*Note: this page is password protected in order to keep IFSA proceedings private, ask your Regional Representative for the password.
Event Agenda
F.A.Q Section
This section has been updated on the 26th of July
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no events will be held on the ground, including IFSS 2020 in Quebec (Canada) which has been postponed to 2021. Nonetheless, we are required to hold at least one General Assembly (GA) per year by our statutes and, since we are unable to have physical meetings, the only solution is moving the IFSA and the GA online.
Usually the GA consists of 5 sessions plus workshops where many different topics are discussed. Running an online GA presents a completely different set of challenges which has forced us to adapt the agenda and the structure of the event in order to plan accordingly with these limitations.
In particular, the main constraints are the wide range of time zones of our LCs spread globally, the internet connection stability which varies from country to country, and the voting which must be accessible, fair and efficient to all.
All of those factors brought us to plan a simplified and shorter Online GA 2020 where only the core tasks of the GA will be carried out.
In order to join the Online GA 2020 live sessions you have to to register here. You can go to the IFSA website to access the Online GA 2020 session recordings and all the vetting documents (NOTE the pages are password protected, ask the password to your Regional Representatives).
Yes, the live session will be recorded and be available here.
Our LCs are located all over the planet and therefore we had to take into account a wide range of time zones, going from UTC-7 to UTC+12 (which is 19 hours of difference!). Aware of the fact that it is impossible to select a time which works and it is optimal for everyone, we have decided to choose the time frame where the majority of our LCs would be able to join. We completely understand that this is not going to be very suitable for some countries, but this was the best solution we came to. In any case, each session will be recorded and available online on our website.
Given the complexity of online vetting and voting and the lengthy process they represent, we have decided to not elect all positions during the Online GA 2020. Therefore, the elections at the GA will be limited to those Officials strictly necessary to guarantee a proper governance continuation, this means the Board (7 Officials) and the Head of Commissions (3 Officials), a total of 10 Officials is to be elected.
Once the above mentioned Officials are elected and that the Online GA 2020 will be over, the new IFSA Board will send out Open Calls for all the non-elected positions to then select the candidates.
As mentioned before, because of the strong limitations correlated to an online GA, we have decided not to give the possibility to our members to apply for positions during the GA nor to be nominated by somebody else. If you are interested in running for a Board position or as Head of Commission, you need to apply to this open call by July 27th 2020, 23:59 UTC+2. For other positions, check the IFSA website for Open Calls in later August.
Candidates that want to apply for a position need to send a motivation letter and a presentation video. Those documents will be uploaded on this page before the GA (NOTE the page is password protected, ask the password to your Regional Representatives). The email address of each candidate will be also available so you can ask questions to them.
During the live session the candidates will have a space to present themselves and their plans.
The online voting will be hosted on Election Buddy, a professional voting platform which ensures integrity of the voting while being user friendly. For each voting session, all LCs eligible to vote (that means having paid their membership fee) will receive an email in their official LC email address account with the instructions necessary to vote on Election Buddy. Note that you can vote only once per voting session and, after submitting your vote, you won’t be able to modify it.
Each voting session will last approximately 48 hours to ensure that everyone has the time to vote accordingly to their own time zone.
The integrity of the elections are guaranteed by Election Buddy, where each vote will remain anonymous (learn more).
Since late 2019 an Official email address has been created for every LC in IFSA, which is used for official communication within IFSA and for other important administrative processes (such as online voting). The email address name is based on the LC name (lcname@lc.ifsa.net)and it is a business google account created within the IFSA domain (ifsa.net). The email can be used and checked through Google Gmail.
Each LC should have received the login information in their LC email found in our database. In the case, the login information email can’t be found, we warmly invite you to contact your Regional Representatives.
In case you have forgotten or lost your password, contact our IT department to receive adequate support.
If you are an ordinary member of your LC and you want to represent your LC and vote on its behalf, contact the Board/Direction of your LC and ask them how you could best do that.
You don’t need to attend a live session to vote as you’ll receive the ballot in your inbox anyway. However you are strongly encouraged to do so or to watch the recording in order to have a better understanding of what you are voting on. All the applicants’ videos and letters will also be uploaded on the website here.
During the GA live sessions you can ask questions in the Zoom chat box.
According to the IFSA Statutes, decisions taken in the GA can be considered valid only if it has reached a quorum of 25% of the eligible votes. Therefore, each online voting session will be considered valid only if 25% of all LCs vote. If the quorum is not reached, the voting needs to be redone (please vote, we don’t want to postpone the international night!).
According to the IFSA Rules of Procedures (RoP) the GA is run by the Board of Assembly (BoA) which is composed by a Chairperson, an Assistant Chairperson and a Keeper of minutes (3 people in total). Their role is moderating the GA, ensuring that procedures are correctly followed, and guaranteeing a transparent and efficient voting process.
The elections committee consists of 3 people and is in charge of managing the online voting.