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Version 2.0.
[.doc] version
for download
This document is intended to start people thinking how a new
constitution might look. If we are to get a new constitution voted
in at the reps meeting in Exeter we need to have a pretty good
idea of how it will look at the end of the Sheffield meeting,
and we won't have time to write one from scratch in Sheffield.
My policy has been to try to incorporate every possible change
I have heard proposed on the grounds that it is easier to reject
a change than to write a new one, while at the same time leaving
mechanisms alone as much as possible where they are generally
agreed to work. This has led to a pretty big document, which I'll
admit scares me a little since the more complex the setup, the
less accessible it is to new people. That being said, it documents
a lot of stuff in the standing orders which is currently informal,
which I hope should help new people to get up to speed.
If none of this is used in the end I won't be in the least bit
offended. Hopefully it will at the very least provide ideas as
to how a new constitution could work, or scare people into finding
another way to do it!
The biggest changes are:
- Making it clear that this is a constitution to govern IVFDF
as an ongoing entity rather than any individual festival. The
current constitution is thoroughly confused in this respect,
which is one of the main reasons we have come to need to rewrite
it.
- Splitting it into a constitution and standing orders. I don't
see the point in going through all the hurdles to modify the
constitution in order to allow a Festival Committee to leave
its attendance figures out of its windup report. Better to split
the stuff that really matters and is hopefully fairly uncontroversial
(how we govern ourselves and prevent ourselves from being taken
over) from matters of policy, which can be changed without notice
at any reps meeting. This also allows a lot of the stuff we've
informally agreed to be written down in the standing orders
-- we'd probably end up having to write accompanying notes to
the constitution anyway if we didn't this.
- Incorporation of all the recommendations in the Sheffield
document, several of which date back to Braceborough, including:
- Splitting Information Point into two roles (Treasurer
and Archivist) which are elected as normal posts, and adding
provision for further posts in the standing orders, starting
with a Development Officer.
- Adding aims and objectives.
- Formalising the membership procedure.
- Adding explicit support for underwriting and return of
profits.
- Adding requirements for festivals to write up their experience
for future festivals.
- Adding provision for external advisers.
- Adding provision for electronic voting.
- Folding in the formal functions of Friends of IVFDF. This
should not be taken as any criticism of the great work people
have done to set FoIVFDF up; however it's a very heavyweight
solution with a large administrative overhead, and I believe
the balance of opinion is now that its functions would be better
served within IVFDF. The original reason for a separate body
was to keep the underwriting fund safe from the loss of any
one festival; I believe that by carefully positioning IVFDF
as a body which supports individual festivals in their operation,
rather than running festivals itself, this can be achieved within
the same fund. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean the death
of Friends of IVFDF -- it could continue in a fundraising capacity
if it so wishes regardless of this proposal, although again
I would ask whether such efforts can be more efficiently served
within IVFDF itself.
- A requirement that societies need to send students to IVFDF
to count as a member society, for reasons discussed in the notes.
- More formal responsibilities regarding internet services,
including taking backups and making sure other people can administer
them if necessary.
There are also lots of little things that seemed a good idea,
like requiring festivals to have compatible aims to IVFDF and
prohibiting IVFDF from entering into debt. It's also full of forward
references that are rather hard to avoid, comments welcome.
Additional notes are at the end.
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| CONSTITUTION |
NOTES ON THE CONSTITUTION |
| 1. NAME |
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| 1.1 The name of the association shall
be "The Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival", commonly known
as IVFDF. |
1. Should the governing body be called
something more distinct, such as the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Association,
or even IVFDF-central? |
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2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
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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.
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2.1. Aims taken from Sheffield's proposal.
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| 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. |
2.2. 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. |
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2.3. The association shall not discriminate on the grounds of
race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or political views.
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2.3. A discrimination statement is
also sometimes required for funding. |
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3. MEMBER SOCIETIES
3.1. A society shall become Member Society of the association
if:
3.1.1. It is a folk dance group which is recognised and supported
by a British University.
3.1.2. At least two student members of the society are in attendance
of a Festival. Each student can only count for one Member Society
for this purpose.
3.1.3. It registers its intention to join with the secretary of
the ARM at the Festival, giving contact details, university affiliation
and 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 immediately
of any change in contact details.
3.4. Membership shall be withdrawn if with a Member Society
fails to renew its membership for two consecutive ARMs.
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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.
I've long been convinced 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.
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4. AUTHORITY
4.1. Decisions for the association shall be made by the Representatives
of the Member Societies, by a Representatives Meeting (RM) as
specified in section 5, or an Electronic Vote (EV) as specified
in section 8. Such decisions shall hereafter be referred to as
acts of the Representatives.
