Constitution

Poultry Veterinary Study Group of the EU

Constitution- Currrent from October 2018

1. Name

The name of the Group is the Poultry Veterinary Study Group of the EU. The Group may also be known as the PVSG EU.

2. Objectives

The main objectives of the PVSG EU are:

- To share practical experience and information regarding the sanitary situation in poultry and avian species of each country;

- To develop and maintain the scientific knowledge of members;

- To place a network of technical experts and alarm on diseases outbreaks at members disposal;

- To provide a friendly environment for free exchange of information in order to achieve these objectives.

The PVSG EU may also undertake the following tasks:

- To set up ad hoc working groups, as and when necessary, to consider specific issues or disease problems;

- To lobby the EU Commission or other authority, or coordinate lobbying of individual memberships, on specific issues;

- To demonstrate, through its meetings, and web site, a continuing education resource for the benefit of all members.

3. Language

The leading language of the PVSG EU is English.

4. Members and Membership

a. Numbers of members:

- The total number of full members of the PVSG should not exceed 100. Honorary members and observers are in addition to this number.

- Countries eligible for membership of the PVSG are EU countries plus Norway, United Kingdom, and Switzerland. In special cases the Committee may also propose and decide membership for veterinarians outside the EU.

- Countries eligible for the calculation of allocations are: the current EU countries, those countries whose date of entry into the EU is known, plus Great Britain, Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), Norway, and Switzerland, where the poultry production (chicken + turkey + duck meat and egg production) is greater than 0.20% of total European production, based on the average of the 5 last years available.

- The number of full members eligible to represent each country in the Group will be based on the tonnage of chicken, turkey and duck meat and egg production of each country.

- Membership per country: This will initially be a minimum 1 allocation. Additional full members per country will be strictly proportional to the calculated poultry production of that country up to a maximum of 8 additional full members. Therefore the maximum number of full members will be 9 allocations.

- Allocations according to production are recalculated every 5 years or, in exceptional circumstances earlier, as decided by the Committee.

b. Eligibility for Membership:

- Membership of the PVSG EU is open to Veterinary Surgeons working in countries of the EU, Norway, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, where the majority of their professional work (at least 50% and not less than an average of 20 hours/week) is actively involved in the areas of poultry disease diagnosis and prevention, production and/or pathology. Members may work in private practice or for a company actively involved in the poultry business of that country. Government employees cannot become Members. Membership is proposed by the Country Group on a majority decision basis.

- In special cases the Committee of the PVSG EU may also propose and decide membership for veterinarians working outside the EU. These members have an observer status without a seat on the Committee but they must respect the same rules as full members. They may participate in the closed and open sessions of the Group under the same conditions as full members and may present a disease report for the country where they work

c. Applications for Membership: Applications for Membership have to be proposed to and accepted by a clear majority of the Committee.

- The applicant must provide a full CV detailing his/her experience and posts held. He/she must be able to demonstrate clearly what he/she can bring to the group and their ability to take an active part in meetings.

- An existing member of the PVSG will present the application. This will either be the secretary of an existing country group, or another existing full member of PVSG who can demonstrate a good knowledge of the skills and suitability of the applicant. In any case the sponsoring existing member must support this application by a written recommendation.

- CV and recommendation are sent to the Committee at least one month before the next Committee meeting where the application will be considered.

- A period of 1 year between the enrolments of 2 members of the same country is applied, except when at least one of these 2 enrolments comes after the resignation or the cancellation of membership of one member of the country group.

- The Committee will accept, defer or reject the application. The applicant will be informed in writing of the decision of the PVSG Committee. In case of rejection, the applicant has a right of appeal.

- If accepted by the Committee, the new member will receive a mail from the Webmaster including his password and a request for information to update the database of the website. The new member is then welcomed to the next meeting of the PVSG EU.

d. Obligations of Members:

- New members are expected to present a Country report or other introductory paper to the Group, within the first year of membership. At this occasion they give a clear presentation about their activities in poultry industry.

- Each Member is enrolled as an individual and cannot represent a firm or a Veterinary Association. No one may attend in place of another Veterinarian. Split Memberships are not accepted.

