Structure of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE)

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The Board of Directors

The Board of Directors (Board) provides direction and leadership to IAMSE. The Board maintains contacts on existing alliances and develops new strategic alliances with other associations for Medical Education and Medical Disciplines around the world. Members are nominated by the Nominating Committee and are elected by IAMSE membership. Members serve a three year term and may be reelected one time. The members of the Board elect the officers from their members annually. The officers are the President, Vice President, Secretary and the Treasurer.

The Standing Committees

Standing Committees work on behalf of the Board. These committees focus on IAMSE policy and strategic planning recommendations to be discussed and approved by the Board. Once approved the strategies are added to the Strategic Plan. The committee titles and responsibilities are stated in the Bylaws and can only be removed from the Association's structure by majority vote of the Membership.

With the exception of the Executive Committee, Chairs of Standing Committees are nominated by the President and approved by the Board. They serve for three years and may be reappointed. Members of Standing Committees, except Professional Development and Nominating, are appointed by the Committee Chair, who will notify the Board of all committee membership changes. In general, each Standing Committee (except Finance) should have at least five active members, but may be as large as needed to perform its function well.

Executive Committee: This is a subset of the Board and meets more often than the full Board to prepare the agenda for full Board meetings and to handle ongoing business. It is chaired by the IAMSE President. Its members are the current Officers plus the immediate past president.

Professional Development Committee (formerly Planning): This committee oversees the core mission of the Association to provide faculty development activities for medical science educators. This committee develops an integrated strategy for educational activities of professional development of members. The committee advises the Board on which activities should be pursued (e.g. annual Faculty Development Courses, Web Audio Seminars, the Annual Conference, fellowship programs). It also discusses and recommends which topics/tools in medical education will be important in the near future, setting the agenda for these activities, which are then carried out by the relevant committees. The Professional Development Committee reports to the Board.

This committee will preferably be chaired by a past IAMSE president in order to ensure experienced leadership in administering its duties. Members will include the current IAMSE president and vice president, the chair of the Publications Committee, and the chairs of other committees key to professional development, as determined by the Board. As of January 2009 these would be the chairs of the current, past, and future Annual Program Committees, Educational Scholarship Committee, and Webcast Audio Seminar Committee. A technology-oriented member should be included. Additional members may be named by the IAMSE president or the Professional Development Committee chair as needed.

Nominating Committee: This committee performs an annual independent procedure for recruiting a suitable slate of nominees for electing members of the Board. It shall consist of five members who are neither current members of the Board, current Chairs of IAMSE committees, nor current candidates for the Board. The President shall appoint a Chair plus two members with the approval of the Board of Directors. Two members shall be nominated and elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting.

Membership Committee: Members are the core of the Association. Therefore maintaining the membership is important. This committee develops strategies on increasing and retaining membership, and evaluates the needs of the members.

Organizational Development Committee: This committee develops strategies for finding financial support for the association and assists the Board on grant applications. The committee investigates the possibilities for sponsorship and makes contacts with possible sponsors. Actual grant applications and specific actions are then performed by the Association's Manager Office.

Publications Committee: The committee oversees and develops strategies for all materials that are published in the name of the Association and oversees the quality of what is actually published. This includes the online journal MSE but also any other products that can be considered to be publications, such as the Public Affairs distributions, promotional materials for IAMSE products, IAMSE-HEAL and the annual conference proceedings and program. The Committee advises the Board about the appointment for MSE Editor-in-Chief and Production Editor.

Finance Committee: This Committee advises the Board on financial issues of the Association, including the annual budget and investment strategies. It is chaired by the Treasurer and should have at least 3 members.

Committees not specified in the Bylaws

The below committees, while performing essential IAMSE functions, are not codified in the Bylaws. They are created and charged by the Board to serve specific functions which may be altered by a majority vote of the Board. This allows them to pursue more flexible missions centered on IAMSE's immediate needs.

Chairs of these committees are nominated by the President and approved by the Board. They serve for three years and may be reappointed. Members of committees are appointed by the committee chair, who will notify the Board of all committee membership changes. The committees report to a specific Standing Committee or to the Board directly.

As of September 2009 these committees are:

Annual Program Committees: These committees develop the scientific programs of the Annual Conferences, each for a specific year. The members of the Committee are only appointed to plan one specific meeting. The Chair serves on the Program Committee a year before and a year after their meeting to enhance continuity between Program Committees. The Chairs of these committees are members of and report to the Professional Development Standing Committee.

The Program Committee may decide to be assisted by a Review Committee to review the submitted abstracts for a specific Annual Conference. If so, the Review Committee Chair is a member of and reports to the Program Committee.

Educational Scholarship (formerly Professional Development): This committee administers the IAMSE Medical Educator Fellowship, the annual IAMSE Awards, and additional faculty development courses or opportunities as designed by the Professional Development Standing Committee. It works with the Program Chairs of the Annual Conferences to oversee and create a high quality faculty development program that interfaces with other faculty development courses. The chair serves on and reports to the Professional Development Standing Committee.

MSE Editorial Board: This committee publishes MSE, including recruiting manuscripts, reviewing them and performing the desktop publishing of the journal. The themes/topics to be covered in the Journal are determined on the basis of submitted articles, but also in collaboration with the Publications and Professional Development standing committees. The committee is supported by the Association Manager's Office and the Production Editor in publishing the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief is the committee chair of the Editorial Board, and is an ex officio member of and reports to the Publications Standing Committee.

Public Affairs: This committee identifies and monitors the latest developments in medical education around the world and provides these to the membership in regular updates. The Committee is supported by the Association Manager's Office. The Chair is a member of and reports to the Publications Standing Committee.

Site Selection Committee: This committee investigates possible site locations for the Annual Conference on a direct request from the Board. It does not make a final choice; it only delivers a report with facts and recommendations. The Committee is chaired by the IAMSE Vice President and reports directly to the Board.

Web Audio Seminar (WAS): This committee organizes the Web Audio Seminar series by recruiting speakers and session chairs, instructing them and sending out a call to participants. The topics for the seminars are determined together with the Professional Development Standing Committee. The Committee is supported by the Association Manager's Office for public relations of the series, for registration of participants and collecting fees. The Chair is a member of and reports to the Professional Development Committee.

For additional information regarding a Committee please contact the following Chairs: