23rd General Assembly of IUPAP (1999)

Appendix A

BY-LAW NO. 1

Procedure for the Election of Members of the Executive Council and of International Commissions by the General Assembly.

(These articles are in conformity with the Statutes. However, they are not statutes but rules of procedure only. They may be adopted or changed by each General Assembly.)

Executive Council

The Council and its composition are fixed by the Statutes. The Members are elected according to the procedure of this By-law (see g).

Commissions

Each Commission will consist of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, the Secretary, and ten Members.

a) Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Commissions

Chairmen will be appointed for three years, normally after three years (exceptionally after six) as Secretary or as an ordinary Member of their Commissions. In exceptional circumstances, a Chairman may become an ordinary Member of the Commission for three years after her/his period as Chairman.

Vice-Chairmen will be appointed for three years, and they will be eligible for a further term of three years.

The Chairman or the Vice-Chairman of a Commission shall come from the industrial community of physicists.

b) Secretary of Commissions

Secretaries will be appointed for three years, normally after three years (exceptionally after six years) as an Ordinary Member of their Commissions. Secretaries will be eligible for a second, and final, cycle of three years.

c) Commission Members

Commission Members will be appointed for three years and will be eligible for a further term of three years.

Exceptions to this rule will be permitted for Members of Commissions which have very specialized tasks and undoubtedly have a need for some of their Members to serve longer than six years.

d) National Distribution of Commission Membership

For the Commissions one should normally appoint only one Member from a given community. This rule applies thus not only to Members but also the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary.

The work of a few Commissions may be hindered by this rule. They may present their case to the Executive Council and, if approval is given, the Executive Council will make a recommendation to the General Assembly for ratification before the elections take place.

e) Associate Members

Some Commissions have established valuable links with several scientific Unions and other international organizations. They may wish to ask these organizations to nominate experts in these fields to become Associate Members of IUPAP Commissions.

For some Commissions it is also desirable to maintain close liaison with other IUPAP Commissions to ensure coordination of activities and actions in areas of common interest. To accomplish this, Commissions may wish to nominate also Associate Members from fields represented by other Commissions. This should be done in consultation with the Commission(s) concerned.

The maximum number of Associate Members of any one Commission will normally be four. They are appointed by the Executive Council one year after the election of regular Members. A list may be obtained from the Secretary-general

Associate Members are not entitled to vote at Commission meetings nor will they be eligible for IUPAP grants towards traveling and subsistence expenses.

f) New Commissions

When new Commissions are formed, ad hoc arrangements will need to be made until a normal rotation of membership can be established.

g) Election Procedure for Executive Council and Commission Members
     (Adopted by the General Assembly at Uppsala, 1996.)

1. Liaison Committees and Commissions will be invited to suggest names for membership of the Executive Council and of International Commissions (including the offices of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary) to the Secretary-general up to four months before the General Assembly on a special form which will be provided for this purpose. Each name submitted must be accompanied by brief details of the physicist's career and post currently held, and, for names submitted by Commissions, it is desirable that the support of the candidate's Liaison Committee be obtained. The Secretary-general (or the Associate Secretary-general) will circulate all the names received by the deadline to Liaison Committees three months before the General Assembly (List 'A').

2. The Executive Council will consider all the suggested names (and may itself suggest names) and will subsequently prepare, as a basis for discussion at the General Assembly, a slate of nominees for the Executive Council and the Commissions.

In preparing the list of names (for the Executive Council and for the Commissions), the Executive Council will endeavor to ensure a satisfactory worldwide spread of Executive Council and Commissions membership. The Executive Council will publish its proposed list of Council and Commission Members as early as possible, but not later than the beginning of the General Assembly (List 'B').

3. After the publication of the Executive Council's list of recommended names, it may transpire that some person may be unwilling to serve either as Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary or Member. In this event, or if comments are received from Liaison Committees or Commissions, the Executive Council will make suitable proposals, e.g. they may interchange the name of one of the proposed officers with that of a proposed Member or even introduce a new name. The Executive Council's final list of names will be issued early in the General Assembly, in time for general discussion (List 'C').

4. After the general discussion, delegations attending the General Assembly will be able to reintroduce names from List 'A' and add them to List 'C' by an agreed deadline and using appropriate nomination form. Names not on List 'A' may only be introduced by leave of the General Assembly. At this stage, each proposal must be seconded by another delegation. If any candidate is not a Member of the proposer's community, then the seconder should be the candidate's own delegation.

5. In the event of unforeseen circumstances (e.g. unexpected withdrawals) modifying the list of nominees after the nomination deadline is passed, the Secretary-general, after consultation with Members of the Executive Council, will add such names as are necessary to compete List 'C'. The final modified list (List 'D') will be presented to the General Assembly for ratification.

6. If more names are included on the final ratified List 'D' than the number of vacancies to be filled on one or more Commissions, then secret ballots will be held, each delegation head voting the delegation's block of votes for its preferred candidates, using the forms provided.

7. Votes are counted by two tellers appointed by the General Assembly. If necessary, they may be assisted by secretariat personnel. Voting should be consistent with paragraph d.

8. The procedure for filling casual vacancies on Commissions which occur between meetings of the General Assembly will be the same as for casual vacancies on the Executive Council (Statute III; Article 6):

"The Council may appoint Members to vacancies occurring in the interval period between General Assemblies. Members appointed in this fashion will complete the terms of office of the Members they are replacing."