House rules
Art. 1: Description of functions
Art. 1.1 Description of basic functions (board members)
President
The BAT president is the de facto leader of the BAT. He or she will manage the daily functioning of the BAT and streamline the communications within the organisation.
The BAT president is the BAT spokesperson and together with the communications manager its main contact toward the outside world on matters not covered by the other representatives.
He or she will take over any of the other basic or extended functions in case there is no candidate for this function until the position has been filled.
The BAT president is preferably also the ESA representative.
The BAT president is assisted by the vice-president in all its tasks where necessary.
Vice-President
The Vice-president has to assist the president where necessary and will perform the president’s task when he/she is not present or when his/her mandate has ended without a new president being elected.
The Vice-president sends the invitations for the general assembly and the board meeting to all respective members at least 8 days before the respective meeting.
Secretary
The secretary makes a report of every BAT meeting, both the the Board meeting and the general assembly. These reports are stored online. A simplified report is written for publication on the website.
The secretary manages the BAT Cloud and stores relevant documents on it. The secretary is in charge of managing the BAT archive.
Treasurer
The overall role of a treasurer is to maintain an overview of the organisation’s financial affairs, ensuring its viability and ensuring that proper financial records and procedures are maintained;
Overseeing budgets and accounts
Ensuring appropriate accounting procedures and controls
Ensuring contractual agreements with external agencies
The treasurer is in charge of financial planning and reporting of the associations yearly budget and yearly accounts respectively.
He/she can delegate funding/fundraising functions to other BAT members
Art. 1.2 Description of extended functions/task forces (all members)
BSAR/APSAR Representatives
The BSAR/APSAR attachés (one of each language group) will be the contact persons for all information being exchanged between the BAT and the BSAR/APSAR.
They will attend the BSAR/APSAR board meetings as much as possible, and report to the BAT board members.
They will try to be actively engaged in the annual BSAR/APSAR meeting.
SARB Representative
The SARB attaché is the contact person for all information being exchanged between the BAT and the SARB.
He or she attends the SARB board meetings as much as possible and reports to the BAT board members.
The SARB representative will try to be actively engaged in the annual SARB meeting.
ESA Representative
The ESA representative is the contact person for all information being exchanged between the BAT and the ESA trainee committee.
He or she attends the ESA training committee meetings as much as possible and reports to the BAT board members.
The ESA representative will try to be actively engaged in the annual Euroanesthesia meeting.
Communications manager
The Communications manager, together with the President is responsible for managing external communications for the BAT and ensuring its messages are consistent.
This function consists of:
Developing communications for the BAT incorporating PR. This includes Facebook, Twitter and the BAT website. The Communications manager either manages the website him- or herself or through an appointed webmaster.
Trying to get awareness and recognition for the organization, BAT.
Art. 2 Board of directors voting
Art. 2.1
The board of directors is in charge of appointing members for specific functions. The basic functions have to be appointed to board members, the extended functions can be appointed to any member of the general assembly which engage to be present during the board member meetings.
Art 2.2
The board tries to seek a balance between the representatives of the different universities when appointing these functions.
Art 2.3
The board can appoint members to specific functions by achieving general consensus without actually voting. At any point during the discussion one of the board members can ask for an open or closed vote if a consensus is not reached. The voting process is only legitimate if at least 50% of the elected board members are present, either directly or by procuration.
The voting process is supervised by the president, vice-president or secretary in that order depending on presence. The board member supervising the vote is allowed to vote as well. The persons aspiring the position being voted for can cast a vote as well, provided they are a board member. The vote has to be won by a standard majority.
If a majority is not obtained after the first round of voting, a second round will take place in which only the two candidates with the most votes in first round vote can participate. No abstentions are allowed during this second round.
If this second voting round ends up in a tie, another discussion should be held and the voting rounds repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of the votes.
Art. 2.4
The basic and extended functions are appointed for a period of two years or until the person resigns, is forced to resign or deceases.
Forced resignation of these functions is subject to the same rules as forced resignation of a board member or general assembly member (cf. BAT Articles of association).
Art. 2.5
When creating and appointing ad hoc functions and taskforces, the board decides case by case whether this function should be added to the list of extended functions (cf. art 1.2) or not.
A general principle for an ad hoc function or taskforce to be added to the list of extended functions would be the fact that the function or taskforce has recurring (yearly) responsibility and should be professed or supervised by a single person for efficiency purposes.
Art. 3. General assembly voting for the board
Art. 3.1
The general assembly is in charge of electing the board members. The board consists of maximum 14 board members (cf. BAT articles of association).
Art. 3.2
The positions of president and vice-president are electronically elected before the meeting of the general assembly (cf. BAT articles of association)
Art. 3.3
The other twelve board members are elected in person at the general assembly meeting in a closed election. If there more candidates than positions for one university, the 2 candidates with the most votes will be elected board member. Otherwise voting is done by either approving or not approving of the candidate(s)
A second voting round will be held for the positions not occupied if there are only one or no candidates for one university. In this round the remaining positions are appointed to the participants with the most votes, regardless of their background (language group or university).
Art. 3.4
Any other voting procedure is done according to standard procedure with a standard majority or as specified in the articles of association.
Art 4. Subdivisions/ taskforce
Art 4.1
The board can create taskforces as they seem fit. When a taskforce is created the board can decide whether it should be added to the list of extended functions and taskforces.
Art 4.2
The function of these taskforces is to work on specific projects concerning the BATs interests.
Art 4.3
The president of each taskforce is chosen by the board and will have to report updates on board meetings. Members of a taskforce do not have to be board members; however, they need to be actively engaged in the BAT.
Art 4.4
Important decisions of a taskforce need to be approved by the board.
Art. 5 Changing the house rules
Art. 5.1
A board member or general assembly member may propose a change to the house rules. The proposed change is decided upon by the board of directors. The proposed change is communicated at least a week before the board of directors meeting.
Art. 5.2
The board of directors can decide upon adjustments to the house rules by consensus or by voting. The voting process is subject to the same rules the voting process for a specific function.