Report on restructuring and amending Handbook

Last year the General Assembly amended the Statutes and Electoral Regulations. Now it is time to deal with the rest of the Handbook. There is confusion in finding information in the current Handbook and I suggest a simpler layout. I am recommending that the Handbook be reduced from six to two sections. The first section will be under the responsibility of the Secretariat and the second section will be the responsibility of the Commissions. Each chapter in the current Handbook has been allocated to either the Secretariat or a specific Commission. A number of chapters need to be removed either because they are included elsewhere or they are obsolete. The recommended format is attached.

A. Administration Subjects: Suggestions have already been submitted to the Secretariat on the changes needed to bring the various chapters in line with current practice or to suggest wording changes. In recent years there has been an increase in awards by Commissions and they need to be added to the relevant chapter in Administration. I would also suggest that annexes are created to record all award winners for future reference.

B. Commissions: There are a large number of sections that need re-writing, either to clarify the English or to bring up to date. I am prepared to help each Chair of Commission with this task so that proposals are produced at the Annual Congress this year. There are important documents not included in the Handbook that need to be added. It is essential that the technical nature of regulations is reviewed regularly by Commissions. Some Commissions need to insert regulations on their awards and activities. Currently they only have such information on their web sites but it should also be in the Handbook.

We need to establish a system of updating the Handbook. Currently some regulations are duplicated in different chapters and new regulations have been added without deleting old regulations. This creates confusion and may cause unnecessary disputes.

David Jarrett
Special Projects