The ISPAH by-laws set out our goals and values as a society, the roles and responsibilities of our Board members and our processes of operation.  The by-laws are reviewed biennially to ensure they remain current and updated on an ad hoc basis subject to changes in how the society operates.  Any changes to the by-laws are subject to review and approval by the ISPAH members.   

With this post, the board wishes to inform the ISPAH membership of two proposed changes to the by-laws. 

1.  Responsibility for the society’s information technology (IT) infrastructure is currently delegated to two Board members, the ‘IT Systems Director’ and ‘IT Operations Director’ respectively.  As of October 2024, we will adopt a committee structure for our IT management, similar to that of the ‘ISPAH Communications Committee’. The ‘IT Committee’ will be chaired by the ‘IT Committee Lead’, who will oversee all strategic and operational activity of the Committee.  IT Committee members, under the direction of the IT Committee Lead, will lead or support designated tasks within the wider IT portfolio.  The remit of the IT committee will encompass all activities previously handled by the IT Systems and IT Operations Directors respectively. 

2. At present, we use a range of role titles for Board member positions.  Some of our portfolios are overseen by a ‘Director’, others by a ‘Lead’ and these terms are not applied consistently across our website, policies and by-laws. For clarity and consistency, we propose to standardize role titles across the ISPAH Board. As far as practicable and excluding the Executive Committee whose titles will remain unchanged (Past-President, President, President-Elect), Board members will be designated as a portfolio or committee ‘Lead’.  Example role titles: IT Lead, Governance Committee Lead,  Events Lead.   

Subject to approval by the ISPAH membership, the above changes will be implemented from October 2024 onwards and reflected in all ISPAH-related material, including it’s by-laws, policies and website.