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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 Standing Orders
of the association where they are not in conflict with this constitution.
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4.2. After several suggestions, I've
proposed a 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 that between them (speaking as one from Cambridge
:-). |
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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 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.
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5.4. Voting Members, the chair, the secretary, Officers, up to
two members of each active Festival Committee and others specified
in the Standing Orders shall have right of attendance. Others
may be permitted to attend the RM at the discretion of the 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 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 month of the meeting. The Archivist shall store these
records on behalf of IVFDF.
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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. |
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6. ANNUAL REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
6.1. An Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) shall be held at
each Festival.
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| 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. |
6.2. Based on Sheffield's proposal
to make explicit the duty of the current festival committee to properly
advertise the ARM. |
| 6.3. The current Festival Committee shall
appoint a chair and secretary for the meeting, who need not otherwise
have right of attendance. |
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. |
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6.4. The ARM shall as a minimum:
6.4.1. Provisionally nominate, 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 nominated
as soon as possible, and in any case before the next ARM.
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6.4.1. Note that this is no more
specific than nominating 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 nominates every person on that
committee, merely that a committee comes forward and is nominated. |
6.4.2. Confirm, subject to section 9.3,
the previously nominated Festival Committee to run the next Festival.
If instead support for the previously nominated 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 if required to achieve this.
6.4.3. Elect the Officers as required in section 9. |
6.4.2. Made more explicit a "confirmation"
stage beyond which support for a festival cannot be withdrawn. |
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7. EXTRAORDINARY REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
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7.1. Any Member Society may call an Extraordinary
Representatives Meeting (ERM) with the support (themselves included)
of 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. |
7.1. 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. |
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7.2. The ERM shall be hosted by the Festival Committee which
organised the most recent Festival, unless that Festival Committee
does not wish to host the ERM, in which case it shall be hosted
by the Member Society which called the ERM.
7.3. At least one 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.
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7.2. The current constitution requires
the outgoing festival committee to host an ERM -- we need a fallback
position if they don't want to. I've suggested the society that
proposed the ERM in the first place. |
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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.
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 defined by the Standing Orders.
8.3.1. The Returning Officer may not vote unless there is a tie,
in which case he/she shall have a casting vote.
8.3.2. The Returning Officer shall give notice of the proposal(s)
the electronic mailing list specified in section 10.2.6, appending
the entirety of section 8 of this constitution and any Standing
Orders governing the conduct of EVs.
8.3.3. At least one week shall be allowed following notification
of the proposal(s) to allow discussion of the proposal(s) to take
place and to allow a formal vote to be requested. A request for
a formal vote can be sent by any Voting Member and must be sent
to the same list.
8.3.4. If no requests for a vote have been received by The Returning
Officer after one week then he/she shall send an e-mail to the
list declaring the vote passed unanimously. Otherwise he/she shall
then send an e-mail to the list indicating the opening of voting
and the duration of the vote, which shall be not less than one
week.
8.3.5. All Voting Members may vote by sending an e-mail with their
vote to the Returning Officer.
8.3.6. The vote shall be invalid unless those from whom valid
votes are received from a quorum as defined in section 4.2.
8.3.7. 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.
8.3.8. Once the dispute period is over and any disputes have been
resolved to the satisfaction of the Returning Officer, the Returning
Officer shall send a final e-mail to the list confirming the result.
8.4. The Member Society which called the EV may withdraw the
proposal by informing the Returning Officer at any time until
he/she confirms the final result.
8.5. The Returning Officer may at any point declare the vote
void if he/she is not satisfied that the procedures have been
properly followed.
8.6. The Archivist shall record the proposal(s), summary of
votes and result.
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8. Sheffield suggested we should have
a mechanism for electronic voting, but didn't propose one in the
constitutional amendments. Going with my principle of including
everything, I've invented a mechanism. This 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". I also
now believe 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. |
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9. FESTIVAL
9.1. Each Festival Committee must undertake obligations in accordance
with the Standing Orders.
9.2. A Festival Committee may change its officers or membership
without the approval of the Representatives.
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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.
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| 9.3. Nomination 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 the
Festival Committee to run a successful Festival, or the Festival
Committee indicates it is unable to host a Festival, the Representatives
may withdraw support for that Festival Committee and provisionally
nominate a new Festival Committee to run the Festival instead. |
9.2. Explicit permission for a festival
committee to change its officers and membership is given since IVFDF
nominates the committee to run a festival, not a university. It
might be possible to avoid the need for this by rewording things
elsewhere, but I can't see how to do this easily. |
| 9.4. A Festival Committee shall be deemed
to be active from being first nominated to run a Festival, and cease
to be active at the end of the ARM following the Festival that Festival
Committee organises, or immediately if support is withdrawn under
section 9.3. |
9.3. More explicit text surrounding
withdrawal of support for a festival. Does this wording still give
festival committees the jitters? Should we be more restrictive? |
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10. OFFICERS
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10. The role of Information Point is explicitly split into
Treasurer and Archivist, as recommended in Sheffield's proposal
(although they didn't go as far as putting it in the proposed
constitutional amendments). I've also taken the alternative route
of making them normal annually elected posts. 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.
