Notice to Members of Biennial General Meeting
29/06/09 09:02 Filed in: Ladakh Noticeboard | Members' news
Dear IALS member,
IALS GENERAL MEETING
As you know, the General Meetings of the IALS take place every two years at our biennial conferences. The next conference is to take place on 16th to 19th July in Leh, and Monisha Ahmed and the local committee have been working very hard to get everything ready. I look forward to meeting both old friends and new members there – while also being conscious that not everyone will be able to make it.
This year we have a number of important issues to discuss at the General Meeting, and we are therefore sending this advance note both to registered conference participants and to as many members as possible for whom we have e-mail addresses at hand. We will also bring the agenda to the attention of as many of our Ladakh members – with or without e-mails – as we can.
The most important issues – as discussed in this note - are: the revision of the IALS constitution; election of officers; and plans for the next conference in 2011.
We will also need to review our publications strategy, and the running of the IALS generally. If you have any particular agenda items, please could you let Monisha Ahmed know.
IALS constitution
At the last conference in Rome, we discussed the draft of a proposed IALS constitution which had been drafted by Martin Mills. We adopted the draft on an interim basis.
However, there were a number of issues on which we did not reach a final consensus. We therefore agreed to return to the discussion at the next conference in Ladakh, when more Ladakhi members would be present, and to make amendments as necessary. I now attach a revised draft (click to download), which has benefited from further revisions by Janet Rizvi, and has been reviewed by the Executive Committee.
The most important issue that we left unresolved in Rome was the role and status of the Advisory Committee. As you will see, the draft proposes that the Advisory Committee should now be an elected body whose members are elected on a rotating basis.
We would like to propose that these revisions should be ratified at the General Meeting, which will take place from 7-8pm on Saturday 18th July (the venue has not yet been decided but will be mentioned in your colloquium program when you register and pick up your folder). I would therefore be grateful if you could look at the draft carefully. If you have any suggestions for further amendments, please could you send them either to Monisha or to myself JNBray1957@yahoo.co.uk.
Download Draft of Revised Constitution
Election of officers
At the Rome conference, members elected the current Executive Committee for a single two-year term, pending further revisions of the constitution.
Once the constitution has been agreed, we therefore need to proceed to fresh elections for all officers of the Association – both the Executive Committee and the Advisory committee.
If you wish to suggest someone for one of these posts, please could you send your nomination (having secured the candidate’s permission) to Francesca Merritt either by e-mail to Francesca@merrittf.fsnet.co.uk, or by hand to either the Omasi-la Hotel or Tashi Morup’s office (at the Hemis Compound in Zangsti).
The deadline for nominations is the 8 pm on the evening of Friday 17th July, the day before the General Meeting.
In future, the constitution will require advance notice of candidates for election 60 days before the next General Meeting. We will need to apply this rule from the next conference onwards if this provision is confirmed.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee consists of five positions: the President, the Secretary, the Editor, the Treasurer, and a new position – the Ladakh Liaison Officer.
Treasurer
I wish to draw particular attention to the post of Treasurer.
After many years’ faithful service, Francesca Merritt wishes to retire as the IALS treasurer. We have greatly benefited from Francesca’s quiet and self-effacing efficiency. I personally am immensely grateful for her support, and I am sure that the same is true of all her many friends and colleagues in the IALS.
We are therefore now seeking a successor with the administrative skills to maintain the IALS’s subscription and membership database, and to keep the IALS accounts. One practical consideration is that the IALS main bank account is in the UK, and it would therefore be easier if Francesca’s successor is based there. For further details of what is involved, please contact Francesca herself at Francesca@merrittf.fsnet.co.uk and please let her know if you are interested in the post.
If, for any reason, we cannot appoint a Treasurer at the next General Meeting, the Executive Committee may need to make an interim appointment and then seek ratification at the next conference.
Advisory Committee
We propose that the existing Advisory Committee should dissolve once the revised constitution is ratified. We then need to proceed to the election of new members.
As you will see from the draft, the constitution provides for a combination of Ladakhi and ‘international’ members representing a cross-section of academic disciplines.
The constitution also provides for a rotating membership and re-election of the Advisory Committee, i.e. a third of the membership is to resign and seek re-election at each conference. Since we are now beginning the process for the first time, we suggest that members who are elected at the Leh conference should draw lots to determine four members who shall resign their membership after two years, four members who shall resign their membership after four years, and four who shall complete their six-year term.
Next conference
At the Rome conference, Martin Mills kindly offered to host the 2011 conference at the University of Aberdeen, and he has now confirmed this proposal. At the meeting, we will need to confirm acceptance. We should also discuss at least two other related matters.
The first is the date: Martin suggests early September (as with the 2001 conference in Oxford and the 2007 conference in Rome). No timing is perfect for everyone, but we hope that this works for most people.
The other issue concerns the themes or panels. As with previous IALS conferences, we expect to cover a broad interdisciplinary range of topics. However, as Martin points out, it may be easier to raise funds if we can identify a number of specific themes in advance.
With all good wishes,
John Bray