[ivfdf-news] Constitution proposal (version 4.0)
Andrew Swaine
aswaine at iname.com
Thu Nov 27 01:24:26 GMT 2003
I hereby propose to change the IVFDF constitution as shown below. This is
the result of discussions which started at the meeting in Braceborough a
few years ago, followed by proposals from Sheffield at Sheffield IVFDF
2003, followed by a follow-up constitutional discussion meeting at
Sheffield a few months ago.
By sending to this list I believe I fulfil the requirements of the current
constitution to propose amendments 3 months in advance. If anyone believes
this is not to be the case, please say quickly!
I'm afraid I wasn't able to attend ICBINI, so apologies in advance for not
taking account of any discussions there of which I am not yet aware!
Please direct all comments and discussions to
ivfdf-constitution at ivfdf.org. Comments on whether the introductory
material is sufficient for distribution at IVFDF also welcome.
Andrew Swaine (Cambridge).
PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION AND STANDING ORDERS OF THE INTER VARSITY FOLK
DANCE FESTIVAL
Version 4.0.
This document presents the proposed constitution as discussed and amended
in the Sheffield constitution meeting. It is hopefully fairly close to the
proposal that will be made to IVFDF 2004 in Exeter. It has its roots in
the recommendations made by IVFDF 2003 in Sheffield and in the Braceborough
meeting.
SUMMARY
This summary is clearly not comprehensive or authoritative -- for that you
will have to read the small print.
1. The old constitution is replaced in its entirety with a new
constitution and standing orders. The new constitution is changed in much
the same way as the last one (with three months notice of the preliminary
proposal and a two-thirds majority vote at an Annual Reps Meeting), while
the standing orders can be changed at any time by an ordinary majority
vote. The standing orders are essentially a statement of current IVFDF
policy, which was not previously captured well.
2. The new constitution and standing orders are for a central organising
body (often referred to as IVFDF-central), rather than the old model
constitution for individual festivals.
3. There are (hopefully uncontentious) statements on aims, objectives, and
discrimination.
4. IVFDF is still ultimately controlled by representatives of university
societies which attend IVFDF, 2 from each at any given time. The rules for
what defines a member society are tightened up, and require student
attendance from that society every two years.
5. The main decision-making meeting is the Annual Reps Meeting (ARM,
renamed from the Reps Meeting), held once a year at each IVFDF. Member
societies can call additional Emergency Reps Meetings (ERMs) if required
with one month's notice. There is now also provision for Electronic
Voting, so that decisions can be made by e-mail if required (I advise due
to read the details if you are interested in this). ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org
is specified in the standing orders as the list to which formal notices
will go out on and people with formal roles are required to be on this list.
6. The officers, all of whom may delegate, are:
* The Treasurer, who looks after central funds and may not vote.
* The Archivist, who stores and makes available IVFDF records and runs
electronic services. The Treasurer and Archivist roles were previously
held by Information Point, and are now elected for 3 year terms up to a
maximum of 9 consecutive years.
* The Development Officer (a new post defined only in the standing orders),
who promotes general university folk interests. There are keen people at
Sheffield that feel they could do this role better with the official
backing of a national body such as IVFDF. The Development Officer is
elected annually.
7. Each festival is required to return at least half of any profits to
central funds, in return for use of the "IVFDF brand" (which brings with it
several hundred people to a festival).
8. External advisers (1 lead, who must have been on an IVFDF committee in
the last 10 years, and 2 assistants) are appointed to report back to the
reps on the progress of the festival. Their sole sanction is to "blow the
whistle" to the reps. Festival committees must report back to their lead
external adviser every four months.
9. An initial loan is paid 2 years in advance following submission of a
balanced budget. Additional grants and loans are provisionally promised 2
years in advance but paid 1 year in advance based upon the advice of the
lead external adviser. Underwriting is granted 1 year in advance, also
based upon the advice of the lead external adviser.
10. The formal link with Friends of IVFDF is abolished, since it no longer
provides underwriting functions. Whether or not it chooses to continue as
a general focus for goodwill is left as a decision for Friends.
11. The venue and organising body (festival committee) for an IVFDF is
preliminary chosen two years in advance, and confirmed one year in
advance. In exceptional circumstances and with a two-thirds majority the
reps can change their mind on or before the one-year point. Other than
this and the ability to set loan, grant and underwriting levels, the reps
cannot interfere with the running of a festival.
12. The list of obligations of a festival committee is listed in the
standing orders, including:
* Constitutional requirements excluding liability of IVFDF-central, and
requiring compatible aims and discrimination clauses.
* Adequate public liability insurance. The requirement to be a member
society of EFDSS is removed in favour of this broader requirement.
* Reporting obligations at the end of the festival.
13. IVFDF-central is constitutionally prevented from entering into debt by
foreseeable circumstances.
14. The ARM is the responsibility of the festival it is held at, but they
can now nominate others to be chair and secretary. A minimum agenda is
specified in the standing orders (although it can of course be changed at
the ARM if necessary, so it is really a guide). It includes:
* Reports from active festival committees, officers and external advisers
(described below).
