President duties

Accueil Remonter

 

The Role of the Douzelage President from Jeremy Barker (april 02)

Introduction

There has never been a written job description of what the Douzelage President is required to do. The role has evolved in the light of experience over the years and will doubtless continue to do so. What is certain is that it has greatly expanded since the period of my Presidency began six years ago and what is written here is very much my personal view of what is incumbent upon the President. Other Presidents may well choose to do things differently but at a time when the three-yearly election is due, it seemed appropriate to set down what the duties are and I hope this will prove helpful.

Election

  1. For the first three Meetings of the Douzelage, the host town provided the President but it quickly became apparent that this was impractical. There needed to be continuity and a guiding hand. Karel Majoor (Meerssen) was therefore elected for three years and that has now become the practice.
  2. In Kőtzting it was decided that there should also be two Vice-Presidents to take some of the load off the President’s shoulders. In fact that is very difficult to achieve but nonetheless it has been of great help to have two people (and quite different people) to talk things through with. We would do well to give further thought to how responsibilities might be delegated as that of looking after the Simultaneous Translation Equipment has been delegated to Nico in Meerssen.
  3. The Election Procedure agreed is as follows:
bulletthe Election is conducted by whichever is the Host town at the end of the three year period.
bulleteach town has two votes both forth election of the Presidents and for the two Vice-Presidents.
bulleton the last occasion, nominations were sought from all towns specifically asking both who from their own number they would like to propose and who from other towns.
bulletNominees must agree to their nomination, must have experience in chairing meetings and be able to do so in English.

Duties

The primary duties of the President are:

    1. to draw up the Agenda for the next meeting (Draft Agenda; distributed to all towns for amendment, addition, subtraction by a deadline; issue of final Agenda).
    2. Presiding over the Meeting.
    3. Welcoming delegates to the conference, thanking hosts at appropriate moments etc. etc.

Other duties have evolved inexorably:

    1. The writing of reports as requested

E.g. Economic development of the Douzelage

Guidelines for application for funding to the EU.

The role of the President.

Thoughts on the Enlargement of the Douzelage.

(these are extremely time-consuming).

    1. Maintaining links with Officers in Brussels.
    2. Negotiating entry of new towns to the Douzelage

e.g. Karkkila, Oxelosund, Judenburg and towns from the candidate countries (Chojna, Susice, Turi, Sigulda and now several more). There is then the obligation to maintain the links with these towns.

    1. Accepting invitations to events in Douzelage towns

e.g. FIDDEM Conferences on Multipolar Twinning.

Houffalize press conference last December.

Bellagio Mini-parliament.

Kőtzting European Flag presentation.

Dorset/La Manche Twinning Seminars.

    1. Between meetings, gently nudging towns to do those things they had undertaken to do at the last. Symposium.
    2. Keep up with the day-to-day influx of e-mails on a multitude of matters. This is becoming increasingly time-consuming and often needs much patience, thought and negotiation.
    3. Send out invoices for the annual subscription – and then reminders – and usually more reminders!
    4. Meet regularly wit the Secretary to ensure all enquiry’s have been met and dealt with and anticipate what will need doing next.

 

 
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