours before your most recent post, the constitutional committee identified a set of four names, including the current name, to put before the entire group for a vote. I’m sorry to say that none of your suggestions made the list…but I’m more than happy to sell you the full naming rights to the group for an appropriate amount.
Amy,
Here are the primary responsibilities of the Chair as currently written in the draft constitution:
⢠Appoint a Local Arrangements Chair to host the Groupâs annual meeting;
⢠Serve on the Scientific Committee for the annual meeting;
⢠Produce an annual accomplishment report summarizing the Groupâs activities for that year, which is to be distributed to the membership;
⢠Oversee production of accomplishment reports for activities sponsored by external organizations;
⢠Ensure adherence of the Group to this Constitution, and propose amendments to the Constitution as appropriate.The primary responsibility of the Vice-Chair is to lead the Scientific Committee for the Groupâs annual meeting. The Vice-Chair may also act on behalf of the Chair in cases where the Chair is unable to fulfill his or her responsibilities.
The Secretary-Treasurer serves as the chief fiscal agent and membership coordinator of the Group. The Secretary-Treasurer documents the financial holdings and activities of the Group, and maintains the Groupâs membership directory. The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for summarizing recent financial and membership activities at Group annual meetings and as otherwise requested by the Chair.
The primary responsibilities of the Communications Officer are to maintain the Group web site (URLs – https://pestrisk.org and http://www.pestrisk.net) and to send meeting announcements and other information of interest to Group members. The Communications Officer is responsible for the currency and accuracy of the web site content (which must include this Constitution document), and has the authority to modify the web site when deemed appropriate by the Executive Committee.
If we go with five officers, the fifth will either be a student representative (exact duties not defined yet), or the Secretary-Treasurer position will be split in two. Looking elsewhere on the forum, it seems there’s support for a student rep.
I just tried it again – IPRMW actually takes seven syllables to pronounce! This is too many to use in general conversation.
IPRRG – two syllables
IPRMMRG – four syllablesYou know, Richard, that’s not too bad…the letterhead would have to feature a pretty small font to fit all those words, though.
By the way, I assume you meant cat-herding-like approach to collective decision making…
I’m OK with fee reduction on a case-by-case basis. The constitution will have to include procedures for members to apply for the reduction and the Executive Committee to approve, and probably the anticipated size of the discount. None of this is a big deal, unless there is a sudden swell in the number of applicants.
Early Career could work as a category. We’d have to handle the election a bit differently than as currently drafted but that’s a minor issue. I wonder whether we have enough early career/students to make this an interesting election…but maybe that doesn’t matter too much in the early going…
Kylie — We started with that idea (vice-chair becomes the incoming chair) in the constitution. Ultimately, we (the drafting committee) moved away from it because it means that the chair must be a different person the next term, and if someone is really effective as the chair and wants to keep doing the job, do we want to eliminate the possibility of him/her continuing? Of course, he or she would still have to emerge as chair from the executive committee deliberations (and that’s assuming he or she was elected as a member of the executive committee…).
Don’t worry about the group name listed here — instead, visit the name change forum topic and post your thoughts — we simply want Article 2 to express what we do as a group. Do you think it does? Or did we leave something out? Let us know by posting a reply!
My preference would be for direct election of the Chair. I admit that this preference is informed by my experience with US presidential elections, etc., but I also believe that a lot of members, regardless of where they’re from, would like to have a say in who will be the primary face of the group for a couple of years.
Under this model, it’s conceivable that someone could be elected Chair who doesn’t have the support or endorsement of the other elected officers. This could make for an awkward working situation. However, under the alternative model where the Executive Committee elects the Chair from amongst themselves, it is possible that the Chair won’t have the support of all of the officers (assuming he or she is elected by a majority vote of the Committee)…also a potentially awkward working situation. Furthermore, the current constitution draft outlines only four electable officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Communications Officer) plus a Local Meeting Organizer (one-year term) appointed by the Chair, but we really need five electable officers to make the “parliamentary” model work well (since an even number could lead to a deadlock vote for the Chair). So, do we split the duties of Secretary-Treasurer? Or is there another way to create a fifth electable office?
I would definitely like to hear other members’ opinions regarding which model is most likely to be successful.