- Except for retirement, if a member is no longer employed according to the rules stated above, that will result in cancellation of membership. The Committee will make the final decision.

After retirement, a member can remain in the group, as a full member, for a period of up to 5 years.

- Non-attendance by a full member at three consecutive Meetings, without valid reason, will result in cancellation of Membership. The final decision will be made by the Committee.

- Resignation or cancellation of membership closes access to the member area of the website.

- A membership financial contribution is fixed in order to cover administration costs. Open bookkeeping is applied. Further expenses incurred in organizing Meetings will be shared equally by the Members attending. Changes in Membership contribution are decided by the Committee.

- It shall be the responsibility of each country group to develop and encourage candidate members with a view to ensuring that membership is as representative as possible of the professionals who operate in the area of poultry medicine in their country, who satisfy membership requirements and are interested in becoming members.

- ALL Country members have an obligation to contribute information to their country secretary so that the disease summary is representative of that country

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e. Honorary membership:

- Honorary membership may be conferred on members who, in the opinion of the Committee, have made an exceptional contribution and commitment to the PVSG EU.

- Individual members or Country Groups may propose full members for consideration for Honorary membership by the Committee. Such proposal shall be made in writing to the PVSG Secretary or President in advance of a Committee meeting.

- Honorary members are not obliged to attend all subsequent meetings of the Group after their retirement from the poultry industry, but are encouraged to continue to take an active part in the Group.

- Honorary members will not pay any further membership subscriptions.

- Honorary membership is in addition to the number of full member allocations of the PVSG.

f. Retired membership: Colleagues who are still working in our field of interest but do not meet the requirement of full membership may apply to committee to remain as retired members for a period of up to 5 years after cessation of full time qualifying activity or until they retire from work definitively, whichever comes first. Their application should be supported by a majority of their country group.

- retired members may participate in all group activities and have the same responsibilities as full members including payment of membership subscription and attendance at meetings.

- retired member numbers will count towards the limits for total membership of the group and there may be no more than 15 retired members at any time.

- retired members will not count towards the country allocation [so a full member becoming a retired member frees a space for a new member]

- retired members are eligible to serve as officers or for subsequent election as honorary members.

Granting of retired status will be subject to annual reconfirmation by committee, taking into account demand, and available places for retired membership.

5. The Committee

a. Members:

- The PVSG EU is headed by a Committee consisting of five officers plus the Country secretaries for each country that is not represented by an officer. The officers of the Group are: one President (Chairman) and two Vice-Presidents of different nationalities, a Treasurer and a Secretary. The Vice-Presidents are one Junior Vice- President and one Senior Vice-President.

- The mandate of the officers extends for a period of two years, at the end of which they are eligible for re-election.

- The PVSG Secretary is chosen by the President.

- The PVSG Treasurer is a committee member elected by the Committee.

- Before leaving the presidency, the President suggests a new Junior Vice-President. Committee Members may propose other candidates. In this situation the Committee must reach a decision by secret ballot and majority votes. In case of equal number of votes the President decides.

- Country secretaries: they are named or elected by the members of each country.

b. Missions of the Committee:

- The Committee meets on the evening before each meeting.

- The Committee promotes the value and objectives of the PVSG EU and acts for the common good of the group.

- The Committee is competent to proceed to make any change of the Constitution but, if asked by a Committee member, decision is delayed to the next Committee meeting in order to allow a consultation of the country members.

- The Committee is in charge of the administration of the PVSG: in particular, it approves the secretary and treasurer reports at each Committee meeting and deals with members and membership matters (resignations, applications, attendances), agenda, organization and calendar of meetings.

- Decisions are reported at the following closed meeting of the Group and are formally recorded in the minutes of each Committee meeting. Minutes are reported in the place dedicated to each meeting on the website.

c. Missions of the officers and Country secretaries:

- The President: presides over and co-ordinates the works of the Committee. He prepares the agenda of the Committee meetings and ensures the continuity of the works of the Committee. He works for the cohesion of the Group and consensus of the Committee. He reports general information and important decisions at the general meeting.

