A letter to members of the Constellation

[Phil]

Dear Members of the Constellation,

Over the last few months, two of our Board Members have found that external circumstances obliged them to resign. April Foster recently moved to the United States to take up a new position and this upheaval has meant that April could not make the commitment to the task of being a Board Member that she had always made in the past. In addition, Nathalie Legros’ new responsibilities at work made her unable to make the commitment to the Board that she felt that it was necessary to make.

As a result the Voting Members of the Constellation are looking for two new Board Members who will complete the terms the terms of April and Nathalie. These terms will expire on 30/10/2017.

The Constellation Charter gives the Board has ‘the widest powers to govern and manage the Constellation’. The current Board interprets its remit to mean that we have the responsibility to move the Constellation towards its dream that ‘we will live in a world where communities take action based on their strengths to realise their dream’.

The Board sets the direction and scope of the annual Work Programme and Budget of the GST and then supports the GST in the execution of that Work Programme.

The Board exercises those powers formally through 4 Board Meetings a year. However, Board Members also involve themselves in the Work Programme of the GST (although this is not a formal part of the commitment to be a Board Member).

The current Board holds its meetings via Skype. We have the ambition to hold a face-to-face Board Meeting once a year, although time and cost constraints have not made this possible for the current board. However, we actively exploit travel by individual Board Members to bring together a group of Board Members for discussion outside of the formal setting of the Board Meeting.

While there are no specific qualifications needed to be a Board Member, I would say that the desirable traits in all board members are 1) to be able to reflect on the Constellation at the level of our dream and 2) to work in a way that is consistent with SALT.

The current Board is made up of 5 men: Autry Haynes from Guyana, Paul Komesaroff from Australia, Gaston Schmitz from Holland, Mohamed Essa Rafique from India and myself from the UK: thus 5 men and 0 women.

In addition, the Constellation is a not-for-profit organisation registered in Belgium and with the departure of Nathalie, we have no resident or citizen of Belgium on the Board. While this is not a legal requirement, the absence of a Belgian resident on the Board is an administrative inconvenience.

The Constellation is currently reviewing how we appoint our Board. On this occasion, three Voting Members have formed a task force to recommend two new Board Members to the Membership Assembly. The three Voting Members are Prince Bosco Kanani from Rwanda, Jean-Louis Lamboray from Belgium and Eric Ngabala from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prince, Jean-Louis and Eric intend to invite other members of the Constellation to join them in the work of the task force. 

The task force will send out an invitation both to those who are interested in becoming a Board Member and those who would like to join the Task Force.

Philip Forth

Chair of the Constellation

[Paul Kojo Asare]

thanks for the information, How does one joi??