TERENA Rules and Regulations

Adopted in the General Assembly meeting of TERENA on 20/21 October 1994, amended in the General Assembly meeting of TERENA on 21 October 2004

0.1 Table of Contents:

General
Membership
General Assembly
General Assembly Voting
Executive (TERENA Executive Committee) Elections
TERENA Executive Committee
Secretariat
Financial

0.2 Definitions

Chairman: The chairman of a General Assembly meeting or of an Executive Committee meeting.
Statutes: The Constitution or "Statuten" of TERENA.
General Assembly (G.A.): "Algemene Leden Vergadering", article 15, Statutes.
Members: The national, international and associate members of TERENA, article 4, Statutes.
TERENA: The Association under the laws of The Netherlands and registered in Amsterdam.
TERENA Executive Committee (Executive): The Board or "Bestuur", article 12, Statutes.
Rules: This set of Rules and Regulations.
Secretariat: The Secretariat of TERENA, article 13, Statutes.

1. General

1.1 These Rules are drawn up pursuant to Article 23 ("Huishoudelijk Reglement") of the Statutes of TERENA executed on 20 October 1994

1.2 These Rules add to the rights and obligations of members and add to the rules in the TERENA Statutes which define how TERENA operates.

1.3 These Rules can be amended only by a resolution of the General Assembly with a two thirds (2/3) majority of votes.

1.4 In the event of conflict of rules, the laws of The Netherlands and the Statutes of TERENA shall take precedence over these rules.

1.5 The Rules replace all previous documents of TERENA containing the same, similar and related subjects.

1.6 TERENA will maintain a Mission and Objectives Statement describing in more detail the Mission and Objectives of TERENA.

1.7 All TERENA documents are public, unless the author or the Executive or the General Assembly declares them to be confidential.

2. Membership

2.2 The applicant shall declare in writing that it subscribes to and will continue to subscribe to the Statutes, these Rules and the Mission and Objectives in their current and future form as long as membership shall continue.

2.3 The Executive shall forward the application to the General Assembly as soon as it has completed all information required for the General Assembly to judge the application.

2.4 The Executive will ensure that all data in the membership register are up to date. The members shall inform the Executive of any changes of these data.

2.5 Resignation does not prejudice TERENA's right of expulsion.

3. General Assembly

3.1 The General Assembly shall in each meeting decide the date and location of its next meeting or delegate this to the Executive.

3.2 All attendants to a meeting of the General Assembly who do not have voting power shall, at the discretion of the chairman, be offered the opportunity to express their opinion.

3.3 Any member may demand the Executive or Chairman of the General Assembly meeting to include an item on the agenda of a General Assembly meeting. The Secretariat shall send out a call for agenda items 6 weeks before the General Assembly meeting. Agenda items to be included in the agenda must be with the Secretariat at least five weeks before the meeting.

3.4 Agenda items requiring a decision will normally be accompanied by a document detailing the matter to be decided and any relevant information which may impact the decision.

3.5 Documents to be treated at a General Assembly meeting must be with the Secretariat at least four weeks before the meeting. The Secretariat shall distribute the documents to be treated at a General Assembly meeting by postal mail three weeks before the date of the General Assembly meeting or via such other methods so that the General Assembly members can be deemed to have received the documents no later than two weeks in advance of the General Assembly meeting.

3.6 All documents suitable for electronic storage and relevant for any General Assembly meeting with the exception of those declared as confidential, will be indexed and made available in a structured way from the TERENA file server.

3.7 The Executive shall ensure that minutes of General Assembly meetings are made and kept for at least ten (10) years.

3.8 The minutes shall consist of a record of the decisions taken by the General Assembly meeting and of comments explicitly requested for inclusion by a member.

3.9 After review of the draft minutes by the Chairman of the meeting the minutes shall be circulated by the Secretariat by electronic mail to the members for possible correction within three weeks after the meeting. Three weeks after circulation and possible correction, at the discretion of the chairman, they will be circulated again labelled as Final Draft, and submitted for approval at the subsequent General Assembly meeting.

4. General Assembly Voting

Weighted voting is applied. The voting structure consists of 8 categories that are broadly based on the GNI of the country.

Members in category 1 have five votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'High-income economy', four votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as an 'Upper-middle-income economy', three votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Lower-middle-income economy' and two votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Low-income economy'.

Members in category 2 have ten votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'High-income economy', eight votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as an 'Upper-middle-income economy', six votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Lower-middle-income economy' and four votes if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Low-income economy'.

