I have two important bits of news to share on AMICAL governance.

New Operational Guidelines

First, AMICAL’s voting members have just approved a substantially revised version of our Operational Guidelines. The revised Operational Guidelines aim to streamline our organizational structures, re-energizing them through increased participation and engagement:

• Standing Committees are now associated with active consortial programs, focusing on small and agile committees while allowing all member categories to participate in their governance.
• Interest Groups have been differentiated from the committees, with participation open to all AMICAL colleagues.
• The efficient organization of elections for our Coordinating Committee officers has been one of our difficulties in the past. We’ve addressed this by simplifying both the election process and the distribution of Coordinating Committee roles.

Special thanks go out to the other members of the Organizational Documents Revision Committee that joined me in working on this:

• Sania Battalova (formerly at American U. Central Asia)
• Cendrella Habre (Lebanese American U.)
• Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot U.)
• Ivana Stevanovic (American U. Kosovo).

Thanks as well to all who voted, and for the confidence you expressed in the Committee’s work.

Coordinating Committee elections

Second, we launch today elections for our Coordinating Committee officers.

Voting (Full Member) institutions are now charged with electing a group of four officers by 14 September. Their AMICAL Representatives will be getting voting instructions shortly.

The new officers of the Coordinating Committee will then assign themselves roles (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Member-at-Large). And as of 1 October, they will begin their terms, helping guide the consortium in the planning, steering and evaluation of its programs.

Members have nominated a fine list of candidates, and regardless of who gets elected, we’ll have a great team.