ICAEW International Constituencies

Accountancy Age reports that the council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has voted (without any form of irony) for the establishment of international constituencies for direct election to the council.

This of course means that the designation "in England and Wales" is now irrelevant and misleading.

Constituencies will be set up in regions and countries where there are at least 2,000 ICAEW members, on the basis of one council member per 2,000 ICAEW members.

As a result, constituencies will be set up in mainland Europe (one member), Hong Kong (one member), North America and the Caribbean (two members) and Oceania (one member) with a view to setting up further constituencies in Africa, China, the Middle East and South East Asia in the future once those areas hold enough members.

Needless to say budget allocations of members' subscriptions, because of this change, will at some stage be reapportioned.

Given that this is such a fundamental change to the ICAEW I am surprised that it was not put to the vote of the members.

I assume that the outdated Victorian trade association rule that states that members who wish to stand for election can only be nominated by 10 members within their region will remain?

Will the ICAEW in the future at least notify members within a region that someone wishes to be nominated, or will they still block that as they did when I tried to stand in 2007?