* The decision on where to hold IVFDF in two years time.
* Offers/decisions on loans, grants and underwriting.
* Election/appointment of officers and external advisers.
* Setting of budgets.
BRIEF HISTORY AND MOTIVATION
This process began with the observation that while IVFDF central funds are
prepared to take any profits made by individual festivals (and in times
gone by used to expect it), a festival which makes a loss is not guaranteed
to be bailed out (loss-making festivals often have been, but this has
always been as a result of pleading festival committees asking for money
after the loss has already been made). Given that there are not that many
groups capable of hosting IVFDF these days, and these people to a heck of a
lot of work for free, it's pretty unreasonable to expect them to take this
risk. One committee in recent times certainly thought so and an IVFDF
nearly failed as a result.
Efforts to try to fix started with a meeting in Braceborough in 2000, and
amongst other outcomes "Friends of IVFDF" was born to provide a framework
for underwriting support. Without going into the details I can tell you as
treasurer that this organisation currently has 7 members and I think it's
fair to say that the general view is now that it is an overly complicated
solution to the problem. Some other amendments to the constitution were
made following this meeting.
Sheffield made another stab at reform at the last IVFDF in 2003, which they
hosted. They tried to formalise the underwriting provision and associated
controls, split Information Point (the sole central officer of IVFDF who
looks after central funds and records) into several posts with expanded
roles, and add aims and objectives. It was essentially rejected in its
entirety, not due to its content, but because the existing constitution was
very badly worded, confusing and inconsistent, and the amendments made it
worse. Essentially, it started life as a model constitution for each
festival, gradually tried to morph into a constitution for a central body,
but never quite made it. The decision was that there should be a follow-up
meeting to write a new constitution incorporating these proposals.
I wrote a new constitution, it was discussed and amended a lot on e-mail,
the meeting was held, a load more amendments were made and the result is
this document.
REQUEST FOR COMMENTS
The aim is to get this constitution approved by the Reps Meeting (the IVFDF
equivalent of an AGM) at IVFDF 2004. A lot of people have put a lot of
hard work to get to this point, everyone has hopefully been given the
chance to have a say, and lots of people have. However, the nature of
IVFDF is that society representatives change constantly so this may well be
the first you have ever heard of it. IF YOU HAVE FEEDBACK PLEASE GIVE IT
TO ivfdf-constitution at ivfdf.org BEFORE IVFDF 2004 (and get yourself
subscribed to this list at www.ivdf.org). If you are reading this at IVFDF
2004, please give it before the Reps Meeting. Obviously you are welcome to
make whatever representation you like at the meeting itself, especially if
you don't feel your concerns have been addressed, but it will be much
easier to fix things before the meeting than on the spur of the moment at
the meeting.
Needless to say, if you know someone who is likely to have opinions on the
subject, make sure they see this document and are subscribed to
ivfdf-constitution at ivfdf.org.
Clearly the proposal is likely to change before IVFDF 2004, but it is hoped
that due to the large amount of review to date there should not be a need
for major changes.
To ensure that potentially contentious sections do not prevent the rest of
it being approved, the votes are currently expected to be as follows:
1. The constitution and standing orders except where stated below.
2. The Development Officer.
3. Electronic Voting.
4. Return of half profits.
5. External Advisers and underwriting.
Obviously the precise clauses involved in each category will be specified
by IVFDF 2004.
Additional notes are at the end.
CONSTITUTION
1. NAME
1.1. The name of the association shall be "The Inter Varsity Folk Dance
Festival", also known as IVFDF.
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
2.1. IVFDF exists to promote knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the
traditions of the folk dance and music of the British Isles and beyond,
especially to students and young people.
2.2. This shall be achieved by supporting Festivals running events such as
dances, workshops and displays, targeted at but not limited to university
students.
2.3. The association shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, sex,
age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or political views.
3. MEMBER SOCIETIES
3.1. A group shall become Member Society of the association if:
3.1.1. It is a folk group which is recognised and supported by a British
University.
3.1.2. At least two members of the society which are students at a British
University are in attendance at a Festival. Each student can only count
for one Member Society for this purpose.
3.1.3. It registers its intention to join at the Festival, giving
electronic mail contact details for the list specified in section 10.2.6,
university affiliation and the names of the two students specified in
section 3.1.2.
3.2. Each Member Society shall have the option to renew its membership at
each Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) with the secretary of the ARM,
providing that the conditions in section 3.1 still hold.
3.3. Member Societies must notify the Archivist as soon as practically
possible of any change in contact details.
3.4. Membership shall be withdrawn from a Member Society if:
3.4.1. It fails to renew its membership for two consecutive ARMs.
3.4.2. It notifies the Archivist that it wishes to revoke its membership.
3.4.3. It ceases to meet the criteria in section 3.1.1.
3.4.4. It cannot be contacted due to failing to adhere to section 3.3.
4. AUTHORITY
4.1. Decisions for the association shall be made by a vote in a
Representatives Meeting (RM) as specified in section 5, or an Electronic
Vote (EV) as specified in section 8. Such decisions are hereafter referred
to as decisions of the Representatives.