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10.1. The Treasurer:
10.1.1. Shall be elected annually at the ARM.
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 maintain a bank account to hold central IVFDF funds
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. |
10.1.7. Do we need to nominate an
officer (the Treasurer) to "represent IVFDF when required"?
I'm not sure when this would be used, but otherwise we have a group
without a nominal leader. |
10.2. The Archivist:
10.2.1. Shall be elected annually at the ARM.
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 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
added at the discretion of the Archivist. |
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! |
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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 casually vacant,
the Representatives may elect a replacement to serve until the
next ARM.
10.6. The Representatives may remove any Officer from office
by a vote of no confidence and elect a replacement.
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10.3. Additional officers are specified
in the standing orders, such as the development officer. |
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11. FINANCES
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| 11.1. The association 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. |
11.1. I think it is a good constitutional
safeguard to prohibit IVFDF going into debt. It's easy to remove
if people disagree. |
| 11.2. Withdrawals from central funds
shall require the signatures of two of: the Treasurer, and two persons
nominated by the Representatives for this purpose. One of the signatures
shall normally be that of the Treasurer. |
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. |
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12. DISSOLUTION
12.1. If a Festival does not take place in any period of twenty-five
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 Member Societies.
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12. The section on dissolution is
essentially unchanged. |
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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 this constitution must be
raised for discussion to the electronic mailing list specified
in 10.2.6, giving at least three months notice. Final changes
must be made available in the same way at least one month before
the RM.
13.3. Proposals may be made by any single Member Society.
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 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 this constitution which may be required as a
knock-on effect of proposals for alterations.
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13. Final constitutional amendments need only be given with
1 month's notice, as recommended in Sheffield's proposal. The
section on constitutional amendment is otherwise essentially unchanged.
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| STANDING ORDERS |
NOTES ON THE STANDING ORDERS |
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1. ANNUAL REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
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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".
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1.1. The agenda for the ARM shall include:
1.1.1. Outgoing report by the Festival Committee which ran the last
Festival.
1.1.2. Report by the current Festival Committee.
1.1.3. Treasurer's Report.
1.1.4. Archivist's Report.
1.1.5. Development Officer's Report.
1.1.6. Next Festival:
1.1.6.1. Report by the Festival Committee nominated to run the next
Festival, including budget, status of venues, publicity and schedule.
1.1.6.2. Report by the External Adviser for the next Festival.
1.1.6.3. Confirmation or otherwise of the next Festival as specified
in section 6.4.2 of the constitution.
1.1.6.4. Confirmation of grants, loans and underwriting to the next
Festival based on the above.
1.1.7. The Festival in two years time:
1.1.7.1. Provisional nomination of a Festival Committee to run a
Festival in two years time as specified in section 5.3.1 of the
constitution.
1.1.7.2. Appointment of one or more External Advisers to oversee
the nominated Festival Committee.
1.1.7.3. Provisional offers of grants, loans and underwriting for
the nominated Festival Committee as deemed necessary by the ARM
subject to confirmation at the following ARM.
1.1.8. Setting of budgets required for Officers to carry out their
duties.
1.1.9. Election of Officers as specified in section 5 of these Standing
Orders and in section 6.4.3 of the constitution. |
1.1. The ARM agenda is roughly how
they currently work, with the addition of provision for external
advisers (see below). |
| 1.2. All documents for the ARM must be
available on request from the start of the festival (not the meeting)
and where possible at least one month before the festival. |
1.2. A requirement for ARM documents
to be available in advance, as recommended in Sheffield's proposal. |
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. |
1.3. Additional information to be
gathered from each member society, as recommended in Sheffield's
proposal. |
| 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. |
1.4. 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. |
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2. EXTRAORDINARY REPRESENTATIVES MEETING
2.1. The costs of an ERM shall be borne by the Member Societies
attending.
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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.
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3. ELECTRONIC VOTING
3.1. The Returning Officer shall be one of the following, in
order of preference, based on availability: the Development Officer,
the Archivist, the Treasurer. Anyone serving on an active Festival
Committee shall be deemed unavailable for this purpose.
