by Claudio Bassetti, ENS President & Richard Hughes, EFNS President
This is the first NEUROPENEWS page written jointly by the Presidents of the both EFNS and the ENS. It marks a further step in the ever closer collaboration of the two organisations which will smooth the transition to the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) next summer.
The Transition Task Force has formed an Election Organising Committee to oversee the first Board Election of the EAN in Istanbul 2014. The Transition Task Force has laid down rules of procedure of which the following is a précis.
The Election Organising Committee will be composed of the Presidents of the EFNS and ENS, the members of the Transition Task Force and one other member of each of the EFNS and the ENS. The members of the committee have been appointed and are:
Claudio Bassetti Switzerland
Jacques De Reuck, Belgium
José Ferro, Portugal
Richard Hughes, United Kingdom
Detlef Kömpf, Germany
Jean-Marc Léger, France
Gustave Moonen, Belgium
Evzen Ruzicka, Czech Republic
Davide Pareyson, Italy
Gunhild Waldemar, Denmark
None of the members of the Election Organising Committee shall be a candidate for any position in the new Board of the EAN. The Transition Task Force members may only apply for a Board position four years after the foundation of the EAN. The Transition Task Force recommends that individuals who have served as Secretary General or President of either the EFNS or the ENS should not be considered as candidates for the position of President at the first election. The Election Organising Committee has to consider the slate of candidates for each position, prepare a list of eligible candidates for the General Assembly and advise about their geographic, gender and subspecialty interest distribution.
The Presidents of the EFNS and ENS will co-chair the Election Organising Committee. A call for candidates will be advertised to EFNS and ENS members in November 2013. Candidates must complete an application form which will be provided and must be nominated by at least three delegates of the General Assembly. Each candidate may either seek election as the President or seek election as one or two of the other board positions but not more.
The deadline for applications will be 14 February 2014 at 24:00 GMT. No exemptions will be allowed and incomplete application forms or forms lacking the required number of nominations will not be accepted.
At the General Assembly on June 3, 2014 in Istanbul the available posts will be elected in the following order:
1 President
2 Vice-President
3 Secretary-General
4 Treasurer
5 Chairperson Scientific Committee
6 Chairperson Liaison Committee
7 Member at Large
The chairpersons of the Congress Programme and Education committees will be appointed by the Board.
If there are more than 5 eligible candidates for any position, an electronic vote will be held in advance of the General Assembly and the first 5 candidates for that position will be voted on at the General Assembly. At the General Assembly the candidates for the President shall give a 5 minute presentation of their proposals for the future of the EAN. The voting procedure at the General Assembly will be electronic and secret. If none of the candidates for one position has more than 50% of the votes, a second voting round will be organised between the two candidates who had received the most votes.
We believe that this will be a practical and fair method of electing the new Board and anticipate considerable interest in applying for these positions. The elected Board will have to work hard if the EAN is to achieve at least the sum of the achievements of the EFNS and the ENS and preferably more.
