CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Dear Members,

according to IASPM’s Rules of Procedure, point 2.1.4.,

Nominations for the Executive Committee and for auditors should be submitted to the Secretary at least 1 month before the General Meeting. The Secretary communicates nominations to the Association’s members immediately following the closing date for nominations and makes a full list of nominations available at the General Meeting

we are now calling for nominations for the Executive Committee.

Link to the form is here, and also at the end of this message.

Please notice that we are calling nominations for all positions on the Executive Committee. Members of the current Executive Committee who may wish to stay on their positions will have to be nominated and – in case – re-elected to those positions.

According to the Statutes (point 7),

The Association has the following governing bodies:
The General Meeting
The Executive Committee

and (point 9.3),

The Executive Committee is charged to realize the Association’s aims and policies.

Therefore, making nominations for and electing the Executive Committee (at the next General Meeting) are important and delicate matters.

The Statutes point out (9.2) that

The Executive Committee consists at least of a Chairperson, a General Secretary, a Treasurer/Membership Secretary and a Publications Officer.

As the size of the Association grew, the functions of the Treasurer and the Membership Secretary were split. For practical reasons, in the past, also at least one Member-at-Large has been appointed. Summing up, here are the positions:

Chairperson
General Secretary
Treasurer
Membership Secretary
Publications Officer
Member(s)-at-Large

These aren’t honorary positions: they imply a lot of work, distributed over the full two-year period separating international conferences. And they aren’t paid jobs. It is essential, then, that nominees have: 1) enough time, free from their main jobs/occupations, to be dedicated to EC-related tasks, and 2) knowledge and experience in order to perform their task efficiently.

Below we provide job descriptions for each of the positions. Besides the tasks associated with each position, joining the EC logically entails taking part in discussions and meetings, and drafting, reading and commenting documents.

Chair

The Chairperson’s tasks aren’t explicitly indicated in the Statutes or Rules of Procedure. Please note that the Chairperson mentioned in points from 2.3.1 to 2.3.16 in the Rules of Procedure isn’t the Chair of the EC, but the person elected as Chair of a General Meeting, at the start of the meeting itself.
Usually, in a wide range of associations and companies, the Chairperson represents the institution legally, and is the first signatory in agreements with other institutions. Also because of this responsibility, the Chairperson is the custodian of the Association’s Statutes and Rules of Procedure: a comprehensive knowledge of these texts is mandatory for the task. Experience in managing institutions or research projects is highly recommended; a person who has chaired one of IASPM’s branches for at least a biennium, or has served previously in the EC is obviously a good candidate; also members who collaborated to IASPM’s bodies or projects (the Journal, Local Organising Committees, Academic Committees) are good candidates, provided that requisites about knowledge of the Statutes and Rules, and managerial experience are met.

General Secretary

The General Secretary will fulfil the task of writing the minutes of the GM, as well as the minutes of each meeting of the Executive Committee. So, this person will also be in charge of presenting, at least once a year, a report of the activities of the EC, and will ensure that this is published in an appropriate medium to which members have access. According to the Statutes, the General Secretary will present a full report of the EC’s activities two months prior to the General Assembly, this being subject to the approval of the Assembly. According to the Rules of Procedure, the General Secretary is assigned to receive, prior to the GM, and in the time periods established in the aforementioned Rules, the nominations for EC posts, proposals for modifications of the Statutes and Rules of Procedure, and any proposals for the dissolution of the Association. Following this, this same officer will be responsible for bringing to the attention of the Assembly all information received regarding the discussion and approval of these actions.
It is recommended that the person fulfilling this position has previous experience on the Executive Committee of a local branch, as well as sufficient fluency in English, the chosen language for everyday communication with and within the Executive Committee.

