Vote on amendments of the IAS Bylaws

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Sub: Vote on amendments of the IAS Bylaws

The International AIDS Society (IAS) recently invited all IAS

members to vote on the proposed amendments of the IAS Bylaws.

hOWEVER, i appears the bylaws presented by the Governing Council is not adequate

enough to ensure that IAS would remain as an apex agency representing the best

interest of Global AIDS response and to ensure that this venerable agency will

not be abused by any unscrupulous governing council members or the

administrative staff.

To strengthen the governance of IAS I would like to propose the

following amendments. IAS members who will be present at the XVI

International AIDS Conference in Toronto in August are invited to

cast their votes on the following, proposed amendments at the

General Members Meeting which will take place during the conference:

Date: 16 August 2006, Time: 20:15–21:45

Place: Session Room 9, Level 100, North Building of the Metro

Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC)

Or you may write to the IAS president Dr.Helene D. Gayle, By e-mail.

<info@...>

Proposed amendments:

1) Proposed article 6.5. IAS membership will note be terminated

without the benefit of `a due process'.

2) Proposed article 5.9. All the Governing Council members and staff

of IAS must declare their conflict of interest. In particular, their

interest with the Pharmaceutical industry.

3) Proposed article 7.2.1) All the beneficiaries of IAS (who receive

a benefit of more than $ 1,000 as benefit in the form of

scholarship, travel and consultancy fees) must be listed as a public

record

4) Proposed Article 6.6 IAS Governing council election must me

supervised by an impartial returning officer nominated by the

Governing Council

5) Proposed article 6.7 An detailed IAS Governing council election

procedure should be presented to the next IAS meeting.(Such as

preparation of a list of all eligible voters, proper demarcation of

the regions and appeal process)

Notes on the proposed amendments

1) The statement (6.5) " membership may be terminated without

indication of reason, by the recommendation of the Executive

Committee.… " is high hand and against the sprit of a professional

organization. This is only meant to stifle any genuine criticism.

2) Currently, there is no clause on " conflict of interest' which

bounds the conduct of the IAS leadership.

3) As a matter of promoting greater accountability all the

beneficiaries of IAS needs to be identified and it should be a

public record

4) Currently the IAS Governing council election is mostly supervised

by a computer technician and the office staff of IAS. This would

lead to potential abuse and the violation of the privacy of the IAS

members

5) Currently, the IAS Governing council election is conducted on an

arbitrary and flippant manner, mostly supervised by the office staff

of IAS. There are no specific details of the demarcation of the

region, list of eligible voters, right to canvas for votes.

Sincerely,

Joe

Moderator

AIDS INDIA eFORUM

Links:

Current IAS Bylaws: http://www.iasociety.org/page_2.asp?pageId=1220

IAS Rules & Procedures: http://www.iasociety.org/page_2.asp?

pageId=1230