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GENERAL RULES - 4. Conduct of Business |
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Tuesday, 26 October 2010 15:37 |
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Page 17 of 18
4. Conduct of Business
Article 9 – Chair
1. Acting Chairman : at the opening of the World Congress and until the election of the Congress Bureau, the President of the World Federation will be Acting Chairman.
2. Duties of the Chairman : the Chairman shall open and close each session, ensure observance of these Rules, and grant or refuse the right to speak. He or she shall rule on the proceedings and ensure the maintenance of order. He or she may consult the Congress and, if necessary, put questions to the vote and announce the result.
3. If the Chairman is absent or unable to carry out his duties, he or she shall be replaced by one of the Deputy Chairmen, who, as Acting Chairman, shall have the same powers and duties as the Chairman.
Article 10 – Quorum
1. A quorum shall consist of a majority of the full members.
2. If however after a five minute suspension of the session, there is still no quorum as defined above, the Acting Chairman may invite delegates to decide unanimously upon a temporary nullification of the preceding paragraph.
However, the Congress will not be valid, in any case, with less of the 1/3 of the full members, up to date with their membership dues. If this threshold is not reached, works will be transferred for the next year. New convocations will have to be sent to the members.
The mandate of the members of the Executive Board will be over. A provisional Bureau will be set up, composed by the ex-officio members of the Executive Board, who will work with the executive secretary for the taking place of the Congress. At the time of the second convocation the quorum shall consist of ¼ of the full members.
Article 11 – Order and Time-limit of speeches
1. The Chairman shall call upon speakers in the order in which they notify him or her of their wish to speak.
2. To facilitate the conduct of business, the Chairman shall limit the time allowed to each speaker.
3. Observers wishing to make an oral statement must obtain the prior permission of the Chairman.
Article 12 – Working languages
The official working languages of the Congress shall be at least English and French. Interpreting shall be provided at least in these languages and working documents shall be made available at least in English and French.
Article 13 – Procedural Motions
1. During the discussion of a question, any delegate may move the suspension or adjournment of the meeting, or the adjournment or closure of the debate.
2. The presiding officer, after consulting the delegates, shall give the ruling he deems most appropriate to such a motion.
3. The following motions shall have precedence, in the order indicated below, over other proposals or motions:
- Suspension of the meeting;
- Adjournment of the meeting;
- Adjournment of the debate on the question under discussion;
- Closure of the debate on the question under discussion.
Article 14 – Proposals and Amendments
1. Draft resolutions and Amendments may be proposed by the delegates referred to Article 1; they shall be submitted in writing to the Secretariat of the Congress, which shall distribute copies to all participants.
2. As a general rule, no draft resolution or amendment shall be discussed or voted upon if the text in the working languages of the Congress has not been forwarded at least two hours in advance to all delegates.
Article 15 – Voting
1. Each of the delegates as defined in Article 1 shall have one vote.
2. A Full Member registered and present at the Congress whose delegate is unavoidably prevented from taking part in the business of a particular session may, in first instance, appoint another member of its delegation to replace him or, that failing, may appoint another Full Member as its proxy. This proxy shall then be fully empowered to represent it. Written notification of the appointment of a proxy must be sent to the presiding officer of the session, and state the session or items on the agenda to which it applies; it must also be signed by both parties involved in the agreement.
3. A Member may not be represented by proxy for the whole duration of the business of the World Congress. A Full Member may not represent more than one other Full Member.
Decisions taken by vote shall be adopted by a majority of the delegates who are present and voting, as defined in Article 1.
a. The following shall be decided by a simple majority of the delegates present and voting :
- The adoption of the General Rules;
- The election of the Bureau of the Congress;
- The election of the Credentials Committee;
- The election of the Nominations Committee;
- The adoption of the programme and budget, and any other question proposed by the Bureau.
b. The first round of balloting for the posts of the President, the Vice-presidents, the members of the Executive Board and the Treasurer of the World Federation shall be decided by an absolute majority of those present and voting.
c. Posts which are not filled in the first round of balloting by absolute majority shall be filled following a second round of balloting by a simple majority.
4. For the purpose of these Rules, the expression « delegate as defined in Article 1 » shall refer to delegates casting an affirmative or a negative vote. Participants who abstain from voting shall be considered as non-voting.
5. Voting shall normally be carried out by show of hands. At the request of the delegates, voting may also be done by secret ballot, under the condition that the delegates who demand it represent at least two thirds of those present and voting.
6. When an amendment to a proposal is moved, the amendment shall be voted first. If several amendments to a proposal are moved, participants shall first vote on the amendment deemed by the Chairman to be the furthest removed in content from the original proposal. They shall then vote on the amendment next furthest removed and so on until all amendments have been voted upon.
7. If one or more amendments are adopted, the amended proposal as a whole shall then be voted upon.
8. A motion shall be considered an amendment to a proposal when it simply adds to, deletes from, or alters a part of that proposal.
Article 16 – Election of the President, the Vice-presidents, the members of the Executive
Board and the Treasurer.
1. Candidates must be entered in a Candidature File, to be drawn up by the Secretary General.
The Candidature Form shall be sent out to all full members with notification of the convening of the next World Congress.
It shall contain the candidate’s personal qualifications, and details on his previous activities in the service of the UNESCO Clubs movement, the areas in which he is able to make a particular contribution to the development of the movement, and the programme which he proposes to carry out.
Candidates must be proposed by the National Federation, or another coordinating body of their country. In addition, their Candidature File must include a statement by a national leader indicating his support of the candidate and his future action in advancing the interests of the World Federation.
The completed Candidature Form must be sent to the Secretary General at least two weeks before the opening of the World Congress.
All Candidature Files shall be displayed during the World Congress to allow participants to become acquainted with the candidatures.
2. The Nominations Committee shall draw up a list of eligible candidates and shall report back to the Congress.
3. The President, the Vice-Presidents, the members of the Executive Board and the Treasurer shall be elected in the given order, using separate ballot papers for each election.
4. For the election of the Vice-presidents and the members of the Executive Board the lists of candidates shall be drawn up on a regional basis, and shall mention the number of posts to be filled from each region.
5. On the first ballot, those candidates who receive an absolute majority (half of the votes plus one) of votes of the members present and voting shall be deemed elected. Candidates for any seats not filled on the first ballot who obtain a simple majority on the second, shall be deemed elected.
6. Any ballot paper containing more names for a given region than the number of posts to be filled shall be regarded as void.
7. Candidates who fail to be elected on the first ballot may choose to step down. In that event, they shall notify the Chairman of the session of their discussion not more than five minutes after the announcement of the result of the first round.
8. Ex-officio members of the Executive Board are not elected. Their list is proposed for decision to the Congress by the Nominations Committee, with the participation of the President of the World Federation and the Secretary General, who examines the requests according to the provisions of the Constitution and the general rules of the World Federation.
Article 17 – Congress Report
A final report concerning the proceedings of the World Congress shall be compiled in the working languages of the meeting and distributed by the World Federation’s Secretariat to :
- all Federations and Coordinating Committees;
- UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations in countries which do not have a Federation;
- National Commissions for UNESCO;
- Associate Members of the WFUCA;
- Representatives of other inter-governmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations with a direct interest in the aims and programmes of the World Federation.
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