IUPESM CONGRESS COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Procedures for the World Congress Site Selection.

INTRODUCTION:
These Procedures represent guidelines and are not components of the Statutes or Bylaws. According to circumstances, the Procedures can be modified by Council at any time, for the benefit of IUPESM. Any such modifications shall be presented on the IUPESM web site as soon as practicable.

OPERATION:

1. The Congress Coordinating Committee (CCC) shall comprise at least one member from each of the IFMBE and the IOMP, plus the Secretary-General of IUPESM, IFMBE and IOMP.

2. Between Congresses, the CCC is expected to work largely by correspondence.

Immediately following a given Congress, the CCC shall review and update the Site Selection Criteria in preparation for the Congress to be held nine years later. These shall include external criteria, such as geographic location, and the consequences for travel; and internal criteria such as required facilities, minimum scientific requirements, hotel accommodation, preliminary budget, delegate numbers and geographic distribution; and provision of amenities for IUPESM, IFMBE and IOMP. Details of three recent major international conferences held previously in the proposed centre, together with the names of the organisers, with whom the CCC can consult, shall be required.

The CCC shall prepare the application form to be filled out and submitted by prospective host countries and make this available simultaneously with the criteria. The CCC shall also prepare a 1-2 page summary questionnaire to be completed by each applicant. The document shall present information in a uniform fashion to enable easy comparison among different applications.

3. The criteria, application form and summary questionnaire, in a draft form, shall be submitted to the executives of the IFMBE and IOMP for consideration and revision, prior to approval by IUPESM Council.

PROSPECTIVE HOSTS:

4. Proposals to host the World Congress may be submitted by a single country or jointly by several countries at a single site.

INDICATIVE TIMETABLE:

5. The CCC shall make its criteria known to all national and transnational members of both IFMBE and IOMP as soon as available and, at least, 12 months before the next Congress at which the prospective hosts are to make their submissions. The criteria shall be posted on the IUPESM web site.

6. The prospective hosts shall return the completed application forms and the summary questionnaire with their written submissions to the CCC at least 6 months before the Congress at which they shall be presented. The CCC shall review the submissions solely to ensure that the criteria have been met sufficiently. The prospective hosts whose submissions satisfy the criteria shall be so informed. Those whose submissions are not considered adequate shall be so informed, with the possibility of revised documentation being submitted no later than 3 months prior to the Congress.
Applicants shall post their approved completed application material, including the summary questionnaire, on the web no later than 2 months prior to the beginning date of the World Congress. The Chair of the CCC shall send the completed summary questionnaires by electronic mail to all National and transnational affiliates and their voting General Assembly or Council Delegates.

7. IUPESM shall post on its web site links to the web sites of acceptable applications. IUPESM shall inform the IFMBE, IOMP, the national and transnational affiliates and their voting General Assembly or Council delegates, no later than 2 months prior to the Congress at which they shall be presented, that the links have been established. All communication shall be by electronic mail.

8. The CCC shall work with the host organization of the forthcoming Congress to ensure that a meeting hall and facilities are provided for the prospective hosts to make oral presentations of their printed and visual materials. The CCC shall arrange a timetable for these presentations.

The presentation session is open to all participants in the Congress but it is expected that, at least, the voting delegates of the IFMBE and IOMP shall attend.
The chairman at these presentations is the Chairman of the CCC, supported by the other members of the CCC. Their function is to ensure that each of the prospective hosts is able to present its case as fairly as possible, without serious omissions or bias. No recommendations or conclusions should follow directly from this presentation. Each presentation shall be allocated 20 minutes plus an additional 20 minutes for question and answer.

VOTING PROCEDURES:

9.  The General Assembly of the IFMBE and the Council of the IOMP shall separately hold a secret ballot to select the host. Votes can be cast only by attending delegates or officially approved substitutes. Before the votes of the IFMBE and the IOMP are added, the votes of the smaller Constituency shall be multiplied by a weighting factor to take account of the different number of voters dictated by their different Constitutions. The weighting factor shall be the non-rounded ratio obtained by dividing the total number of delegates present and entitled to vote in the greater Constituency by the total number of delegates present and entitled to vote in the smaller Constituency.

If there are only two prospective hosts, the ballot shall comprise a direct choice between them. The votes from the separate ballots shall be combined, as described above, the winner requiring a simple majority of the combined votes.
When there are more than two prospective hosts, the ballot shall comprise a 'single transferable vote' procedure. Separate ballots of IFMBE and IOMP shall be held in which each voting member shall record, on the ballot paper, his/her order of preference for the prospective hosts, as 1,2,3,4 etc. The voter can also choose not to use all the preferences available, for example by not expressing any preference for particular prospective hosts. Ballot papers in which the same preference is marked for more than one prospective host shall be disqualified.

Before the ballots begin, the President of IUPESM shall submit a sealed and strictly confidential vote, recording his/her order of preference for every host country, to the Chair of the CCC. This order of preference shall be used only to resolve a tie (an equality of votes for prospective hosts). Any use of the President's vote shall remain confidential to the CCC and its appointed vote counters.
The appropriate weighting factor shall be applied to the votes of the smaller Constituency. If the total of the combined 'first preference' votes does not identify a winning prospective host with an outright majority (more than 50 percent), a redistribution shall be undertaken by the vote counters. The prospective host with the least number of 'first preference' votes shall be eliminated. Voters shall be identified whose first preference of prospective host has been eliminated. Their 'second preference' votes (multiplied by the weighting factor where appropriate) shall be attributed accordingly to the remaining prospective hosts. The votes shall then be re-counted. The procedure, using the 'next preference' votes, shall be repeated, until one prospective host achieves a majority.
The prospective host achieving a majority shall be declared the host of the Congress to be held in 6 years time.
A 'tie' at any level of counting shall be resolved confidentially by inclusion of the vote of the President. In the event that there are two or more prospective hosts tied for the least number of 'first preference' votes, the President's order of preference shall determine the one to be eliminated.

Examples of two voting scenarios are appended to this document

10.     The Chair of the CCC shall announce the identity of the successful host at the General Assembly of the IUPESM.

APPEALS:

An appeal shall only be considered if based on alleged errors in procedures.

11.     An appeal based on alleged errors in the Site Selection procedures must be lodged with the Chairman of the CCC prior to the ballot and not less than 24 hours before the IUPESM Council meeting that just precedes the Congress.

12.     An appeal based on alleged errors in voting procedure must be lodged with the Chairman of the CCC immediately after the ballot and before the outcome has been declared.

13.     There shall be no appeal against the outcome of the ballot and there shall be no appeal of any kind after the outcome of the ballot has been declared.

14.      Any appeal shall be considered forthwith by Council. In the event of a successful appeal, Council shall determine whether the relevant procedure can be correctly undertaken during the Congress or shall be conducted by correspondence, with a time limit of one year for its conclusion.

  Revised 3/29/02