4.2. Where specified, a quorum shall require:
4.2.1. If the association has 9 or more Member Societies, representatives
from one third of all Member Societies, rounding up; otherwise if the
association has 3 or more Member Societies, representatives from 3 Member
Societies; otherwise representatives from all Member Societies.
4.2.2. Representatives from Member Societies from three different
universities where such Member Societies exist; otherwise representatives
from a Member Society from each university with a Member Society.
4.3. The Representatives may make or modify the Standing Orders of the
association by an ordinary vote, where they are not in conflict with the
constitution.
5. REPRESENTATIVES MEETINGS
5.1. An RM is defined as either an Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) or
an Extraordinary Representatives Meeting (ERM), run in accordance with the
Standing Orders.
5.2. Each Member Society may choose up to two of its members present at
the RM to have voting rights at the RM, hereafter referred to as Voting
Members. The RM Chair may not be a Voting Member.
5.3. Decisions may only be taken if the Voting Members form a quorum as
defined in section 4.2.
5.4. Voting Members, the RM Chair, the RM Secretary, Officers, up to two
members of each active Festival Committee and any others specified in the
Standing Orders shall have right of attendance. Others may be permitted to
attend the RM at the discretion of the RM Chair.
5.5. Votes shall be cast by simple majority of an open show of hands of
the Voting Members. In the event of a tie, the chair shall have a casting
vote.
5.6. The RM Secretary shall record minutes of the meeting and compile a
list of Member Societies present, and make them available to all members of
the electronic mail list specified in section 10.2.6 within one calendar
month of the meeting. The Archivist shall store these records on behalf of
IVFDF.
6. ANNUAL REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
6.1. An Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) shall be held at each Festival.
6.2. The current Festival Committee shall take all reasonable steps to
make all Member Societies present at the Festival, and all societies
eligible to be Member Societies, aware of the ARM and their right of
attendance.
6.3. The current Festival Committee shall appoint the RM Chair and RM
Secretary, who need not otherwise have right of attendance as defined in
section 5.4.
6.4. The ARM shall as a minimum:
6.4.1. Provisionally appoint, from one or more bids from potential
Festival Committees, a Festival Committee to run a Festival in two years
time. If no bids are received then the ARM shall take all necessary steps
to ensure a Festival Committee is appointed as soon as possible, and in any
case before the next ARM.
6.4.2. Confirm, subject to section 9.4, the previously appointed Festival
Committee to run the next Festival. If otherwise support for the
previously appointed Festival Committee is withdrawn and a new Festival
Committee chosen, confirmation shall be given immediately or as soon as is
possible, the current Festival Committee calling an ERM or EV if required
to achieve this.
6.4.3. Elect the Officers as required in section 10.
6.5. If an ARM has not been held for 14 months the Treasurer shall call an
ARM as soon as practically possible, giving at least one calendar month's
notice to the electronic mailing list specified in section 10.2.6 of the
time, venue and provisional agenda of the ARM.
6.5.1. The Treasurer shall appoint the RM Chair and RM Secretary, who need
not otherwise have right of attendance as defined in section 5.4.
6.5.2. The Treasurer may use IVFDF funds to cover reasonable costs for
holding the meeting, subject to section 11.1.
7. EXTRAORDINARY REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
7.1. An Extraordinary Representatives Meeting (ERM) may be called by either:
7.1.1. Five Member Societies from at least three different universities.
7.1.2. Sufficient Member Societies to form a quorum as defined in section 4.2.
7.2. The ERM shall be hosted by one of the Member Societies which called
the ERM.
7.3. At least one calendar month's notice must be given by the host of the
ERM to the electronic mailing list specified in section 10.2.6 of the time,
venue, and provisional agenda of the ERM, as decided by the host of the ERM.
7.4. The host of the ERM shall appoint a chair and secretary for the
meeting, who need not otherwise have right of attendance as defined in
section 5.4.
8. ELECTRONIC VOTING
8.1. Any Member Society may call an EV with the support required for
calling an ERM as specified in section 7.1 by notifying the electronic
mailing list specified in section 10.2.6.
8.2. Each Member Society may choose up to two of its members to have
voting rights in an EV, hereafter referred to as Voting Members.
8.3. The EV shall be conducted in accordance with the Standing Orders by a
Returning Officer.
8.3.1. The returning Officer shall be one of the following, in order of
preference, depending on availability: the Archivist, the Treasurer, other
officers defined by the Standing Orders in order of definition. Anyone
serving on an active Festival Committee or with a conflict of interest
shall be deemed unavailable for this purpose if another Officer is available.
8.4. The Returning Officer shall give notice of the proposal(s) to the
electronic mailing list specified in section 10.2.6, appending the entirety
of section 8 of the constitution and any Standing Orders governing the
conduct of EVs.
8.5. At least three weeks shall be allowed following notification of the
proposal(s) to allow discussion of the proposal(s) to take place.
8.5.1. Member Societies must inform the Returning Officer of its Voting
Members during the discussion period.
8.5.2. Proposals may be altered during the discussion period in whole or
in part by the Member Society which called the EV at the discretion of the
Returning Officer.
8.5.3. Proposals may be withdrawn by the Member Society which called the
EV by notifying the Returning Officer during the discussion period.
8.6. Once the discussion period is over the Return Officer shall then send
an e-mail to the list indicating the opening of voting and confirming the
proposal(s), listing the Voting Members and the duration of the vote, which
shall be not less than one week.
8.6.1. Each Voting Member may vote by sending an e-mail with their vote to
the Returning Officer.
8.6.2. The Returning Officer may not vote.
8.6.3. Votes, once cast, cannot be changed.
8.7. Once voting is closed, the Returning Officer shall send an e-mail to
the list indicating the result of the vote, and listing the people who
voted, the way they voted and their affiliation. The e-mail shall also
indicate the duration of a period to allow the validity of the votes cast
to be disputed, which shall be not less than one week.
8.7.1. The vote shall be void unless those from whom valid votes are
received form a quorum as defined in section 4.2.
8.7.2. In the event of a tie, the vote shall be declared not carried.
8.7.3. If the Returning Officer believes that the outcome of the vote has
been jeopardised by procedures not being properly followed, he/she shall
declare the vote void. The Returning Officer's decision in this is final.
8.8. Once the dispute period is over, the Returning Officer shall send a
final e-mail to the list announcing the validity of the vote and/or the result.
8.9. The Returning Officer shall keep all relevant correspondence,
including votes cast, until the end of the dispute period.
8.10. The Archivist shall record the proposal(s), summary of votes and result.
9. FESTIVAL
9.1. Each Festival Committee is subject to the obligations stated in the
Standing Orders.
9.2. Each Festival Committee must provide the Archivist with up to date
contact details for at least two of its members, including electronic mail
contact details for the list specified in section 10.2.6.
9.3. A Festival Committee may change its officers or membership without
the approval of the Representatives subject to section 9.2.
9.4. Appointment of a Festival Committee to run a Festival is provisional
until confirmed by the Representatives, on or after the ARM of the
preceding Festival. In the event that the Representatives do not have
confidence in the ability of an unconfirmed Festival Committee to run a
successful Festival, or a Festival Committee indicates it is unable to host
its Festival, the Representatives may, with a two-thirds majority, withdraw
support for that Festival Committee and provisionally appoint a new
Festival Committee to run the Festival instead.
9.5. A Festival Committee shall be deemed to be active from being first
appointed to run a Festival, and cease to be active following the closure
of all accounts and fulfilment of all obligations to the association, or
immediately if support is withdrawn under section 9.4.
10. OFFICERS
10.1. The Treasurer:
10.1.1. Shall be elected for a three-year term at the ARM, renewable every
three years.
10.1.2. Shall not be a member of any active Festival Committee while
he/she holds the post.
10.1.3. May not be a Voting Member in an RM or EV.
10.1.4. Shall hold central IVFDF funds in one or more bank accounts
distinct from any Festival Committee.
10.1.5. Shall make and receive payments to/from Festival Committees and
other organisations as directed by the Representatives .
10.1.6. Shall prepare and present a financial report at each ARM.
10.1.7. Shall represent IVFDF when required.
10.1.8. Shall not hold the post for a total of more than 9 consecutive years.
10.2. The Archivist:
10.2.1. Shall be elected for a three-year term at the ARM, renewable every
three years.
10.2.2. Shall maintain the constitution.
10.2.3. Shall maintain the list of Member Societies as collected by the
secretary of each ARM.
10.2.4. Shall store relevant records on behalf of IVFDF as required.
10.2.5. Shall make records held on behalf of IVFDF available to Member
Societies and active Festival Committees on request.
10.2.6. Shall maintain an electronic mailing list for distributing
information, to include contacts for each Member Society, active Festival
Committee, and Officers. Other interested parties may be included at the
discretion of the Archivist.
10.2.7. Shall not hold the post for a total of more than 9 consecutive years.
10.3. The Standing Orders of the association may specify additional
Officers and additional responsibilities for the Officers named in this
section.
10.4. Officers may delegate duties at their discretion unless otherwise
directed by the Representatives, but maintain responsibility for ensuring
that they are adequately performed.
10.5. In the event that an Officer's post becomes vacant, the remaining
Officers shall nominate a replacement to serve until the next ARM. The
replacement must be promptly announced on the electronic mailing list
specified in section 10.2.6.
10.6. The Representatives may, with a two-thirds majority, remove any
Officer from office by a vote of no confidence and elect a replacement.
10.7. Officers must provide the Archivist with up to date contact details,
including electronic mail contact details for the list specified in section
10.2.6.
11. FINANCES
11.1. The Representatives shall not make such obligations that could cause
it to come into debt, for example by offering a greater sum in underwriting
than its total assets.
11.2. Withdrawals from central funds shall require two
signatures. Signatories shall include: the Treasurer and two persons
nominated by the Representatives for this purpose. Except in exceptional
circumstances, the Treasurer will be expected to provide one of the signatures.
12. DISSOLUTION
12.1. If a Festival does not take place in any period of twenty-eight
consecutive calendar months, then IVFDF shall be said to be dissolved, when
the following shall be enacted:
12.1.1. All property and assets of IVFDF, including debts owed by Festival
Committees, shall be converted into money and collected together.
12.1.2. All debts and liabilities of IVFDF shall be settled immediately
with this money.
12.1.3. The remaining sum, being credit or debit, shall be shared equally
between all groups that were Member Societies at the end of the last Festival.
13. CONSTITUTION
13.1. This constitution may be altered in whole or in part by the
assenting vote of at least two-thirds of the Voting Members present at a
properly constituted RM.
13.2. Proposals for alterations to the arm goodness constitution must be
raised for discussion to the electronic mailing list specified in 10.2.6,
giving at least three calendar months notice. Final changes must be made
available in the same way at least one calendar month before the RM.
13.3. Proposals may be made by any group qualified to call an ERM as
defined in section 7.1.
13.4. Proposals which have been properly notified shall form part of the
agenda of the next properly constituted RM that takes place. If the
constitution is successfully modified, a copy of the updated constitution
shall be presented to the Archivist by the secretary of the RM within one
calendar month of the RM.
13.5. Proposals may be altered in whole or part as a result of discussion
at an RM, but only matters raised with due notice may be discussed. The RM
shall also have the power to make any other changes to the constitution
which may be required as a knock-on effect of proposals for alterations.
STANDING ORDERS
1. ANNUAL REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
1.1. The agenda for the ARM shall include:
1.1.1. Reports from any Festival Committees still active at the last ARM
not covered elsewhere.
1.1.2. Outgoing report by the Festival Committee which ran the last Festival.
1.1.3. Report by the current Festival Committee.
1.1.4. Treasurer's Report.
1.1.5. Archivist's Report.
1.1.6. Development Officer's Report.
1.1.7. Next Festival:
1.1.7.1. Report by the Festival Committee appointed to run the next
Festival, including budget, status of venues, publicity and schedule.
1.1.7.2. Report by the Lead External Adviser for the next Festival.
1.1.7.3. Confirmation or otherwise of the next Festival as specified in
section 6.4.2 of the constitution.
1.1.7.4. Decisions on provisional offers of grants and loans to the next
Festival.
1.1.7.5. Offers of underwriting to the next Festival.
1.1.8. The Festival in two years time:
1.1.8.1. Provisional appointment of a Festival Committee to run a Festival
in two years time as specified in section 5.3.1 of the constitution.
1.1.8.2. Appointment of a Lead External Adviser and two Assistant External
Advisers to oversee the appointed Festival Committee.
1.1.8.3. Immediate offers of loans to be paid as soon as a balanced budget
and request for payment is submitted to both the Treasurer and Lead
External Adviser. Any such payment is automatic and not subject to
budgetary approval.
1.1.8.4. Provisional offers of grants and loans subject to confirmation at
the following ARM.
1.1.9. Setting of budgets required for Officers and External Advisers to
carry out their duties.
1.1.10. Election of Officers as specified in section 5 of these Standing
Orders and in section 6.4.3 of the constitution.
1.2. All documents for the ARM must be available on request from the start
of the festival, and where possible at least one calendar month before the
festival.
1.3. When registering membership with the secretary, Member Societies
shall, where possible, indicate:
1.3.1. Changes to contact details.
1.3.2. Approximate number of members, student and non-student, attending
the Festival and in total.
1.3.3. Principal activities undertaken by the society.
1.4. The ARM shall be held so as to give time for it to be reconvened
later in the Festival should no bids be received for the Festival in two
years time.
1.5. It is requested but not required that Member Societies nominate
students to represent them as Voting Members where possible.
2. EXTRAORDINARY REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
2.1. The costs of an ERM shall be borne equally by the Member Societies
attending.
3. FESTIVAL COMMITTEE OBLIGATIONS
3.1. The Festival shall be run in a weekend during February and the first
two weeks of March.
3.2. The constitution of the Festival Committee shall state that IVFDF is
not liabile for any debt or other obligations arising from the Festival
except where agreed by the Representatives.
3.3. All property and assets of each Festival shall be vested in the
Festival Committee, in whose names all transactions of the Festival shall
be carried out. They shall hold themselves liable, on behalf of the
Festival, for all proceedings undertaken for or against the Festival in any
Court of Law, and shall indemnify themselves against the assets of the
Festival for any liabilities incurred therein.
3.4. The Festival Committee shall take out public liability insurance of
at least 1 million pounds liability appropriate to cover the Festival.
