Dear TEI Community,

This email is rather long, so apologies in advance for this. However, it contains a few rather important points about the way the TEI is proposing to change the way it works, so please spare a couple of minutes to read what follows.

In the past few months the Board of Directors in consultations with the Technical Council has worked on a revision of the TEI governance. We have already shared the below proposal with the TEI members and subscribers and we are now sharing it with the whole community. We will vote on this proposal shortly, before the annual Members' meeting, in order to implement this changes from the next elections.

With the aim of streamlining and improving the efficiency of the TEI, we propose a  recomposition of the Board of Directors (henceforth: the Board) and the Technical Council (henceforth: the Council), making them smaller and therefore also more affordable.
The relationship between the Board and the Council is also being re-shaped in a regime of equality and reciprocity, a fact that again will help to smooth the activities and management of the TEI as a whole.
On the other hand, from many sides a rethinking of the role of the subscribers (commonly called individual members, as opposed to the institutional members) has been called for.

This proposal, to be presented as amendments to the Bylaws, articulates changes in four areas:

1. Membership of the Board and the Council
2. Relationship between the Board and the Council
3. Partner institutions
4. Role of individual members

In addition to that, some other arrangements have been provided in order to make the TEI more sustainable for the present and future years, which you will find in the Finance section below (section 5).
 
1. Membership of the Board and the Council
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We propose that the Board should reduce its membership from 8 elected members to 5.  Furthermore, we propose that the role of non-voting partner Board members should be abolished as it has been considered by both the partners representatives and the Board as not very effective.

The Council shall see its membership shrink from 12 to 11 elected members. This decision essentially ratifies recent practice which arose by historical accident. For both bodies, the appointed chairs will be normally elected from among the elected members of that body, reducing the membership of each body by one more person. The only appointed member of the Board will remain the Treasurer. 

2. Relationship between the Board and the Council
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We propose that each body, the Board and Council will select a chair from among their existing members. In the event that no existing member is able and willing to assume the role of chair, the group may appoint another (non-elected) individual to serve as chair. In the event that a group cannot reach consensus on its chair, a chair shall be appointed by the other body, either from the group's membership or a non-elected individual.

We propose that the Board shall appoint a non-voting Board representative to the Council; this person could be the Chair of the Board or someone else. In the same way the Council shall appoint a non-voting representative to the Board; this person could be the Chair of the Council or someone else. The Council Chair will automatically be subscribed to Board email list. Board Chair will be automatically subscribed to Council email list.
A joint Council-Board email list for all members of the Council and the Board has already been activated in order to deal with matters that concern both the Board and the Council. 

3. Partner institutions
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We propose to abolish the role of partners as currently described by the TEI Bylaws. Indeed, the current arrangement -- which includes the designation of a non-voting representative to sit on the Board -- has been considered by both the current partners representatives and the Board as not a very effective way to collect feedback and or to recognise the partners’ contributions to the maintenance and development of the TEI. 

The Board is currently trying to elaborate a new proposal able to recognise the role of “TEI stakeholders” that institutions have gained by substantially contributing to the development and directions of the TEI. Such stakeholders should have a full voting seat. Their number should be small and smaller than the elected members of the Board. As the Board sees this as a change of fundamental importance, we are seeking your advice: we will soon contact partners and members with a series of proposals and ideas, but we encourage you from now on to get in touch and proactively make suggestions on how best the TEI should serve its members.

4. Role of individual members
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We propose that individual members should be given the right to vote in annual elections for the election of Council members only, as well as be able to share some of the advantages and benefits we offer to institutional members, such as, for instance, discounts for attending the annual conference or for the purchase of software and services. 
This modification has the advantage of recognising the great contribution to the TEI of individual members of the community; otherwise, by preserving the exclusive right of Institutional members to vote for the Board, we mean to maintain their role of leading the politics and future direction of the TEI


5. Finances
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The most important activity of the TEI is the development and maintenance of the Guidelines, which is undertaken by the Council. It has been proposed that consequently  the activities of the Council should be given priority from a financial point of view.  Funding for the Board is secondary and may be reduced or even eliminated if necessary due to budgetary constraints.

The TEI Board has therefore already put a cap on reimbursement of individual travel expenses; furthermore, the TEI will encourage elected members of both Board and Council to seek support from their home institutions and to use funding from other sources for travel before requesting support from TEI.

Feedback is most welcome!
Best
Elena


--
Dr Elena Pierazzo
Lecturer in Digital Humanities
Department in Digital Humanities
King's College London
26-29 Drury Lane
London WC2B 5RL

Phone: 0207-848-1949
Fax: 0207-848-2980
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www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh