A European widely shared proposal based on open and democratic talks.
Proposal
A New Skal Governance with Integrated Controlling
According to the Rules of Democracy
The 20th-century Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila wrote: “Dying societies tend to accumulate laws like dying humans collect medical elixirs.” Doesn’t that remind us of our Statutes and By-Laws discussions where our governance seems to become more and more complicated instead of transparent and simple? A main issue for the renewing process is to make everything as easy as possible. Another focus should be laid on the implementation of the idea of subsidiarity which is the most important approach for every democratic model.
- Representation
The major issue which seems to be already agreed upon is that the representatives of the regions, nations or areas have to be selected on their organizational level. They know best whom to send for which position. The regions which were presented in Hulya’s mail with the invitation to the first meeting still show a not acceptable imbalance of membership. If the number of 600 – 700 membership is the measure for 1 delegate we would have 2 delegates for USA and 5 -6 for Europe. In this case, it would not matter if there would be regions with just one country e.g. Turkey. The question is if we want to create an Executive Board with so many delegates. On the
other hand, a broad representation as in the parliaments of modern democracies would be a result. Using digital communication media for the meetings as suggested by Tito Livio no cost would result and it would be much more attractive for young professionals who cannot afford to stay away from business for days just to meet somewhere in the world. To use the saved money for supporting participation in one AGA could be an extra positive outcome. - Controlling by delegates in EC and Committees
The “parliament” as mentioned above would be a bigger body to discuss and control the decisions of a group of directors. The directors could be elected by a group of representatives. Their positions/responsibilities should match the respective permanent committees. The members of the committees are nominated by the regions (persons designated to committees), 1 member possible per committee but not mandatory. Minimum of members of a committee to be discussed but should be at least 6. The members of the committee select the chair and the deputy chair from among themselves. The chairs must not come from the same country/region than the
respective person in the new EC.
The tasks of the committees are
Proposing activities or changes in their field of responsibilities which have to be considered and carried out by the respective Directors in the EC or to be denied because of explained reasons.
Controlling the activities of the respective Directors on the EC. For this, the committees may ask for relevant information from the respective Directors. The Directors have to give a written report of their activities. Regular quarterly meeting sessions of the Directors with “their” committees are obligatory. A quarterly sequence of these meetings gives the committees a permanent insight into the activities on the directors’ level. As the members of the committees are delegated by the regions/areas and the chairs must not come from the same regions/countries as the respective directors the committees can act independently and without the influence of the Directors and President.
- Permanent Committees and Directors
As described in 2. to fulfil a controlling task, the permanent committees have to act independently from the EC and also neither chairs nor members must be chosen by the EC. It is necessary to link directors with “their” committees by matching descriptions of their areas of responsibility.
| Directors | Committees |
| Statutes | Statutes and Governance In no other organisation, permanent changes and such a labyrinth of a combination of Statutes and By-Laws can be seen as in Skal. So, the main issue for this committee during the upcoming years should be to find regulations valid for at least 5 years without changes and so to unify By-Laws and Statutes in one understandable and simple document |
| Finance | Finance and Controlling analysing expenditures, proposing effective use, checking auditors’ reports and finding potentials for implementation of the results |
| Membership Development | Membership Development controlling the significance of the activities of SKAL International to attract new members, defining needs in PR according to the cultural provenance of SKAL membership. |
| Technology and Digital Transformation | Technology and Digital Transformation lots of issues have been already raised by the excellently working committee which should be followed and put into practice |
| Sponsorship and Special Projects | Sponsorship and Special Projects Makins Skal’s attractiveness for sponsors cannot be only the task of the directors but needs a bigger basis of competent people. They should also cooperate with the Secretary General and the Head Office as these are the long-term addressees for external partners. |
Note:
- For the position of directors, a Two-Persons-(Four Eyes)-Concept is recommended to reduce the individual amount of work, reduce the pressure of single-handed decisions and also give them a better chance to exchange opinions. As mentioned above, the directors will be elected among the members of the new (and following the first recommendation bigger and better representing the new EC).
- The decision about the positions of directors and allocating of their tasks should be done unanimously by the delegates.
- The constant use of online communication and meetings is of utmost importance to reduce the cost of the expensive travels of the EC members and (as already mentioned) to give the opportunity to sponsor World Congresses for personal exchange and doing B2B by the membership.
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