‘Towards a most imponderable homogeneity of language’ is hard, like literally difficult to understand. We often use very complex words and phrases to specifically convey what we mean. If you understood that first line, for instance, you are either a highly educated English speaker or Google. In short, in some cases, when we simplify or even remove overly complex phrases, they become much better for us to understand. This might also be the case of the CIA (Corpus Iuridicum Aegeense). That’s why the AEGEEan decided to cover four proposals in this article that are intended to do just this. These are: “Simplify the CIA: SUCT”, “Simplify the CIA: Working Format of the Agora”, “Simplify the CIA: AEGEE Partner Organisations”, and “Simplify the CIA: Organs of AEGEE-Europe”.
What they mean by?
The main argument of the proposals we are presenting to you is that, first of all, some sections in the CIA have become outdated and need to be amended to properly reflect the association as it is today. Secondly, some sections contain a lot of deadwood: parts of a document or section that are no longer useful or helpful in an explanatory sense. These proposals would thus eliminate any phrases that are unnecessary.
This proposal was made by Philipp Blumm on behalf of the Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) and by Claudio Gennaro on behalf of the Juridical Commission (JC), and it is largely concerned with the phrasing of certain bits of the CIA. This proposal mainly aims to rephrase just a couple of lines in the ‘Working Format of the Agora’. The only proposed amendment in this part of the CIA that will change any regulations, is that SUCT members are now only elected to serve between two Autumn Agorae. The bulk of the amendments that propose changed regulation can be found in the ‘Summer University’. The proposed amendments are, firstly, that the Comité Directeur will no longer appoint one member out of the members of SUCT. Also, SUCT may now host an open call for vacant spots to find a member to fill in this spot. This member, however, will afterwards still need to be elected at the Agora. Other amendments are that the Project Manager can now be entrusted with the task of being a Treasurer, and that Knowledge Transfer would now specifically include passwords and that it will now happen within one month after the Agora. The proposal also calls for the option of organising a SU to only become, in general, limited to antennae or in co-operation with antennae. Lastly, specifications for a Travel Summer Universities (TSU) will be loosened, especially with those regarding the budget.
Simplify the CIA: Working Format of the Agora
Another proposal that was submitted by Claudio Gennaro on behalf of the Juridical Commission, in collaboration with Svenja van der Tol, on behalf of the Comité Directeur (CD), is Simplify the CIA: Working Format of the Agora. This proposal is also concerned with updating the CIA in order to reflect the current affairs of the association. These proposed updates would mean that it no longer requires the Agora in order to approve the annual and internal financial report. The annual and internal financial reports still need to be approved, of course, but they no longer have to be approved specifically as they would be presented by the Financial Director (because the guy or girl can slip up or stammer during his or her presentation, or accidentally include a fresh typo for the presentation that reads €1000.- instead of €100.-). Another proposed change is to include the Action Agenda and four members of the SUCT as one of the items or people to be voted upon or elected respectively by the Agora. Another specification would be the deadline for announcing the amount of to-be-elected-candidates at the next Agora by the JC to be specified two months prior to the Agora. Also, temporarily appointed members of the Chair Team, that is to say not-elected members, need to be ratified at the next Agora.
The Chairperson would be exempt from participating in procedural motions. The proposal still bars the Chairperson from participating in discussions. Another amendment would be that the Secretary of the Agora would no longer be required by to send the minutes of the Agora to the CD within two months of the Agora. Lastly, according to the proposed amendments for Article 17, all decisions of the Agora would from then on out come into effect at the closing of the Agora.
Simplify the CIA: AEGEE Partner Associations
This joined proposal is by Svenja van der Tol on behalf of the CD and Salvatore Maraventano on behalf of the JC, and it includes some changes in regard to AEGEE partner associations. The proposed changes would let all AEGEE partner associations bear all the rights and responsibilities vested in the undersigned Convention d’Adhésion, and improve communication between AEGEE and the partner association. The proposal would also remove any specific references to the AEGEE-Academy, because, according the proposal, the newly introduced general regulations regarding the partner associations will, by definition, also be applicable to the AEGEE-Academy.
Simplify the CIA: Organs of AEGEE-Europe
This final proposal has been submitted by Svenja Van der Tol on behalf of the the CD and by Glòria Llopart on behalf of the JC, and, like the proposal regarding AEGEE partner associations, also affects the Statutes (CIA) of AEGEE-Europe. The proposed changes, aside from a number of reformulated phrases, are that candidates for the presidency, who were not elected, would now be allowed to present themselves for another post in the CD; AEGEE partner associations would now simply get three votes, instead of having to send a specific amount of delegates to the Agora; Each CD member would need to present their own activity report on an Ordinary Agora, the Financial Director would need to present an additional financial report, and the Agora would need to vote on these reports. These generic reports would now replace the more specifically named moral reports. Part of Article 15.8, which stated that “The Secretary of the meeting is responsible for the minutes of the Agora”, part of 15.11, which stated that “The representative of the Audit Commission may intervene if the Agora asks them to do so”, and part of 15.13, which stated that “The Agora approves the management of the Comité Directeur for the period since the last Agora”, would all be omitted. A final amendment would be that now only half of the delegates, instead of half of all members of the Agora have to request to vote via a secret ballot.
Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen