The General Assembly

 

In November 2007, I worked with the national executive directors and Board presidents of a large international non-governmental organization (NGO) to share ideas on a number of operational issues including organizing an annual General Assembly and Membership Meeting. A General Assembly (often a 2nd representative body after the Board of Directors) becomes most common in organizations as they grow, adding additional national entities who can not all be effectively represented on the Board of Directors.

 

General Assemblies are called different things in different organizations including: International Conference and Membership Meeting, World Assembly, International Council, etc. Depending on where an organization is incorporated, there may be specific legal requirements for an annual/biennial general meeting, so it is important to know these at the beginning of your planning process.

 

This session included some basic guidelines and general tips on organizing a successful General Assembly, as well as experiences from two member countries Italy and Kenya.

 

The Basics

 

If an organization has not yet had a General Assembly, initial planning steps should include:

 

1)      Discussion of the purpose of the assembly and what is to be accomplished

 

a)      What are the legal requirements? What are the organizational guidelines? (if they already exist. If not, you will want to develop them for future meetings)

 

2)      Planning

 

a)      How many delegates will you have? What are the logistical issues for the meeting?

 

3)      The program and agenda

 

a)      Who will run the meeting? A chairman who is comfortable with facilitating meetings, or will the chairman be aided by a separate facilitator and / or parliamentarian?

b)      You have a choice to decide when the agenda should be formal and when it can be more flexible, or your culture might provide guidance on the amount of formality that is customary.

c)      Consider a balance of sessions between business, where organizational decisions must be taken; and learning or information exchange sessions that will provide value added to attendees.

 

4)      Participant recruitment (if this is to be done by the parent organization and not the national entities; providing guidelines if it is to be done locally) and new delegates orientation

 

a)      Develop guidelines for how delegates should be chosen. Are there particular characteristics or criteria for being an effective delegate?

b)      Brief your delegates/attendees regarding how the meeting will flow, what is expected of them, etc so they will be prepared to participate.

c)      Send out as many materials as possible in advance so delegates can review them ahead of the meeting. This is especially important when decisions will be taken.

 

5)      Running the assembly

 

a) Be willing to be flexible with the agenda where appropriate. This may be particularly important during the business session if delegates feel they need more time to discuss an issue before a decision is taken.

 

Some Lessons Learned

 

The two countries who shared their experiences included this list of lessons learned:

  • Allow adequate advance time, staff support, and leadership engagement for planning.
  • Spell out clearly in the constitution and governance manual rules for the General Assembly and Annual General Meeting (business portion). The more guidance you have on what needs to be covered in the business portion, the easier it will be to plan the entire agenda each subsequent year .
  • If you are still building membership and are recruiting delegates, have a transparent process so that applicants know how they are being judged. You may also want to provide some options for other ways applicants can engage with the organization if they are not accepted as a General Assembly delegate for this round. Some type of scoring system can help to make the process transparent and help explain any controversial decisions.
  • Allow enough time for the new delegates orientation (people may be at varying stages of familiarity with NGOs in general and your organization at the international level). If they are better prepared, they can be more effective delegates.
  • Have regular engagement by Board trustees and staff. If the General Assembly delegates are not already an active part of the organization in some other way, they may lose their interest and motivation. Consider bringing them on to committees, Board nomination, etc.. afterwards.
  • A staff person dedicated to support statutory bodies and governance development is very helpful as governance can be complex and time intensive.

 

 

Bonnie Koenig

January 15, 2008