IUAES - Structure

Structure

The IUAES has an administrative structure involving three bodies: the General Assembly, the Permanent Council, and the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is the main regulatory body, making policy decisions on behalf of, and subject to the authority of, the Permanent Council. The Permanent Council consists of national delegations empowered to vote on any matters concerning the Union. The votes may follow discussions held at the General Assembly. The latter can also put forward proposals but has no decision-making authority. All policy decisions are implemented by the Executive Committee. The structural guidelines of the IUAES are given in its Statutes, which have grown from a simple set of rules into an array of constitutional by-laws.

The core officers of the IUAES Executive Committee are the President, the Secretary-General and the Treasurer, with the Secretary-General maintaining all records of the Union and supervising all communications, including the production and dissemination of new IUAES publications (including Newsletters and Handbooks), as well as the designing and updating of the IUAES website (http://www.glocol.osaka-u.ac.jp/iuaes/index.html). The rest of the Executive Committee, that is, the past-president, the vice-presidents (with the president of the following congress acting as an additional vice-president) and the members-at-large, aid in the decision-making process.

The scientific work of the IUAES is carried out by its Commissions, which focus on particular topics of specialized interest. The IUAES Commissions, of which more than thirty are currently recognized, (Nas and Zhang 2009:460-461), determine their own administrative structure and set of activities, which generally include the organization of panels, workshops, and sessions at the quinquennial ICAES. Some commissions have been in existence for decades, while others have rapidly disbanded. Some commissions have their own websites, organize their own conferences, and sponsor the publication of journals or book series. Groups of commissions sometimes co-sponsor initiatives of common interest, and it is possible for IUAES members to be involved in the work of multiple commissions.