Members in category 3 have twenty votes, members in category 4 have 30 votes, members in category 5 have 40 votes, members in category 6 have 50 votes, members in category 7 have 60 votes and members in category 8 have 70 votes. International members have ten votes each.

5. Executive Elections

5.1 Nominations must be proposed by a voting member and seconded by a second voting member and accepted by the nominee.

5.2 The nominations shall be reported to the Secretariat which will distribute the received valid nominations to the members. Nominations close immediately prior to the election for the Executive position for which the nominations were made.

5.3 The election for the Executive members will be for one position at a time, in the order: President, Vice President(s), Treasurer and the other members of the Executive.

5.4 Those not elected for one office shall be allowed to be a candidate for another Executive position.

5.5 The number of Executive members shall be no less than 3 and no more than 9.

5.6 If during an election at a General Assembly meeting no candidate achieves an absolute majority then the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. In case the same smallest number of votes was obtained by more than one person, drawing lots shall decide which persons are excluded from subsequent ballots. Then the balloting procedure is reiterated. If two candidates remain having the same number of votes then the winner will be elected by drawing lots.

6. TERENA Executive Committee

6.1 The Executive shall adhere to the guidelines, instructions and mandates agreed by the General Assembly.

6.2 The Executive may request the opinion of the members inside or outside of a General Assembly meeting on any standpoint to be taken or decision to be made by the Executive.

6.3 The meetings of Executive shall take place at a location as determined by the Executive from time to time.

6.4 The Executive shall seek prior approval from the General Assembly for financial commitments exceeding the budget.

6.5 In the event of conflict of interest between one or more Executive members and TERENA the General Assembly is entitled to appoint one or more persons to represent TERENA.

6.6 The Executive may set up working groups and will report this to the GA.

6.7 The Executive shall present an Action Plan for TERENA each year for the next financial year. It shall also report on the implementation of the previous Action Plan after the end of the relevant year at the annual general meeting.

6.8 The Executive meetings shall be convened by the President or, upon his instruction, by the Secretariat.

6.9 Any Executive member may demand an item to be included on the agenda of an Executive meeting.

6.10 After review of the draft minutes by the Chairman of the meeting, the minutes shall be circulated electronically to the Executive members for possible correction within three weeks after the meeting.

6.11 The President may invite others to attend Executive meetings for specific items.

6.12 Decision making within the Executive shall normally be by consensus. Failing consensus, each member of the Executive has one vote and the Chairman has a casting vote. Resolutions are taken by simple majority whereby any resolution with equal votes is defeated. The quorum required for valid decision making is 50 % of the Executive members.

6.13 The Chairman of the meeting will be the President or in his absence one of the Vice Presidents.

7. Secretariat

7.1 The Executive shall delegate the daily management and administration to the TERENA Secretariat. The Executive is free to organize all aspects of the Secretariat within any restrictions decided by General Assembly.

7.2 The Executive shall determine the number, composition and employment conditions of the Secretariat staff members.

7.3 The Executive may give any staff member of the Secretariat judicial or extra judicial power of attorney and will report this to the GA.

8. Financial

8.1 TERENA may raise funding from sources other than membership fees.

8.2 The Executive can determine to reimburse expenses as permitted in article 21 of the Statutes.

8.3 The categories of membership fees as mentioned in article 10.2 of the Statutes shall be:

National Members:

The yearly contribution is related to the voting categories as set out in article 4 of the R&R.

The fee for members in category 1 shall be 0.5 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'High-income economy', 0.4 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as an 'Upper-middle-income economy', 0.3 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Lower-middle-income economy' and 0.2 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Low-income economy'.

The fee for members in category 2 shall be one Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'High-income economy', 0.8 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as an 'Upper-middle-income economy', 0.6 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Lower-middle-income economy' and 0.4 Unit if their country is classified by the World Bank as a 'Low-income economy'.

The fee for members in category 3 shall be two Units, the fee for members in category 4 shall be four Units, the fee for members in category 5 shall be six Units, the fee for members in category 6 shall be eight Units, the fee for members in category 7 shall be twelve Units, the fee for members in category 8 shall be sixteen Units.

International Members: One Unit

Associate Members: Half Unit.

The General Assembly may decide on phase-in reduction of these fees for members which have not been members of both RARE and EARN before or are already part of an earlier phase-in programme and ask for a reduction.

The General Assembly decides on the value of the Unit at the time of adoption of the budget for the following year.

8.4 The Executive shall hold the books and records of TERENA for at least 10 (ten) years.

8.5 The Secretariat may transfer money between the TERENA accounts without limit.

8.6 The Executive and the Secretariat shall operate within the financial budget set by the General Assembly each year.