Committees

The Executive Board shall have responsibility for establishment, terms of reference, and oversight of any committee of the Society. The members of any such committee shall include designated members of the Executive Board together with any additional Members of the Society as the Executive Board may deem appropriate. The President and Secretary General shall be ex officio members on any committee of the Society.

2024 WCA Congress Committee

Chairs
Professors K Stephan and G. Tavartkiladze

2024 WCA Members

Prof. Hung THAI-VAN



The Congress Committee shall be responsible for oversight of each successive Ordinary Congress or any Extraordinary Congress. The Congress Committee will be responsible for liaison with the President of the Congress on a regular basis, and for any recommendations to the Executive Board on proposed changes to the Guidelines for organisation of the Congress.
The members of the Congress Committee shall be determined by the Executive Board and may include the President of any previous or upcoming Congress.

Nominations Committee

Chair
Professor Astrid Van Wieringen 

Members

To be advised 



Formation of the Nominations Committee (NC)

About three months prior to the upcoming General Assembly (GA), the President-Elect and President should invite three other reputable ISA members from different regions to form a Nominations Committee. Care should be taken in ensuring that countries that are underrepresented in the membership will not be disadvantaged. The President-Elect should be the Chairperson of the NC. Three other members should come from the three regions suggested by the Chairperson and approved by the Executive Board. Members of the NC should be presented with this Guidance Notes and agree to the following: 

1. They accept the terms and conditions listed in this Guidance Notes

2. They will participate fully in the nominations process from the start to the end

3. They will reply to emails sent to them regarding nomination matters within two working days

4. They will not accept nominations or self-nominate to any position of the ISA Executive Board

5. They will declare and avoid conflicts of interests

6. They will keep all information discussed in the NC confidential

Nomination by ISA members

Nomination for President-Elect and Members-at-Large should be carried out at least 5 weeks prior to the GA. The Chairperson of the NC should send an email to all members regarding the nomination process and invite them to nominate or self-nominate appropriate ISA members. Members should be reminded that the nominations are subject review by the NC and approval by the Executive Board (EB).

The letter to members should state:

1. The current member composition of the EB

2. The positions open for nomination

3. A list of past Presidents and a reminder that there should be a preference for the region of the President be rotated across years.

4. That the nominee should have demonstrated leadership, contribution to ISA and global audiology and have been an ISA member for a substantial period of time.

5. The nominee should submit a completed nominee form (Appendix 1) and CV to the Nominations Committee.

Members should be given two weeks to respond and nominate potential candidates.

Consent from nominees

Nominees will have to provide consent to the nomination and to return a nominee form and a CV for members’ consideration and these information must be submitted to the NC within three weeks of the call for nomination. Late nomination or late submission will not be accepted. Nomination with incomplete information will not be accepted.

As an individual should only be nominated for one position only, nominees will have to turn in a nominee form indicating the position they are being nominated for.

Initial considerations by the Nominations Committee

The slate of nominees will be sent to members of the NC for consideration. Members of the NC will be asked to determine whether we have sufficient number of good candidates for each position and whether we need to nominate other candidates.

In the consideration of the list of nominees, members of the NC will be asked to refer to the attached form that we would ask the candidates to fill out (filename: ISA nominee form) and to consider the following qualities as well as to suggest others that could be important to consider: 

1.     Professional standing

2.     Leadership experience

3.     Knowledge of and contribution to Audiology development around the world

4.     Commitment to serve ISA and its community

5.     Knowledge about and commitment in serving ISA

6.     Likely commitment to serve the Board for the term designated (six years for President-Elect and two years for a member-at-large).

7.     Rotation across countries for Member-at-Large within a region.

8.     Rotation across regions for President-Elect. 

To decide whether we have a sufficient slate of nominees, NC should also consider:

1.     Whether a particular country is overrepresented in terms of the number of nominees and how the background of the nominees compare to current EB makeup.

2.     Whether the composition of nominees will address the goal of having the President-Elect rotated across regions.

As prospective members of the Executive Board should be able to show that they are committed to ISA and know ISA well. Nominees of the following membership status should not be considered:

1.   A non-member

2.   A person who becomes member for the first time in the past two years

3.   A person who was formerly a member but has not kept ISA membership current.

Members of the NC will be given two weeks to consider the nominees and raise issues for discussions. Conflicts of interests should be declared and considered.

Decisions from the Nominations Committee

A the end of the two-week period, members of the NC will be asked to vote. As the role of the Nominations Committee is to decide on a slate of suitable candidates and not the best candidates, they will be asked to vote for all nominees whom they think would be suitable. Simple majority vote will be used to determine the slate to be presented to the Executive Board for approval.

Approval from the Executive Board

The slate of nominees who received majority vote from the NC will be sent to the Executive Board for approval. The role of the EB is to raise concerns that the NC have not considered. The EB should also decide on a single candidate to be presented to the GA. Simple majority vote will be used.

Final considerations by the Nominations Committee

After receiving consent from nominees, the NC will be asked to consider the final slate of nominees to determine whether there are sufficient number and representation for each position. Two weeks prior to the Election, this slate of nominees will be posted in the members section of the ISA website for members to access.

Election at the General Assembly

•   Election of EB members will be held by the current President-Elect at the upcoming GA.

•   Further nominations will be allowed at the GA but not encouraged as all members have already been given opportunities to nominate.

