Hi all.

The Steering Committee is scheduling a face-to-face meeting in Marrakesh, with the possibility to join remotely.

We will take this opportunity to hold also a vote of the membership on a few items.

Detailed information on the different points submitted to the attention of the membership will be circulated in the next days, allowing a discussion among members.

The issues will also be posted on the web site.

Election of a Treasurer

As you remember, we held elections in Dublin, with possibility to vote by email for those not attending the physical meeting, to select the Steering Committee members.

Unfortunately, in that case there has been no accepted candidature for the post of Treasurer.

We are therefore proceeding to a second round. All members are eligible: please submit your candidature, or nominate another member, sending an email to me by 23:59 UTC of Sunday 14 February 2016.

Candidatures will be published on our web site as they are submitted.

Candidates can accept the candidature as soon as they are nominated. Self-nomination implies tacit acceptance.

The deadline for acceptance is 48 hours after the deadline for submission of the candidatures.

Details about the voting process will be provided shortly, but we can anticipate that we will hold the voting at a face-to-face meeting in Marrakesh, with the possibility to vote online for the members not present in person.

Associate membership

Since the creation of the association we have had requests to join as members by individuals who are active within ALAC outside Europe, but do not have the opportunity of participating as individual members.

Up to now, we have been unable to accept those applications, because of the language of our Bylaws, that state at article 2 (“Purpose”):

a) To organize individuals from all over Europe who are not affiliated to any of the existing At-Large Structures (ALS).

However, the same article states also:

d) To seek and promote exchange and collaboration with other non-European individuals engaged in other RALOs and ICANN

We propose to solve this problem by creating an additional membership class called “associate membership”. In practice, together with “full membership”, limited to citizens and residents of the European Region as defined by ICANN, we would give the possibility to citizens and residents of other parts of the world that have for whatever reason tight links with the European Region and/or the interest in participating to activities focusing on EURALO.

Of course, we need to draft the rules in order to give to the maximum extent possible the same rights to “full” and “associate” members, but we need also to put some safeguards to preserve the European nature of the association and to comply with the EURALO rules.

A proposal will be submitted to the membership, allowing extensive debate before a decision will be taken via a vote of approval by 2/3 of the membership.

Change the name of the organization

The association has been created as “Euro Individuals Association”, and this name is the one appearing on the Bylaws.

However, during the application process as ALS, an objection has been raised in EURALO about the possible confusion, EURO being a currency.

Our association has been certified as ALS with the name of “EURALO Individuals Association”.

However, in order to change the name on the Bylaws we need formal vote of approval by the membership.

Change the name of the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee observes that in most similar associations the leadership body is called “Board”.

While the tasks and duties of the Steering Committee and of its members will be unchanged, we propose to change the name of the Committee itself to “Board”.

In order to do this, we need approval by 2/3 of the membership.

Change the title of the President and Vice-President

The Steering Committee observes that in most similar associations the representative is called “Chair”.

This is even more so considering the change of name of the leadership team to “Board”

While the tasks and duties of the President and Vice-President will be unchanged, we propose to change their titles respectively to “Chair” and “Vice-Chair”

In order to do this, we need approval by 2/3 of the membership.

 

Best regards

Roberto Gaetano

(on behalf of the Steering Committee)