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INTERNATIONALIZING SCB WITH REGIONAL SECTIONS

• More details:

Malcolm Hunter, Co-chair, Internationalization Committee

Our efforts to internationalize SCB began with five regional surveys of our members in Africa, Asia, the Australian region, Europe, and South and Central America and the Caribbean. (See articles in previous newsletters for details; results of the Asia survey appear in this newsletter.) One of the clearest ideas to emerge from these surveys is widespread support for the concept of creating regional sections of SCB. These would be organized more or less along continental lines plus there would be one for the marine realm. This concept has been discussed at two meetings of the Board of Governors and recently the Board approved the initiation of a formal process for creating sections. Here is a summary of what the Board approved.

SCB members in Africa, Asia, the Australian region, Europe, North America, South and Central America and the Caribbean, and the marine realm can form a regional section by collecting a list of 100 or more interested SCB members and electing a set of officers. Each section will have the following:

1. A seat on the Board of Governors (BOG).

2. Funds, up to $1000 annually, for operating expenses (e.g., maintaining a regional newsletter).

3. Funds, if needed, to subsidize travel to the annual conference and BOG meetings by the section's BOG representative.

4. Opportunity for an article in each issue of the SCB newsletter (four per year).

5. Space in a new column for sections in each volume of the journal (one per year).

6. The opportunity to develop a symposium for the annual conference in consultation with local organizers.

Some further details (more details are described below):

• For voting purposes each SCB member can choose only one section in which to vote. This would not necessarily be the one in which they reside or receive the journal. (This would allow a Kenyan attending graduate school in Canada to belong to the African section, or a Swede who does most of her work in Australia to be a member of that section.)
• Members who want to be informed of activities in more than one section could do so by reading the section newsletters, all of which would be posted on our website.
• Initially there would not be any additional dues for belonging to a section.

1. What will sections do?

That of course will depend upon what they want to do. It is likely that most will begin by facilitating information exchange among section members (e.g., job opportunities, notices of meetings). Eventually, sections might organize regional conferences or even publish a regional journal.

2. What can I do?

The membership renewal form for 2001 includes a place to indicate which section you would be interested in joining. If you check one of these boxes your email address will be placed on a distribution list to receive further information about that section as it develops.

3. What is happening to organize these sections?

This varies markedly from continent to continent and will be summarized in the next issue of the newsletter. A key point is that leadership for these activities has to come from within the regions, not from the Board of Governors.

More details:

Relations to the BOG

1. To avoid making the BOG too large, the five slots currently allocated to Members-at-Large would gradually be eliminated as sections were established.

2. Necessary changes to the SCB Bylaws would not be made until a section was ready-to-go.

3. If a section fell below our 100-member threshold they would be given two years to recover before we suspended their status.

Internal governance

4. The president of a section would usually serve as the representative to the BOG.

5. The president of a section should be from the region.

Financial

6. Requests for annual funds and travel subsidies should be made in writing to the Chief Financial Officer and should describe anticipated expenses and any other sources of funds.

7. Start-up funds in addition to the regular annual budget can be requested by written proposal.

8. Sections would have independent finances for auditing and tax purposes, as do our chapters currently.

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