Class Representatives

Dear All,

All persons eligible to be members of the ADHSA* will, in the near future, be electing a maximum of four Class Representatives from this year's and last year's classes. These are separate from the Association Board positions.

There will be one from the anglophone side, and one from the francophone side, both from this year's class ('08-'09), and, from last year's class ('-07-'08)(if anyone's interested). This adds up to a total of four representatives to cover the two years. (Although they are not ADHSA Board positions, these Class Representative positions are envisaged in article 20 (3) (a) of the newly-adopted ADHSA Statutes.)

This post is to let people know about the possibility, so that you can think about running or nominating someone, if you are interested.

The Class Representative positions:

• These are not Board positions on the Association's "Comité" (or "Board", in English).
• You don't even need to be a member of the Association to hold a Class Representative position.
• Rather, the Class Representatives will be representing the views, interests, concerns, complaints, ideas, etc., of his or her class section, to the ADHSA Student Affairs Officer** (and maybe even to each other).
• For his or her part, the ADHSA Student Affairs Officer has the responsibility to consult with the Class Representatives, when the ADHSA Student Affairs Officer is acting in his or her representative function vis-à-vis the governing bodies of the Academy.
• It is suggested that the Class Representatives do not necessarily have to reside in Geneva, at least not those from the previous year's class (in this case '07-'08).
  
• Elections: It is suggested that the date and method of the elections will be determined by our new ADHSA Board. (Although, it seems possible that the student body of persons eligible to be members of the ADHSA could organize itself, express its democratic will, and elect the Class Representatives of its own volition, first. But the student body may, on the other hand, wish to make use of the election services of the ADHSA Board. Let us see which occurs first.)
  
• Term of office/reelection (question to think about):
  
• For the current Class Representative elections: Are one- or two-year terms of office preferred? If a one-year term is the preference for the current year, should reelection be possible? (This is not relevant for '07-'08, who can only belong to the Association or be a Class Representative until the next academic year begins, but it is/will be relevant for '08'-09 and for future years.)
  
• As to setting a precedent for future years: These positions purposely were not covered in the Statutes. Ultimate control of the Class Representatives is up to the general student body of persons eligible to be members of the ADHSA, and not up to the Association. But the Association can facilitate the Class Representatives' election.
  
• Option (1): We could establish recommended procedures for election, replacement, removal of the Class Representatives (to give guidance in case of future problems) and eventually add it as an annex to the ADHSA Statutes, indicating also how to change that.
• Option (2): We could leave it to 'State practice'.
  
• Other options and comments are welcomed.

Please feel free to comment, to declare your intention to run, to nominate someone in your class, or to accept or to decline a nomination, in the comments to this post.

A happy and peaceful 2009 to all.









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* Per the new ADHSA Statutes, persons eligible to be members of the Association are those students from the current or last year's class- thus, from '07-'08 and from '08-'09. It was done this way with a 2-year maximum membership period starting from the first day of the student's courses (1) to accommodate a request to keep the students' association separate from the alumni network that the Academy is working on, and (2) to create links for current students between themselves, and the class before and after them. However, it was envisaged that the ADHSA would work on things together with the alumni network in future.
** The ADHSA Student Affairs Officer represents (along with the ADHSA President), vis-à-vis the governing bodies of the Academy, the interests of all students eligible to be members of the Association. The representative function of the President and the Student Affairs Officer is the reason why everyone eligible to be a member can vote for the President or Student Affairs Officer, without being a member of the Association.