3.5. The constitution of the Festival Committee shall include statements
on aims and discrimination compatible with section 2 of the constitution.
3.6. The Festival Committee shall compile a report following the Festival,
and present this report to the Archivist within three calendar months of
the end of the Festival. The report shall include:
3.6.1. A list of Member Societies with at least two student members who
attended the Festival.
3.6.2. Current accounts, audited by the Lead the External Adviser.
3.6.3. Attendance figures.
3.6.4. Details of applications for funding or sponsorship, and the
outcomes of those applications.
3.6.5. Constitution of the Festival Committee.
3.6.6. Contact details for individuals and organisations that may be
useful for future Festival Committees.
3.6.7. Advice and lessons learned that may be useful for future Festival
Committees.
3.7. The Festival Committee shall return at least half of any profits they
make to central funds.
4. EXTERNAL ADVISERS
4.1. A Lead External Adviser and two Assistant External Advisers shall be
appointed to oversee each Festival Committee, as described in section
1.1.8.2. The External Advisers are appointed for their experience in
running a Festival and the Lead External Adviser must have sat on an IVFDF
Festival Committee within the last 10 years on appointment.
4.2. External Advisers shall have right of attendance at RMs.
4.3. Each Festival Committee shall report to their Lead External Adviser
at least once every four calendar months, indicating progress on budget,
venues, publicity, action plans and anything else that may be
requested. This requirement continues until the Festival Committee ceases
to be active according to section 9.5 of the constitution.
4.4. The External Advisers shall give such advice and assistance as is
necessary, welcome and practical to ensure the successful running of the
Festival, and alert the Member Societies if he/she believes that the
Festival is at risk of failure via the electronic mailing list specified in
section 10.2.6 of the constitution.
4.5. The Lead External Adviser shall report to the ARM, and ERMs as
requested, on the progress of the Festival Committee and highlight any
concerns that he/she may have. The RM shall consider this information when
deciding whether to confirm the Festival Committee and to confirm
underwriting support.
4.6. The External Advisers for a Festival Committee can be changed in the
same way as any Officer as specified in section 10.6 of the constitution.
4.7. External Advisers shall not be liable for any financial debt or other
obligation of the Festival.
4.8. External Advisers must provide the Archivist with up to date contact
details, including electronic mail contact details for the list specified
in section 10.2.6 of the constitution.
5. OFFICERS
5.1. The Archivist in addition to his duties specified in section 10.2 of
the constitution:
5.1.1. Shall maintain a web site at www.ivfdf.org, which shall as a minimum:
5.1.1.1. Link to the web pages of forthcoming Festivals where available.
5.1.1.2. Advertise IVFDF in general.
5.1.1.3. Make records held on behalf of IVFDF available as far as is
practical. Section 10.2.4 of the constitution shall be deemed to be
satisfied for such records.
5.1.2. Shall make adequate provision for the recovery of copies of key
records in the event of theft, computer failure, fire, flood or other
similar event, such records to include the contents of www.ivfdf.org, the
membership of ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org, the current constitution, the list of
Member Societies, all contact details held and any other electronic records.
5.1.3. Shall maintain an e-mail list called ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org, for the
purposes specified in section 10.2.6 of the constitution. All External
Advisers must be included in this list.
5.1.4. Shall administer and maintain registration of the internet domains
ivfdf.org and ivfdf.org.uk on behalf of IVFDF. Approval is granted to use
IVFDF funds to pay registration fees required for this purpose.
5.1.5. Shall prepare and present a report at each ARM.
5.1.6. Shall nominate at at least one person as a deputy, deposit the
contact details of the deputy/deputies with the Treasurer, and ensure that
the deputy/deputies have the full the rights and knowledge to maintain the
web site, e-mail list, domain registration and any other electronic
services provided on behalf of IVFDF, in case such maintenance is required
and the Archivist is unavailable.
5.2. The Development Officer:
5.2.1. Shall be elected annually at the ARM.
5.2.2. Shall coordinate the long-term advertising policy between festivals.
5.2.3. Shall promote student folk activities, maintaining a list of known
groups and individuals.
5.2.4. Shall encourage said groups and individuals who do not normally
attended IVFDF to attend, or attend in greater numbers.
5.2.5. Shall prepare and present a report at each ARM.
NOTES ON THE CONSTITUTION
2.1. Aims originate from IVFDF 2000.
2.2. Method of achieving aims modified from Sheffield's proposal, to make
it clear that IVFDF is supporting festivals rather than running them,
crucial to maintain independence of liability.
2.3. A discrimination statement is also sometimes required for funding.
3. Based on Sheffield's proposal to formalise membership. Other details,
such as number of members, are not crucial to the process and are left to
the standing orders.