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3.1. The order of precedence for EV returning officers has
been chosen to minimise conflict of interest. It's quite hard
to avoid all possible conflict of interest here while guaranteeing
that a returning officer will always be available, and I still
don't think I've found an ideal solution, but I'm still fairly
convinced that it is not productive to bar all officers from serving
on a festival committee.
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4. FESTIVAL COMMITTEE OBLIGATIONS
4.1. The Festival shall be run at some time during February
and the first two weeks of March of the year in which the Festival
Committee has been nominated to run a Festival.
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4. The obligations on a given festival
from the current constitution are carried over here to make them
easier to change. |
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4.2. 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 association.
4.3. 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.
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4.2. A statement in the festival constitution separating its
liability from IVFDF should help keep the central funds separate.
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| 4.4. The Festival Committee shall take
out appropriate public liability insurance to cover the Festival. |
4.4. It is almost inconceivable that
a festival would be run without public liability insurance, but
worth making explicit, again to limit liability for IVFDF. Actually,
at present this is covered as a requirement for EFDSS membership.
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 it
is not inconceivable that EFDSS might one day support IVFDF! Left
as a topic for further discussion.
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| 4.5. The constitution of the Festival
Committee shall include statements on aims and discrimination compatible
with section 2 of the constitution. |
4.5. A requirement for compatible
aims should help with funding. |
4.6. The Festival Committee shall compile
a report following the Festival, and present this report to the
Archivist as soon as possible after the Festival. The report shall
include:
4.6.1. A list of Member Societies with at least two student members
who attended the Festival.
4.6.2. Final accounts audited by the External Adviser.
4.6.3. Attendance figures.
4.6.4. Details of applications for funding or sponsorship, and the
outcomes of those applications.
4.6.5. Constitution of the Festival Committee.
4.6.6. Advice and lessons learned that may be useful for future
Festival Committees. |
4.6. 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. |
| 4.7. If underwriting support from central
funds is accepted by the Festival Committee, the Festival Committee
shall return at least half of any profits they make to central funds. |
4.7. A requirement to return half
of all profits in return for underwriting as recommended in Sheffield's
proposal. |
|
5. EXTERNAL ADVISERS
5.1. An External Adviser shall be appointed to oversee each
Festival Committee, as described in section 1.1.4.2. The External
Adviser is appointed for his/her experience in running a Festival
and must have sat on a Festival Committee within the last 10 years
on appointment.
5.2. External advisors shall have right of attendance at RMs.
5.3. Each Festival Committee shall report to the appointed External
Adviser once in every 4 month period, indicating progress on budget,
venues, publicity, action plans and anything else that may be
requested by the External Adviser.
|
5. 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. |
|
5.4. The External Adviser 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.
5.5. The 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 use this information
to decide whether to confirm the Festival Committee and to confirm
underwriting support.
5.6. The External Adviser for a Festival Committee can be changed
in the same way as any Officer.
|
5.4. 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. |
| 5.7. Assistants may be appointed to assist
an External Adviser and provide additional support to a Festival
Committee as required. |
5.7. I haven't gone into much detail
regarding how assistants might be appointed -- they don't have a
formal role, so it's best to keep this flexible. |
|
6. OFFICERS
|
|
6.1. The Archivist shall in addition
to his duties specified in section 10.2 of the constitution:
6.1.1. Shall maintain a web site at www.ivfdf.org, which shall as
a minimum:
6.1.1.1. Link to the web pages of forthcoming Festivals were available.
6.1.1.2. Advertise IVFDF in general.
6.1.1.3. Make records held on behalf of IVFDF available for download
as far as is practical. Section 10.2.4 of the constitution shall
be deemed to be satisfied for such records.
6.1.2. 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@ivfdf.org, the current
constitution, and the list of Member Societies and their contact
details.
6.1.3. Shall maintain an e-mail list called ivfdf-news@ivfdf.org,
for the purposes specified in section 10.2.6 of the constitution.
6.1.4. 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.
6.1.5. Shall prepare and present a report at each ARM.
6.1.6. Shall ensure other nominated people have 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. |
6.1. 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. |
|
6.2. The Development Officer:
6.2.1. Shall be elected annually at the ARM.
6.2.2. Shall coordinate the long-term advertising policy between
festivals.
6.2.3. Shall promote student folk activities, maintaining a list
of known groups and individuals.
6.2.4. Shall encourage said groups and individuals who do not
normally attended IVFDF to attend, or attend in greater numbers.
6.2.5. Shall prepare and present a report at each ARM.
|
6.2. Provision is made for a development officer as recommended
in Sheffield's proposal. The responsibilities are still pretty
vague and will almost certainly need changing if we decide to
create this post.
|
ENDS (P) Andrew Swaine August 2003
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