Bylaws & policy
Over the past several years, the Osteopathic International Alliance has completed a series of meetings aimed at enhancing the connection between OIA governance and the best practices that have emerged from our experience. The board and its committees debated several proposals for specific bylaw amendments, concluded a lengthy consideration at the September 2016 Annual General Meeting, and further updated the bylaws at a board meeting in spring 2017.
Key changes in autumn 2016 included an increase in the total size of the Board from nine members to ten to include a role for the Immediate Past Chair for leadership continuity; to allow direct succession from Chair-Elect to Chair to Immediate Past Chair; and to change rules on the secretariat, indemnification, and other matters of administration and governance. In addition, we have changed the definition of eligibility for associate membership by removing the requirement to represent the majority of osteopaths or osteopathic physicians within a country. We intend this change to promote collaboration in the legal establishment of the profession.
Additional changes in spring 2017 included a full, line-by-line review of all bylaws with efforts made to harmonize definitions and stipulations across different sections and create best practices that capture the best of our wide-ranging international insights into corporate governance. A review of these changes can be accessed below. This document and the changes therein was unanimously approved by the membership at our Annual General Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, on September 8, 2017.
In 2020, the Board Governance Committee conducted a periodic review of the bylaws and proposed several updates, a summary of which can be found here (PDF). These amendments were put to a vote of Full Member organizations, and passed on May 19, 2021, during the Annual General Meeting.