The EASST Council House Rules integrate the existing EASST Council statutory documents (i.e., the Constitution and the Code of Ethics) by providing an overview of existing procedures and roles and complementing them with a new document regulating Conflict of Interest (CoI).
General
The EASST constitution always takes precedence over these house rules. The house rules are approved by council and can be amended by council at any meeting should the need arise.
- The president presides and chairs all meetings of the Council. If the president is absent, the secretary chairs the meeting, unless the president has designated another council member to preside the meeting
- The secretary is responsible for meeting documents, minutes and coordination with the admin support
- EASST has hired an admin support firm, which is also responsible for document storage.
- With oversight from the EASST Council treasurer, the admin support firm is responsible for day-to-day running of financial transactions, budgets and accounts. EASST does not have an external revision of accounts
- The council seeks to make decisions unanimously. If this is not possible, the council votes to make a decision. Only elected members of the council can vote. If there is an equal split of votes, the president’s (or the person who chairs the meeting) vote counts double.
- Co-opted members, such as STS coordinating editor or conference chair participates in all council meetings in the period they are co-opted, but cannot vote
- Council usually meets 4-6 times a year. Council aims to meet physically once a year. In years with a conference the council meeting usually takes place the day before the conference
- Council meeting agendas are supplemented by written case presentations for items that require decisions. At least one designated council member for each item is responsible for producing such case presentations at least 20 days before the meeting.
EASST principles for handling conflicts of interest
EASST is committed to upholding ethical standards and avoiding conflicts of interest that may compromise our integrity or the trust of our members and community. To this end, we have established the following principles to guide the Council’s decision-making and behaviour.
Overall, we will act with integrity in all our dealings and treat all colleagues fairly and without prejudice. We will be transparent about potential conflicts of interest and systematically address them in council, so that our decisions can be based on objective criteria and avoid bias or favouritism.
We have formulated some basic principles for how to deal with potential conflicts of interest in the practical work of the Council. By adhering to these principles, we aim to maintain the trust of our members and community and ensure that our actions are always in the best interests of the organisation and the communities we serve. At the same time, the principles should make it possible to avoid situations in which no decision can be taken because all members of the Council or a subgroup feel they have a conflict of interest.
The principles will be applied to all decisions in the EASST Council (or activities run by any subgroup working under the Council) regarding awards or other decisions about named individuals or groups of people.
Conflicts of interest can arise when a person on the Council (or a person in a subgroup working under the Council) has a personal interest or stake in the decision, or a close relationship with someone who has a personal interest or stake. An example is that a person on the Council is nominated for an award or has a close personal relationship with someone nominated for an award so that such a relationship could compromise the judgement, decisions, or actions in activities in which the person is involved.
It is the obligation of the person who has a potential conflict of interest to inform the President, the Council, or subgroup about the situation. However, the person cannot autonomously decide whether they have a conflict of interest. Rather, such a decision is made by the president or the rest of the Council. Between council meetings, people with potential conflicts of interest contact the president, who makes a decision which is subsequently presented to the Council at the next meeting. If a potential conflict arises during a Council meeting, the Council decides without the person being present. Before the person leaves the room, the person has to provide all relevant information to the Council and answer questions from Council members in order to provide the basis for an informed decision.
If the president or Council decides that the person has a conflict of interest, the person cannot partake in decisions regarding the case where a conflict of interest has been identified. We distinguish between ‘out of case’ and‘out of call’ by the number 6. When there are more than 6 cases (for instance 7 nominations for an award), the person with an identified conflict of interest can participate in preparing recommendations for the cases, where there is no conflict of interest, but not in a final decision. However, the person with the conflict of interest cannot participate in the preparationof cases when there are 6 or fewer cases left. When there are 6 or fewer cases in total, the person with the conflict of interest is out of call, i.e., the person cannot participate in any work regarding preparation or decision.
If all but two member of the Council has a conflict of interest, the Council can decide to let members with conflicts of interest participate in decision-making in order to be able to make a decision.
