Ad-Hoc Committee on the Restructuring of IAML/Rapport Du Comite Special Sur la Restructuration De l'AIBM/Bericht Des Ad-Hoc-Komitees Zur Neustrukturierung der IVMB

The Ad-Hoc Committee on Restructuring of was appointed by Board in October 2012 and charged with investigating possible changes to structure of organisation, focusing specifically on administrative structure of (Board, Council and General Assembly). The Terms of Reference further state that The purpose of any proposed restructure is to ensure that has an improved decision-making process, thus making it a more responsive and effective organisation. must have a structure and strength of purpose that will support its goals and assist its members to operate effectively on both a national and international level. In its deliberations Committee took into account minutes of sessions on the future of IAML held during Moscow, Dublin and Montreal conferences, final report of Strategy Committee, and other relevant documents supplied by President. Beginning in October we corresponded extensively via e-mail, and we benefitted greatly from a two-hour conference call on 21 November. As instructed we have concentrated chiefly on broad picture. In some cases we have found it necessary to go into a good deal of detail in order to explore implications of our recommendations, but we have not attempted to resolve every potential difficulty, recognizing that many subsidiary questions are better addressed at a later stage when larger outlines of a plan have been determined by Board and Council. This report is presented under a series of headings. However, as will be readily apparent many of issues involved are closely intertwined. Overall Structure. At international level has a three-tier governance structure, consisting of Board, Council and General Assembly. Primary decision-making authority is vested in Council. This structure reflects original pattern of international meetings: a full-scale congress was held every three years, during which General Assembly met and transacted such essential business as approval of a triennial budget and election of President and Vice-Presidents. In intervening years, smaller provided an opportunity for individual groups to meet, their leaders forming Council. Obviously functional distinction between congresses and conferences disappeared long ago, except for constitutionally mandated meeting of General Assembly every three years and associated election of officers. But overall structure of organization has remained essentially unchanged. In many ways this structure has served well. With it organization has grown and flourished. Yet in recent years there has been a widespread perception that present system was not working as effectively as membership would like. Our committee has identified four principal problems. First, Council in its present form is not well suited to serve as primary decision-making body of organization. It is too large to permit in-depth exploration of complex issues and too much of its meeting time is devoted to hearing reports of one kind or another. As a result, in practice most decisions are made by Board and then ratified by Council, often without much debate. Yet as Council meets only once a year, Board is often forced to delay implementation of decisions reached at its midyear meeting or earlier until they can be submitted to Council. The need to seek Council approval also draws out other processes unnecessarily, for example electing officers, which currently takes a year from determination of slate of candidates to announcement of election results. Second, in interest of increased openness and wider participation in administration of IAML, it has become customary for General Assembly to meet every year, usually in conjunction with Closing Session of conference. At same time, more and more members have been taking advantage of right granted them under Rules of Procedure to attend Council meetings as observers (Rule IV, no. …

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