MCAA Articles of the Association (AoA)

Dear Sonu,

Many thanks for having taken the time to go through the documents and for inaugurating this discussion forum. 

I understand that the purpose of some changes may not be clear and will do my best to reply to all questions. The board launched this forum with the objective to be transparent and clear all doubts ahead of the voting, so we welcome questions from all members!

As a brief introduction, let me say that the main reason to update the AoA is simply that we are obliged by law. The current text is based on an old law from the sixties or so. A couple of years ago there was an update in the Belgian law and non-profits were given a deadline to update their statutes. Aside from the legal requirements, we took the opportunity to make some articles clearer and simpler. All the changes were based on legal recommendations that we made sure would not impact the MCAA, or would have a positive impact.

Now, regarding your questions:

Point 1, suggesting to include the electronic option for appeals upon a decision to exclude a member: as far as my understanding goes the electronic mail is considered a valid option by the Belgian law and doesn’t need to be specified. But this is an important concern, I will bring it to the legal team. As soon as they reply I will make another post in this thread.

Point 1, suggesting a separate disciplinary committee independent of the board to look at the merit of the case in exclusion procedures: we fully agree, and this is the case already at the MCAA. Last year we started a project to co-create an MCAA Code of Conduct. At the last General Assembly, the drafted MCAA Code of Conduct and Ethics Committee Regulation were voted by the MCAA members and approved. The Ethics Committee is autonomous and independent from the board and has the function to advise the board in cases of breach of the MCAA Code of Conduct.

These were must necessary first steps towards guaranteeing equitable decisions in case of serious conflict within the MCAA. Now we can build from these bases, including implementing, as you mention “a redressal process needs to be developed that will provide appropriate safeguard to protect individual member/s which can be taken up by the disciplinary committee”. Of note, the AoA should include only the essential points required by law, as publishing and updating it requires a complex legal process. However, not all rules of the Association need to be in the AoA. The Internal Regulation of the Association refers to guidelines for the daily operations of the Association. The Code of Conduct and the Ethics Committee regulation are annexed to that document. The process to update the Internal Regulation of the Association is more flexible and the members can continue working on it after the new AoA are approved.  

Point 2, concern about deletion of sections on "Working Groups/Chapters" and "Data Protection":  since the Chapters and WGs are not legal entities (the legal MCAA bodies are the General Assembly, the Board and the Executive Committee), that section was moved to the Internal Regulation of the Association, together with other mentions that are not required by law to be mentioned at the AoA, like the “Data Protection” section. In addition, the regulation of Chapters and WGs is continuously being adapted/improved by the Management WG with the input of the Chairs of Chapters and WGs. To keep this interaction dynamic, it has to be done outside the AoA anyway, which is a very rigid legal document. Same for the Data Protection, which is actually being updated now with the European Commission.

Point 3, regarding legal advice on the document: this is an essential point indeed, especially considering that the revision of the AoA was triggered by a legal requirement. We have worked with the legal support of the European Commission’s Contractors team. An initial review of the AoA started long ago. From the MCAA side three MCAA boards have been involved so far since the beginning of the draft, comprising not less than 33 elected MCAA representatives. The final draft that has been submitted to the General Assembly of MCAA members was entirely written by the Chief Legal Expert from European Commission’s Contractors team upon exchanges with the previous board.

I hope I could reply satisfactorily to your concerns. Do let me know if I should ask the legal team for more detailed information, together with point 1 above, for which I will ask for clarification.

Kind regards

Fernanda

(Chair of the MCAA)

Dear Fernanda,

Thank you for your point-by-point reply. Appreciated.

I shall wait for a final opinion on the electronic option.

Others, I understand that they are moved on to a living manual focused on policy and procedures.

That's totally understandable.

Kind regards,

Sonu

Dear Sonu,

Sorry for the delay in coming back to you, it has been a busy week...

Regarding the electronic option that you pointed out, the legal team replied the following:
"Emails are not appropriate in that case. Registered letters should be used to make sure we have uncontestable dates."

So, I was wrong in assuming that the email would be valid for a member to appeal an eventual decision of exclusion. It is an important piece of information, thank you for having raised this question. We should therefore make the official MCAA postal address more visible and make sure this information is clearly given to the member in question should such an extreme situation occur.

A representative of the legal team will be invited to attend the GA to answer any questions. The board is, of course, also available if further questions arise.

Best regards

Fernanda

Dear Fernanda and Sonu, This will be my first meeting at Extraordinary General Assembly - thank you for the invitation. Reviewing the question and response. Can we have both emails and then a registered letter both for some form of communications. Regards, Dr Pankaj Mehrotra