- The Senior President helps the new President to achieve these objectives.

- The Secretary draws up the minutes of each meeting, which are submitted to the Committee before the next meeting and forwards these to the Webmaster after approval for placing on the PVSG website. The Secretary is responsible for checking attendances at the meetings.

- The Treasurer collects fees and profits of the meetings and makes any necessary payments. He is in charge of the bookkeeping and reports at each Committee meeting.

- The Country secretaries represent the members of their country. Should the occasion arise they forward for discussion to the members they represent any proposals made by the Committee regarding a change in the Constitution. They inform the Committee about any change regarding membership of their group (new applications, job moving, resignations…), check the attendance and website update of their members, answer for the presentation of their country reports and collect the fees of their group. They facilitate the organization of the PVSG meeting held in their country.

- The Country Secretaries will be responsible for submitting the disease table summary details for their country at least one week before the next meeting.

6. Meetings

a. Frequency, objectives and organization:

- Two Meetings are organized per year.

- The meetings are designed to achieve the objectives of the Group.

- The Meetings are held in different countries, on a rotational basis, as agreed by the Committee.

- Countries with few members can work together to organize meetings.

b. Sessions:

The technical part of a Meeting consists of three sessions:

- Committee Meeting.

- Closed session dedicated to the information of members regarding news and important decisions made at the Committee meeting, the presentation of country reports by a representative of each country, special focus on important topics, reports of working groups. Closed sessions may only be attended by members in order to keep the discussion as open as possible and free of constraints.

- Information presented in closed sessions is confidential to the Group, except where specific permission has been given for wider distribution.

- Open session is where invited speakers or members present papers, and this information is not regarded as confidential, unless specifically notified at the start of that session.

b. Program:

- The meeting organizer of the host Country decides upon the program and invites the speakers.

- Members wishing to contribute a paper to a Meeting must notify the organizer in good time. Poultry Veterinarians or other professionals of the host Country may be invited to attend the open session.

- Guests, other than mentioned above, can only attend the meetings with the agreement of the President.

- The closed session cannot be attended by non-members.

- The organizer of the host country may inform professional media about the agenda of the meeting and send them a brief summary, without confidential topics, after the meeting.

7. Working Groups

The Committee may, from time to time, appoint Working Groups on certain projects or topics thought to be important to the Group or the wider poultry industry. The Working Groups report to the Committee Meeting.

8. Communication

a. Communication to third parties - Members are not allowed to use information gathered during the closed sessions for any reasons: eg information to the media, to the government, to (potential) customers.

- Responsibility for communication outside the PVSG lies within the committee. - In principle communication outside the PVSG will be done by the president. - The president together with the committee may allow other members to communicate outside the PVSG.

b. Role and working of website

- For information of members and non-members the PVSG uses a website: www.pvsgeu.org

- The website consists of a member and a non-member part. Information about members and about closed sessions is confidential and will only be put in the member part.

c. Rights and duties of sponsors

- In order to organise the 2-yearly meetings sponsors may be asked for help, financially or otherwise.

- In return sponsors can expect the possibility to attend the open session and/or the evening program. Only when sponsors have valuable new scientific or technical information they might be allowed to give a presentation during the open part of a meeting. Publicity for the sponsors is limited to: announcement in the invitations as sponsor, banner/announcement on our website during half a year, spread of commercial and/or scientific material to the members.

9. Management of the bank account.

The PVSG treasurer manages the PVSG bank account under the supervision of the President, the Junior and Senior Presidents, the Dutch secretary and the Dutch treasurer.

Revision History

4a - revised May 1997

4d - revised November 1997

Senior status - revised May 1998

4a - revised November 2000

4a & senior status - revised April 2004

4a - revised May 2006

1, 4, 5, 6 - revised, senior status - cancelled, 2 & 8 - created November 2007

4d - revised May-June 2011

4d - revised Nov 2011 - reduced interval from 2 to 1 year

4d/5d revised Nov 2014

9 - new paragraph May 2016

4a - added United Kingdom, assuming non-EU member status from March 28th 2019 - October 2018

4F - new paragraph re retired members October 2018