Note that if you don't have two student members at the festival for two
years running, you are no longer considered a Member Society. One "lean"
year does not result in instant dismissal. This allays the concern that,
if you want to take over IVFDF, the way to do it is to find a friendly
university with little society regulation and create a large number of
empty societies. This way it is a little bit harder, since you need a lot
of students to help you. It also allays the concern I have heard expressed
regarding people at reps meetings claiming to represent a society with no
proof that it (still) exists. While I think it unfair to criticise such
people (they are merely representing the interests of the society according
to the constitution) I think it would be more appropriate for such people
to attend the meeting (so they can say why no one from their society is
turning up) but not vote.
They have to register at the ARM, rather than just at the Festival, for
reasons of accountability.
4.1. An attempt to cut down on later verbiage -- when we say "the
Representatives may...", this is what we mean.
4.2. After several suggestions, I've proposed this quorum formula which is
slightly complicated but always ensures that a quorum is possible. This
way we are covered for all eventualities, although if we get down to 2
Member Societies then there are probably more pressing things to worry
about than whether a meeting is quorate! The formula also adds a "three
universities" clause to make it harder for example for Cambridge and Exeter
to stitch the whole thing up between them (speaking as one from Cambridge :-).
5.4. It seems only fair that active festival committees have right of
attendance. I've put two members only so the chair can keep a reasonable
control over numbers -- member societies aren't permitted to send their
whole committee by right either.
6.2. Based on Sheffield's proposal to make explicit the duty of the
current festival committee to properly advertise the ARM.
6.3. Removed the requirement that the chairman of the current festival
also chairs the ARM. This is mainly because I've removed all specification
of officers required for a festival committee so it's hard to refer to a
chairman, but also because I don't see it as a necessary requirement. For
example, the chairman might have strong views on things to be discussed in
the meeting, and might want to appoint someone more neutral to chair it
instead.
6.4.1. Note that this is no more specific than appointing a "Festival
Committee". It does not say it must be a member society, or based at a
university. It is not the intention that the ARM appoints every person on
that committee, merely that a committee comes forward and is appointed.
6.4.2. Made more explicit a "confirmation" stage beyond which support for
a festival cannot be withdrawn.
6.5.2. Central funds may be used in this instance to make sure that this
meeting really happens.
7.1. I've complicated the rules here slightly to make sure that it is
always possible to call an ERM, even if we are down to very few member
societies. We agreed that it should never been necessary for more than 5
societies to agree to call an ERM.
7.2. The current constitution requires the outgoing festival committee to
host an ERM -- but they might not want to. We agreed instead that one of
the societies which called it should chair it.
8. This mechanism has been subject to a fair bit of discussion in the
Sheffield meeting. It permits any business other than constitutional
change (which explicitly requires an RM) to be carried out
electronically. I was originally going to limit it to certain predefined
classes of decision, but this complicates things somewhat, and is another
diversion for us to spend lots of time discussing instead of "important
business". We agreed that electronic voting is at least as fair as an ERM,
since at least all societies get to see everything that is voted upon this
way -- not everyone can make an ERM.
Note that, in the absence of an obvious arbitration mechanism, if there are
any disputes as to the validity of an electronic vote it is declared void,
presumably forcing an ERM instead.
9. The current constitution requires a festival to invite all member
societies. This seems superfluous, and festivals must have an ultimate
right to deny entry to anyone should they dee it necessary (subject to the
discrimination statement). I've therefore removed this requirement.
9.2. Providing the Archivist with the Festival Committee mailing list
should suffice here in most cases.
9.3. Explicit permission for a festival committee to change its officers
and membership is given since IVFDF appoints the committee to run a
festival, not a university.
9.4. More explicit text surrounding withdrawal of support for a
festival. The wording is slightly different from that agreed in Sheffield
to permit a new Festival Committee to be appointed if one pulls out after
it has been confirmed.
10. The role of Information Point is explicitly split into Treasurer and
Archivist. I've taken the middle-ground option of making them re-electable
three year terms. The original reason for making Information Point a
long-term post was so that people could contact him to find the next
festival -- since no one has done this for years and there is also now an
effective means to find out from www.ivfdf.org, I believe this argument no
longer holds.
I deliberately haven't made the officers into any form of committee capable
of making decisions by itself -- authority is delegated to individual
officers only. If we expect IVFDF central to be an active organisation
working with lots of universities, an executive committee may be
useful. This has a largish impact on the constitution, and we should ask
what decisions such a committee needs to be able to make before forming
it. My personal view is that, to keep bureaucracy to a minimum, we should
continue without one initially until we find we need one. The electronic
voting mechanism should reduce the need for a bit anyway.
10.1.7. Without this we have a group without a nominal leader, which could
be important in some situations.
10.2. Note that the Archivist is not barred from voting or sitting on a
festival committee. I don't see how they could be any conflict of interest
here, and I want to avoid leaving us with the situation that a good and
competent Archivist is forced to stand down so they can run a festival --
there aren't that many people to go round!
10.3. Additional officers are specified in the standing orders, such as
the development officer.
10.5. If a post becomes vacant, the most important thing is that someone
else picks it up as quickly as possible, rather than spending ages in an
election procedure. I haven't specified what happens in the remaining
officers (there are probably only two of them) disagree since this makes
things far too complicated. I am instead relying on those in charge to Do
The Right Thing, which given past experience is fairly certain.