Treasurer

Tasks associated with the position
1. Supervising the payment of annual fees by the branches, in cooperation with their Treasurers, and keeping track of the payment of fees by international members, with the Membership Secretary (MS).
2. Claiming the payment of arrears and helping branches under financial hardship.
3. Establishing and maintaining relationships with banks and other providers of financing and payment services.
4. Paying providers and collaborators and refunding expenses.
5. Controlling cash flow and making sure that the Association has the necessary funds to develop its activities.
6. Managing the application and resolution of travel grants for attending biannual conferences, together with the MS, under the supervision of the rest of the EC.
7. Documenting the state of international finances by elaborating annual budgets, end of the year balances and other useful reports.
8. Presenting the state of the Association’s accounts (the Treasurer’s Report) to the General Assembly during biannual conferences.

The current Treasurer has also been managing with the Membership Secretary the Association’s main contact address (iaspminternational@gmail.com), though a new EC may decide to give this responsibility to another member.

Required skills
1. Basic knowledge of Excel, of English accounting and banking terms, and of the most common types of commercial documents and financial reports.
2. Understanding of the Association status as a non-profit organization, and of its Statutes and Rules of Procedure.
3. Experience managing institutional finances, at least at national level.
4. Honesty and responsibility; order, accuracy and planning abilities; resilience and patience; cooperating abilities and good communication skills.

The position involves a workload of approximately 3 hours a week, though this will fluctuate along the year.

Membership Secretary

The Membership Secretary will mainly manage the International Membership list, hosted by the University of Liverpool. So, this person will be in contact with Membership Secretaries or Treasurers from all local branches in order to update subscriptions and removals from the mailing list. Together with the Treasurer, the Membership Secretary will also take care of international members (those people who live in a country not covered by a local branch and join IASPM directly). Also, together with the Treasurer, the Membership Secretary will manage the application and resolution of travel grants for the biannual IASPM Conference. It is recommended that the person fulfilling this position have fluency in English, the chosen language for everyday communication with and within the Executive Committee.

Publications Officer

The Publications Officer position is mainly to do with the running and maintenance of the IASPM website (http://iaspm.net/), including updates from the activity at the IASPM mailing list, adding reports and other IASPM related documents to the site, making sure that the provided information is up to date, and making sure the web hosting arrangements are paid and in order for both the main website and IASPM Journal. Furthermore, the duties include forwarding communications to IASPM community from the relevant non-member posts (who will usually contact web/publications member of the Executive Committee via the email provided at the website). Publications Officer will need to know how to run a WordPress based website, use ftp, solve the possible cybersecurity problems, be ready to update the site at least twice a month, and work as a technical support for the IASPM Journal, if needed.

Member(s) at large

A Member at Large is involved in the Executive Committee’s regular ongoing work. A Member at Large can also be assigned special areas of responsibility and should be familiar with the structure of IASPM and issues relating to its diverse, international membership. Members can nominate and elect one or more Member(s) at Large to whom tasks can be assigned within the EC.

IMPORTANT (I): IASPM is registered in Sweden. The Swedish Tax Agency requires a Swedish address of business and a Swedish resident as an authorized signatory of IASPM. This person does not have to be a Swedish national but has to understand enough Swedish to deal with Swedish authorities. Any person on the EC can fill this role. During the past mandate periods it has been filled by a Member at Large. The person has to apply for exemption to pay taxes from the Swedish Tax Agency every 4 years and empty the IASPM PO box.

IMPORTANT (II): Provided the above requisites are met, for all jobs, we encourage members to include among their nominations also PhD students, as well as non-academics, such as musicians and professionals in the music and/or media industry. (Statutes, article 2.1: The aim of the Association is to provide an international, interdisciplinary and interprofessional organization for promoting the study of popular music. A guiding principle should be that a fair and balanced representation of different continents, nations, cultures and specializations be aimed at in the policy and activity of the Association).

Auditors

Auditors (who aren’t members of the EC) are elected during the General Meeting, in order to audit the Treasurer’s/Membership Secretary’s financial statement and proposed budget. The task requires a basic knowledge of English accounting and banking terms, and of the most common types of commercial documents and financial reports.

Members wishing to nominate candidates for the EC, and auditors, are requested to send the Form linked here before May 24th 2019. All candidates will be contacted by the EC after May 24th 2019, so that they can confirm their willingness to serve on the next EC, if elected by the GM.