Rules for the Election of Members to the IEMA Council 2008.

Introduction

The IEMA made changes to its governing structure in June 2007 following amendments to its Articles of Association agreed by Special Resolution at its Annual General Meeting. The revised governing structure vested the overall running of the Institute to an appointed Board of directors. The Board has overall responsibility for the running of the IEMA, including fiduciary duties under company law and for developing and implementing the Institute’s strategy. The revised governing structure also provides for the formation of a representative Council, whose primary roles are to provide advice to the IEMA’s Board on the Institute’s overall strategic direction and the extent to which its strategic objectives are being met, and to appoint Board members and review the Board’s overall performance.

Council 

The Council will be constituted from elected and appointed representatives. The 2008 election process will elect up to 3 representatives from each of the individual members’ sectors (Business, Consultancy, Education, Public) and one representative from each of the Institute’s corporate membership grades (Consultancy, Education, Business and Public). Once the election process is complete, each of the Institute’s Regional Steering Groups will also be invited to appoint a representative onto the Council.

The role of the Council is set out out in the Institute’s Articles of Association   IEMA Articles ratified 13 06 2007.pdf (90.76 KB). Article 24 sets out the Council's role as: 

• To appoint and remove members of the Board
• To approve any matter which the Council or the Board consider would have a material effect on the nature or development of the Institute, or IEMA members
• To act as the primary consultative body to the Board and to provide advice to the Board on the Institute’s overall strategic direction and the extent to which the Institute’s strategic objectives are being met. 

Council elections will operate on a four year cycle and each elected representative will serve a term of up to 4 years – after which they would need to stand for re-election or stand down.

Meetings of the Council will be at least annually, although it’s possible that meetings will initially be held at 6 monthly intervals. Positions on Council are not remunerated, although Council members will be entitled to the reimbursement of expenses.

Individual Membership Sectors

The Institute categorises its individual membership into four broad sectors: Business; Consultancy; Education and Public. Each of the Institute’s individual members has been allocated to one of the sectors. Where a member is retired or unemployed, then they remain in their most recent sector.

The Institute uses the following definitions as guidance: 

• Consultancy – where the member’s main activity is third party consultancy services. Includes training services provided by non-educational establishments and accredited certification of environmental management systems.
• Public – where the member’s employer is a public sector organisation, including national and local government, non-departmental public bodies, public corporations and public authorities. This sector also includes those individuals employed in the not-for-profit and charity sectors.
• Education – where the core activity is further or higher education within an educational establishment. This includes student members.
• Business – where the core activity is profit-making and is not classified in any other sector. 
  

Individuals who feel that they are incorrectly categorised should refer the matter to the IEMA’s Chief Executive. 

Corporate Members 

Corporate members of the Institute are categorised into four broad sectors: Consultancy; Business, Education and Local Authority. Each corporate member has was categorised when they first joined the Institute.

Corporate members notify to the Institute an authorised representative, who the Institute refers to as the ‘corporate voter’ and who acts on behalf of the corporate member and is the Institute’s primary point of contact. It is the corporate voter who, on behalf of the corporate voter, is eligible to stand in the election and to vote on the organisation’s behalf. 

Council Election Process 

The election process is being run by Electoral Reform Services (ERS) on behalf of the IEMA.

For the purposes of transparency and accountability, employees of the Institute and members of the Board who also hold membership of the Institute, shall not be eligible to participate in the election either by nominating themselves or by participating in the ballot. 

Nominations 

• Only fully paid up members of the Institute as of 12:00 GMT on Wednesday 23rd January 2007 will be eligible to stand in the election.
• Nominations must be made on the appropriate nomination form. 
• Nominations may be accompanied with an election statement of no more than 100 words (see box below for more detailed rules on the written statement).
• An election statement should describe why the candidate thinks they should be elected. It will be reproduced and circulated to voters with the ballot paper.
• The IEMA reserves the right to edit or not to publish an election statement that exceeds the word limit, is factually inaccurate or contains libellous material.
• Failure to provide an election statement by close of nominations will not invalidate your candidacy. Instead, the words ‘statement not received’ will be published in the space which would have contained a candidate’s election statement.
• Candidates are invited to supply an accompanying passport-sized photograph. Failure to provide a photograph by the close of nominations will not invalidate a candidacy. Instead, the words ‘photograph not received’ will be published in the space that would have contained a candidate’s photograph.
• All nomination forms must be submitted to ERS – nominations made directly to the IEMA will not be accepted. 

Detailed Rules on Election Statements  1. Every word no matter how small e.g. “I”, “or”, “and”, “the” etc will be counted as one word. 2. Numbers in a block will be treated as one word e.g. “1989”, “1/128”, “1988/89” and “1988/1989.” 3. Any acronyms or groups of initials will be treated as one word. For example ERS would count as one word. If, however, full titles for acronyms or groups of words are used then they will count as separate words. For example Electoral Reform Services Ltd will count as four words. 4. Compound words or hyphenated words will be treated as one word. 5. All biographical details will be printed using a common typeface and type size font. 6. Selected words or sentences can be emboldened, capitalised, underlined or placed in italics. Entire election addresses submitted in any of these formats will, however, be reproduced in the common typeface and type size font detailed in Paragraph (e) above. 7. The use of bullet points and numbering to make separate points is allowed and these will not be counted as words. 8. Words or phrases can be centred or indented. Boxes around particular words or phrases will not, however, be reproduced.

 Election 

• Only fully paid up members of the Institute as of 12 noon on Friday 14th March 2008 will be eligible to participate in the election and receive a ballot form.
• Ballot forms, together with details of each candidate for each sector, will be circulated for voting to fully paid up members.
• Where the number of nominations per sector is equal to or less than the number of positions for that sector on Council, then there shall be no ballot and the nominating candidate(s) shall be declared as being duly elected onto the Council.
• Ballot forms will contain a PIN which is unique to each individual member and which will be printed on their ballot form.
• Members will be able to register their vote either by return of a reply paid envelope and completed ballot form, of by one of three electronic polling channels (web, phone, SMS Text). PIN numbers are used to ensure that only one vote is registered per member.
• No ballot forms will be accepted for counting after the scheduled closing date and time of the election.
• Votes will be counted on a one member one vote basis.
• For individual members, the 3 highest scoring members in each sector shall be declared as the duly elected members onto the Council.
• For corporate members, the highest scoring member in each sector shall be declared as the duly elected member onto the Council, and shall be represented on the Council by their corporate voter.
• In the event of an equal number of votes being cast for more than one candidate in any sector, then the tied candidates shall be decided by the Company Secretary drawing lots in the presence of an independent witness.
• A certified scrutineer’s report of the election process shall be prepared after the election and made available to candidates and members.
• Details of successful candidates shall be published in the environmentalist magazine and on the IEMA’s website www.iema.net
  

Timetable 

The election will be conducted in accordance with the following timetable: 

• 23rd January 2008 12:00 GMT. Cut-off for members to be eligible to be nominated to stand in the election.
• 7th February 2008 ERS post out nomination forms.
• 7th March 2008 12:00 GMT – closure of nominations.
• 14th March 2008 12:00 GMT. Cut-off for members to be eligible to vote in the election ballot.
• 28th March 2008 – postage of voting forms for election.
• 25th April 2008 12:00 GMT. Election closure time.
• 28th April 2008 – votes counted and election result declared.

 
Any queries on the election process should be directed to:

Martin Baxter
Deputy Chief Executive & Company Secretary
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment
St Nicholas House
70 Newport
Lincoln
LN1 3DP
UK

Tel: 01522 540069
Fax: 01522 540090
m.baxter@iema.net