Invitation to EAMBES Inauguration Meeting

Frankfurt/Main, June 14 -15, 2003

Report from the ProTem Group meeting, London, April 27, 2003

The ProTem group met in King's College Hospital, London to organise the Inauguration Meeting of EAMBES in Frankfurt, June 14-15, 2003. The European MBE Societies that endorsed EAMBES initialisation in 2001 will be invited to attend. Additionally academic programmes and other European societies are most welcome. A formal invitation will be sent out in May.

The Inauguration Meeting is expected to approve the Statutes of the Alliance and elect an Interim Council. Together with an Interim Executive Board it will have the responsibility of registering the Alliance and to initiate its activities. A timeframe of one year will begin in June, during which period, societies and academic programs or institutions and research institutes applying for membership in EAMBES will be recognised as Founding Members of EAMBES. The term of these temporary bodies will last until the first normal elections have taken place.

The ProTem group in its London meeting also finalised the proposal for the EAMBES Statutes based on the comments received to the draft that was sent out in early January. It also finalised proposals for Statutes of two EAMBES Divisions: the Societies Division (SD in further text) and the Academic Programmes or Institutions and Research Institutes Division (AD in further text). Prof. Joe Barbenel and Prof. Joachim Nagel had prepared these drafts. For details on these proposals (downloadable files), please visit the EAMBES web site (www.eambes.org).

The proposed structure of the Alliance is as follows:

  • Executive Board (consisting of a President, Past-President, President -elect, Secretary and Treasurer) elected by the Council,
  • Council, consisting of 26 representatives of the Divisions, elected by the delegates at the General Assembly of the Divisions.
  • Of the 26 representatives in the Council, 11 members represent the Societies Division and 5 members the Academic Programmes (AD) Division. Additionally the Industry and Fellows Divisions will both have 5 members on the EAMBES Council. However, these two Divisions will be launched after the Inauguration Meeting.
  • Each Division will have a General Assembly with delegates appointed by the member organisations. These elect the officers of the Division (Chair, Past Chair, Vice chair and a Secretary). The delegates of the member organisations also elect the representatives of their Division to the Council.
  • The Chair of each Division is an ex officio member of the Council.

The Societies Division consists of Sections for national and trans-European societies. There needs to be a balance of representation between the Sections. After careful consideration, the ProTem is proposing the following rules and procedures as the means of governance of the SD and of electing the 10 representatives to the EAMBES Council:

  • Both Sections will have at least three "guaranteed seats" on the Council. Additionally, the Chair of the Division is an ex officio member of the Council.
  • To have rotation on the Council. Half of the representatives on the Council are rotated out (their term expires) in each election with the other half continuing. This means that in each election, five Council positions will be filled.
  • Additionally, the office of the Society Division Chair will alternate between the Sections.

The elections to the Council will be carried out according to the following procedure:

  • A Nominating Committee will be appointed by the General Assembly of the SD. It is chaired by the Past-Chair.
  • Nominations can be made by member organisations.
  • The Nominating Committee is requested to present a single slate of candidates for Officers (Chair Elect and Secretary) and representatives on the Council. After election of the Officers, the candidates that were not elected may enter the slate for candidates for Council representatives.
  • The delegates then vote the representatives to the Council. The candidates from both Sections receiving the highest votes are elected to the "guaranteed seats". The remaining representatives are elected according to the results of the voting, regardless of the Section from which they come.

The ProTem group considers that its role will have been fulfilled by the time the Inauguration Meeting is over, and that it should then be dissolved. However, as there is quite a lot of "information and memory" that the ProTem group has collected since it started in August 2001, it proposes that the Interim Executive Board of the Alliance be appointed from among its members. The proposal for the Interim Executive Board of EAMBES is the following:

Niilo Saranummi, Interim President (Finland)
Jos vander Sloten, Interim Secretary General (Belgium)
Helmut Hutten, Interim Treasurer (Austria)
Joe Barbenel (UK)
Joachim Nagel (Germany)
Jan Wojcicki (Poland)

The ProTem group believes that these persons adequately represent the different groups who are forming the Alliance, i.e. national and transnational societies and research and academic interests.

Finally, the Alliance is to be an inclusive umbrella organisation for the European MBES community. Therefore all organisations with an interest in MBES are invited to join and participate in the Inauguration Meeting in Frankfurt, June 14-15. For details on how to register and participate visit the EAMBES home page (www.eambes.org).

Niilo Saranummi
Chair of the ProTem Group
niilo.saranummi@vtt.fi