Background

The Applicant Societies Committee (ASC) is the outcome of the work of the Task Force on New Groups and Equivalency tasked with developing proposals for the assessment process to be undertaken when large and established groups apply to join the IPA.  This was initially devised for groups applying under the expanded Eitingon model, but these procedures apply to any group that wishes to apply to the IPA directly at Provisional Society level.

The ASC is a sub-committee of the International New Groups Committee.

Mandate

The Applicant Societies Committee is mandated to:

a) Establish that a group is eligible to be visited based on the application documents and answers to any subsequent questions from the ASC as felt necessary.

b) Ensure that the group meets criteria set out in the IPA’s procedural code and deciding if the group is eligible for a Development Committee to be appointed to visit them.  Meeting the criteria is not in itself sufficient to ensure that a Development  Committee will be established, and in reaching a decision the ASC will take into account factors such as the amount of IPA resources available to develop a group, the relative priority of this application compared to other applications (no matter in what order received) including, for example, the availability of appropriately skilled and experienced IPA Members who are willing to support the development etc.

c) Should it be apparent to the ASC that a group is not ready for assessment of Provisional Society status, the Chair may inform the applicant group of this and ask them to consider whether they wish to be considered as an IPA Study Group or Allied Centre. If the applicant group agrees, the Chair should refer the group to the ING Committee. If the applicant group disagrees and the ASC is convinced that the applicant group is not ready for Provisional Society status, the ASC will inform the group of this and its reasons.

d) Recommending the appointments of Development Committees and Liaison Committees when necessary and proposing appropriately experienced names for such Committees (in conjunction with the ING Committee Chair and relevant ING Co-Chair).

e) Advising the ASC Development Committee and ASC Liaison Committees throughout the process, keeping in regular contact via conference call or other means of remote communication.

f) To inform any affected or contiguous IPA Constituent Organisations of the application, to consult such Constituent Organisations, and to report the views of such Constituent Organisations in the Developing report. Existing constituent organisations do not have a veto over the establishment of IPA groups.

g) Ensuring due process has been carried out at each stage of the procedure and making recommendations to the IPA Board based on the information provided by the Development and Liaison Committees (in consultation with the ING Chair and relevant regional Co-Chair).

h) Recommending changes to the Procedures for the Assessment of large groups as time goes on and more experience is gained.

Ways of working and reporting

The ASC will be expected to do most of its work electronically, using GoToMeeting, or other free-to-use communication systems.

The ASC will provide written reports to the Board for their January Board meetings.

Composition of the ASC

The Task Force will be composed of a chair and 1 member from each region, who will be very senior and respected IPA figures who are not currently actively engaged in IPA daily work;

The Task Force may request the appointment of Consultants to advise on specific issues as needed (Consultants will not be funded to attend in-person meetings).

Budget

An annual face-to-face meeting of the ASC will be funded; the ASC should approach the Treasurer for any additional budget requests, including funding for the initial visits of Development Committees in line with the Procedures for the assessment of Large groups.

Approved by the Board July 2019