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The new format EADA - a duffers guide

The EADA rule book has undergone a major face lift, and now we also have a draft constitution which is available for review. This means that the shape and structure of the EADA council has changed. The intention being to make it more effective in what it does. It is possible to fathom out the new shape by reading the new rule book and draft constitution, but, if you are like me you would rather stick a fork in your leg than do that, here is a rough guide - duffers guide to the changes;

So, first off why the constitution?
Well, at present we don’t have one - we need one. At the moment, the council has the ability to change any of the rules governing the organisation whenever it wants to. Having a constitution will limit the powers of the council, and stabilise the structure of EADA. Because this is more ‘set in stone’ than the rule book, it is vital that we get a constitution that really works.

The big change is that there are now two ‘levels’ of Council; a General Council, and an Executive Council. An analogy would be to think of this as the government; you’ve got the Government MPs (the general council) and the Cabinet (the Executive). The cabinet makes decisions on the day to day running, but the MPs need to make pass the laws (or not as the case may be!).

The General Council.
This is made up of up to 28 EADA members and looks after the overall running of the organisation. Members of the general council will be in office for one year. General Council will meet at least twice a year. It has the power to make and change EADA rules. It also has the power to instruct the Executive to carry out certain tasks as deemed necessary.

The Executive.
This group has the responsibility for making decisions for the day to day running of EADA.

There are a couple of big changes here, first we have people elected to specific positions. This is to help ensure we get people with the required skills needed in these posts. Secondly, these positions are held for three years. These roles take time to get into, and by having a term of three years enables the holder to build relationships with outside bodies, and get over the initial learning curve. It will give rise to a built in stability within the council. By the way, Executive Council members are also part of the General Council and are expected to go to those meetings as well.

The people on this committee are:

• President,
• Vice-President
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Membership Secretary
• Principal Child Protection Officer
• Press Officer
• Parent Representative
• Web master
• Travel Co-ordinator
• A member of the General Council (who is only elected for one year)
• Chart Administrator

You may have noticed that the we no longer have the position of ‘Chairman’ it has been replaced with ‘President’ . This is not just some ego boosting exercise, but brings us into line with other similar organisations in Europe, (I suggested the title of Caesar but to no avail, and I still maintain that 'Webmaster' should be replaced with ‘Oh Mighty Shogun’).

Every year at the AGM, one third of the Executive will be up for election. This maintains accountability, and adds a level of stability as we should always have members of the executive who have the experience of being in office for a couple of years.

As we have people in office for three years, we also have in place a series of checks and balances so that people can be removed from office before their time is up. So, for example, if I suddenly go on an orgy of violence and corruption, wreaking havoc on the internet superhighway (chance would be a fine thing), I can be removed from office.

One thing I would like to draw your attention to, is the bit about sub committees. There are opportunities to get involved with the development of EADA and amateur dancing by helping out on one of these groups, if you have skills to offer, and would like to help, please let us know!

The idea of this is to give an overview of the recent changes, there is an expression that “the devil is in the detail”, if you want to know any more, I’m afraid its fork-in-leg time, if you have any comments, please go to the forum.

Submitted by Martyn (Oh Mighty Shogun) 28 11 05