%META:TOPICINFO{author="MarkJackson" date="1152631733" format="1.1" version="1.11"}%
%META:TOPICPARENT{name="TDWGConstitution"}%
---+Article 6:  Officers

---++6.1 Election and terms
At each annual meeting the following individual officers shall be elected from the membership. The Chairman will normally hold office for a period not exceeding three years. All other officers will normally hold post for a period not exceeding six years. 

Should vacancies of office occur during the term of office, the Executive committee is empowered to fill these from the membership until the next annual meeting, at which time the position will be filled by general election. 

In decision making, each officer will have one vote with the Chairman having a casting vote. 

---++6.2 Chairman
Presides at meetings of TDWG and at meetings of Executive Committee; is entitled to sign jointly with one other officer on behalf of TDWG; enacts such functions as are assigned to him by the Executive Committee. 

---++6.3 Secretary
Operates the secretariat; keeps and distributes minutes of meetings; sends notices of the annual meeting to the membership and notices of meetings of the Executive Committee to its members; distributes proposals and draft standards, and organizes votes. 

Communication with the Executive Committee should be via the Secretary who must arrange a proxy from among Executive Committee members for any significant period of unavailability.

---++6.4 Treasurer
Is entitled to sign jointly with one other officer on behalf of TDWG; maintains the membership list, reports finances annually to the membership; collects membership dues; arranges audits; administers the assets of TDWG in conformance with instructions from the Executive committee. 

---++6.5 Open Officers (4)
Up to four Open Officers may be appointed by members of the Executive Committee to fulfil roles identified by the Executive Committee.



-- Main.LeeBelbin - 03 Jun 2006

Inserted numbering and title for 6.1 (English?)

-- Main.WalterBerendsohn - 04 Jun 2006

Are we saying that the Open Officers MUST be elected to fulfil 'specific roles', presumably defined before election? Of course it's good practice for everyone to have a role, but should these roles not be forthcoming then having five members of the EC must surely still be preferable to having three.

Who would be responsible for the website content? 

Does the Treasurer have a responsibility to arrange audits?

-- Main.MarkJackson - 06 Jun 2006

I agree that there should be five Officers with or without specific roles for the Open Officers. Should we also allow the Executive to co-opt additional members (up to two?)?

-- Main.AdrianRissone - 15 Jun 2006

I think it remains unclear what is required to establish an Open Officer. Article 5 says "Up to four additional members can be appointed by the officers." Does an appointment require the unanimous consent of the existing officers? Or can any one officer (including an Open Officer) appoint another up to the point where there are four Open Officers? Can more than one Open Officer be appointed simultaneously? There is no mention of a term of office for Open Officers. How is an Open Office terminated?

Personally, I think this concept of open officers provides an opportunity for abuse of the system unless some of these questions are specifically addressed.

-- Main.JohnWieczorek - 5 Jul 2006

I'm with John on the potential abuse. My suggestion on June 6th was that the open officers need not have specific roles except to serve on the EC and participate in the discussions and voting. Now I see that we have 4 of them and they are co-opted not elected. It would help if we knew the rationale for this...

-- Main.MarkJackson - 11 Jul 2006