Member Consultation on the IAOS Statutes, - Summary of Feedback, January 2025
Member consultation on the proposed new set of Statutes was launched at the 2024 IAOS General Assembly, held in May 2024. Members were invited to either provide comments via the IAOS Communities page or to email their comments directly to the convenor of the statute revision team.
To assist, members were provided with the following documents:
- Proposed new Statutes “IAOS Statutes Proposed only April 2024”.
- Version showing changes from the 2013 version of the statutes and work to date on the revision, “IAOS Statutes Proposed and Current Apr 2024 v6”.
Limited feedback was received, and is summarised in the table below, along with proposed actions where relevant.
Substantive feedback
Clause | Comment | Response | Action |
---|---|---|---|
Why is the term 'Section of the ISI' being reintroduced? In 2011 it was decided to no longer use that term, but instead use 'Associations'. |
This was a compromise solution, given the clear advice from the Legal Advisor that only the ISI was a formal association (“formele vereniging”) registered in the Netherlands. The term section, along with cross reference to ISI Association was used.
Note – More detail was provided in reply to the comment and it was agreed that no changes were needed |
No Change | |
6.7 | Introduces a quorum for the General Meeting. Is there a specific reason for that? Quorum not required under Dutch Civil Law | In some jurisdictions, a quorum is needed. | As Dutch Civil law does not require a quorum of members, and given the issues of attendance at General Meetings for international organisations like the IAOS, propose to DROP THIS CLAUSE. |
12.7 | Review wording to be clear that it is majority of attendees at General Assembly (including people attending virtually) | Agree – Also noted that the proposed 6.8 make dit clear that decisions of the General Assembly shall be made by a simple majority of votes cast | Reword to say 12.7.A majority of two thirds of the votes cast, (in person or virtual) including by proxy, is required for any amendment to be successful. |
Minor Editorial Changes following review
Clause | Comment | Response | Action |
---|---|---|---|
6.6 | Reference to Article 11 – should be Article 12 | Agree | Change reference |
The changes were noted at the IAOS Executive Meeting held in October 2024 and endorsed by the Executive.
As per the current statutes, formal voting on the new set of statutes will take place in mid-2025. The results of the voting, together with the final set of statutes will be presented to the 2025 General Assembly for final approval, before being submitted to the ISI Council for final ratification.
Nancy McBeth
Advisor to IAOS President and Convenor of the IAOS Statutes Revision Team