Overview

This document details changes to the WITS PSA Committee as currently detailed in the WITS constitution document. The changes are made to address the following concerns in the current running of WITS:

• The current PSA Committee members recognise that the purpose activities and objectives as defined in the Constitution are not being met through the current structure. The principal reason for this is that the elected members do not always fulfil their duties as per the constitution. This means that running the PSA Committee and hence the PSA is left to a small core of voluntary individuals.
• Every two years the PSA have a biennial general meeting at which a new committee is voted in by the PSA members. Historically this committee has, for whatever reason, been formed of largely the same membership and therefore some PSA members feel excluded from managing and influencing WITS and its protocols.

We wish to introduce those who feel they have no say over the protocols, as new and willing volunteers. It should be easy for these new members to be introduced, making the PSA Committee a more open and inclusive organisation. That allows every organisation to influence the protocol standards we manage in a more efficient and timely manner. We wish to build up a group of people from our member organisations, all of whom are active participants in the PSA Committee and realise that they have a responsibility to put forward effort to maintain and manage the standards, fairly and evenly as laid out in the constitution.

This document introduces a series of proposed changes to the constitution. Those changes stem from discussions held at various PSA Committee meetings. They are summarised below:

• Election of PSA Committee members will be dropped
• Chairperson and Vice-chairperson will continue to be elected roles
• PSA Committee membership will be granted for regular and continued meeting attendance by any member of the PSA

Some Definitions

From the point of view of the WITS PSA, corporations are assumed to be any company that wishes to be a member of the PSA. Membership is paid once annually by each corporation. All members of the PSA therefore fall into one of the following three categories

• Corporate members – A corporate member is an individual person who is affiliated with a corporation. They are the principal contact for that corporation for the WITS PSA. The WITS PSA treats the corporate member as the principal contact for billing and receiving material. A corporation must have ONE corporate member

 

• Additional members – An additional member is an individual person who is affiliated with a corporation. A corporation may have any number of additional members.

 

 

• Honorary Members – Are invited individual members, normally with no corporate affiliation, who pay no membership fee. They are normally made honorary members because of previous effort on behalf of WITS and because of their continued ability to provide useful help and guidance to the membership.

In this document ‘member’ is used as a generic term for any of the above classes of membership.

Operation

In this proposal the Committee will continue to exist, but membership of the committee will be via continued attendance at PSA Committee meetings. Two members of the PSA will formally be voted as Chairperson and Vice-chairperson to represent the PSA Committee in its operation during the BGM. Both of these members will be granted membership of the PSA Committee for the duration of their term. Voting and operation of those roles is as per the current constitution. Therefore, the PSA Committee consists of a Chairperson, a Vice-chairperson and members who meet the criteria.

For a PSA member to be a PSA Committee member, and therefore have the right to vote, they must:

• Initially attend any three of four consecutive meetings.
• Maintain attendance by missing no more than three consecutive meetings.

To permit the above, all PSA Committee meetings will be open to any PSA member. Invite emails will be sent to all members of the WITS PSA. Attendance in person at the meeting will be subject to venue capacity and granted on a first come, first served basis. If unable to attend the meeting in person PSA members may join by conference call.

Each PSA Committee member is associated with one organisation via their membership of the PSA.  Therefore, they are only entitled to one vote, regardless of whether they are representing more bodies/corporations.

There will no longer be any control over the proportions of users against vendors. Any corporation may have a maximum of 3 PSA Committee members. If a corporation has more than three eligible PSA Committee members then that corporation will be responsible for nominating the three who should act on their behalf.

No deputisation is allowed. If a vote is expected to take place at a meeting which a PSA Committee member is unable to attend, then they may send proxy voting instructions to the Chairperson or Vice-chairperson.

Attendance at a meeting may be in person or via conference call.

No vote for a PSA Committee member will be counted if their organisation has not paid its membership fee by the due date.

Membership of the PSA Committee will be evaluated using the minutes of each PSA Committee meeting to determine the attendance record. The current page on the WITS website will be updated to show the actual membership of the PSA Committee.