11.1. I think it is a good constitutional safeguard to prohibit IVFDF
going into debt. If IVFDF goes into debt, this debt can be transferred to
the Member Societies, and this is not something most societies would be
happy about.
11.2. This has to be worded such that the Treasurer doesn't need to send
cheques halfway across the country for signing each time he needs to make a
payment. It is essentially the same as the wording in the current
constitution, although I don't know who these people are at present.
12. The section on dissolution is essentially unchanged, although I've
made it harder for societies to jump ship if there are any debts to be
shared. Not that there should be any debts due to section 11.1, but it is
theoretically possible for the Treasurer to screw up or some similar mishap
to cause an unintentional debt. The dissolution period is increased from
25 to 28 months following the Sheffield meeting.
13. Final constitutional amendments need only be given with 1 calendar
month's notice, as recommended in Sheffield's proposal. A quorum is
required to propose changes.
NOTES ON THE STANDING ORDERS
The standing orders can be changed at any RM or by EV, and can therefore be
viewed as statements of policy in most cases. I've tried to capture the
essence of "how IVFDF really works".
1.1. The ARM agenda is roughly how they currently work, with the addition
of provision for external advisers (see below) and underwriting.
1.2. A requirement for ARM documents to be available in advance.
1.3. Additional information to be gathered from each member society.
1.4. We've spent a long time discussing whether it is best to hold the ARM
on the Saturday or the Sunday so we can cajole people into running a
festival and reconvene if necessary -- following feedback I've proposed
that provision must be made for this without prescribing one day or the other.
1.5. Some people feel quite strongly that students should make the
decisions, but this is quite hard to legislate on, and it is ultimately not
really our business, so it is left as a recommendation.
2.1. I've left alone the requirement for an ERM to be paid for by the
member societies attending, but put it in the standing orders so that for
example an RM can decide to subsidise travel to an ERM.
3. The obligations on a given festival from the current constitution are
carried over here to make them easier to change.
3.2. A statement in the festival constitution separating its liability
from IVFDF should help keep the central funds separate.
3.4. It is (hopefully) almost inconceivable that a festival would be run
without public liability insurance, but worth making explicit, again to
limit liability for IVFDF. This used to be covered by requiring EFDSS
membership, but the EFDSS insurance is no longer sufficient. I assume
there is no need for IVFDF itself to be covered.
Should there be a requirement for festivals to be an associated club of
EFDSS, or should IVFDF itself be? The current constitution requires the
former, but since public liability insurance is now explicitly required, on
request I've removed the EFDSS affiliation. EFDSS membership doesn't
automatically give public liability insurance for events over 50 people any
more anyway. I don't believe we should mandate more than is absolutely
necessary on each festival, but we might decide to make IVFDF itself
support EFDSS, and EFDSS from time to time supports IVFDF! Left as a topic
for further discussion.
3.5. A requirement for compatible aims should help with funding.
3.6. A requirement to write up notes from running the festival in addition
to the accounts, as recommended in Sheffield's proposal. Should there be a
deadline for the return of this report? The current constitution just says
"as soon as possible" and it sometimes takes a while to wrap everything up,
but some things, such as the list of member societies attending, may
benefit from a stricter time limit.
3.7. A requirement to return half of all profits, regardless of whether
underwriting is given. In Sheffield we agreed that even if underwriting is
not given the Festival still benefits from being awarded the IVFDF
"franchise" -- they agree to return profits in return for a pretty large
guaranteed audience.
4. Ever since Braceborough we have been trying to work out how to assign
external advisers to festivals. At present the constitution of FoIVFDF
allows it to do this, although there are few people in Friends with recent
experience of running a festival; Sheffield's proposal recommended a team
appointed by the RM and this is closer to that proposal. I'm recommending
putting a single person in charge although others may be assigned to help,
to limit the "hassle factor" applied to any festival committee. It must be
someone with recent experience of a festival committee and that person is
deliberately not excluded from sitting on another festival committee, since
this should be viewed as a positive thing.
4.3. Hopefully the hassle factor for festivals which haven't wound up yet
is considered a good thing here...
4.4. A requirement for the external adviser to give all "necessary,
welcome and practical" assistance to ensure success. This is carefully
worded to indicate that the external adviser is expected to be proactive if
necessary, but that assistance can be refused if requested. Ultimately the
external adviser's final sanction is to alert the member societies of his
or her concerns. The autonomy of festival committees is therefore
hopefully protected.
5.1.2. The Archivist is made explicitly responsible for Internet services
and data backup. The Archivist would therefore normally be the web site
administrator. He/she must also ensure others can administer the
services. A separate document exists defining the management structure at
present and proposing how access should be given to others and to
whom. It's probably easier to leave that level of decision to the Archivist.
5.2. Provision is made for a development officer as agreed in
Sheffield. The responsibilities are subject to change based upon the
recommendations from the first holders of this post.
ENDS
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