•   When there is only one candidate for a Member-at-Large region, there is no need to vote.

•   When there is more than one candidate for a Member-at-Large region, all current members present at the GA will vote and simple majority vote will be used to determine the election results.

•   The President will only cast his/her vote to break a tie.

•   No proxies allowed.

•   Elected members will start their duties immediately.

•   The new EB meeting will be held within 24 hours of the election. The Secretary General of the EB will inform all members about the election results within five working days.

Scholarship Committee

Chair
Professor S Purdy

Members
To be advised

Terms of Reference

It is the goal of the ISA to encourage participation from future student leaders in Global Audiology. Therefore, the ISA is glad to offer student scholarships to allow these student leaders to attend the WCA to share their research findings, to meet and network with fellow students and senior colleagues as well as to be actively engaged in furthering research and services in audiology locally and internationally.  

Composition of the Selection Committee:

1.     The Selection Committee (SC) should be formed not less than six months prior to the upcoming WCA.

2.     The SC should compose of at least one member of the Executive Board (EB) and two other current ISA members.

3.     The member of the EB should be responsible in recruiting the other members.

4.     Members of the SC should be from different geographic areas. They should not have close working relationships with each other (i.e., co-supervision of students who may put in applications)

5.     The members should decide among themselves the Chair of the Selection Committee and assign the work involved in the selection process. 

Call for application:

1.     The SC should update the application form with appropriate information (see Appendix A for the current application form) and the form should be approved by the Executive Board before the call for application.

2.     The SC should obtain information from the General Secretary (GS) of the ISA regarding the number of scholarships to be awarded.

3.     The SC should work with the upcoming Congress Organizers (CO) and to arrange a link from the official website of the WCA to the ISA webpage regarding the application for ISA Scholarships.

4.     The application should be sent to the society manager of the ISA and to the chair of the SC.

5.     The deadline for submission of application should coincide with that of the WCA’s call for abstracts. The announcement of results should be as far ahead of the WCA’s deadline for early registration, so that students could have sufficient time to make arrangement to attend the Conference. 

Eligibility requirements:

Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:

1.     The applicant must be a full time student in an institution of higher learning taking courses in audiology and preferably working towards a degree in audiology or hearing science. Graduates who will be completing their degree in [current year] may also apply; and

2.     The applicant must be a current Student Member of the ISA.

3.     The applicant should have the paper accepted by the organizers of the WCA. If the student has more than one paper accepted by the WCA, s/he should submit only one paper for consideration.

4.     The applicant will provide a brief profile (a photo, name, a brief bio about him/herself and the current research project) for display in the Congress information and/or the ISA website.

5.     The applicant should represent his/her own work and have not been presented or published elsewhere. 

The application:

The student should submit by the application closing date:

1.        The application form duly filled.

2.        A brief profile (a photo, name, a brief bio about him/herself and the current research project) for display in the Congress information and/or the ISA website.

3.     An abstract and a 2 to 3 page description of the research project the applicant wants to submit for inclusion in the WCA Scientific Program. (A description exceeding 3 pages will disqualify the applicant. The description should be presented in Times Roman size 12 font on an A4/letter size paper with 1- inch margins.) The research topic may be either in the field of clinical audiology or in basic audiological science. The description should clearly outline:

a.     The challenge/problem being addressed by the project;

b.     The hypotheses and/or aim of the project;

c.     The methodology that was employed;

d.     The results that have been/will be obtained; and

e.     The discussion surrounding the results

f.     The conclusions drawn from the project, and its significance to audiology.

4.     A letter of recommendation from the research supervisor/advisor.

5.     A short (maximum 100 words) statement of why the applicant believes the scientific paper would be valuable to attend the WCA.

6.     A proof that the paper has been accepted for publication at the relevant WCA, as soon as it becomes available. 

Evaluation of applications:

1.     Only applicants meeting the above criteria and have submitted all required documents, duly completed, will be considered.

2.     The Selection Committee of the International Society of Audiology will judge the applications and determine the scholarship winners.

3.     Although selection will be based on merit, consideration will be given to encouraging scholars representing the worldwide make-up of the International Society of Audiology.

4.     Each SC member should provide brief comments regarding each application. The information will be collated for decision. Should further discussions not result in a commonly acceptable decision, the Chair of the Committee should caste the final vote.

5.     Conflicts of interest should be declared at the beginning of the selection process. The respective member of the SC should refrain from voting or commenting on the respective application. In this case, decisions will be based on the comments of the other two members. 

Selection criteria besides formal requirements/ checklist:

-       Motivation

-       Scientific quality of contribution

-       Relevance of the project (local/ global)

-       Importance of visiting WCA

-       Letter of recommendation 

The award:

1.     There will be not more than five awards for each Congress.

2.     The award should consist of $1500 sponsored by ISA or a donor.

3.     The applicants will be informed of the results of the selection ASAP and normally before the early bird registration deadline of the respective WCA.

4.     Although the OC of the respective WCA is encouraged to assist the scholars in identifying low cost accommodations such as dormitory facilities, this will depend on the circumstances. Scholars are expected to be responsible in securing his/her own accommodation.

5.     Scholars are expected to arrange their own travel and register as a student attendee at the WCA.

6.     Each scholar will sign a letter of acceptance of the award

7.     The selected scholars will present their papers in an ISA Student Scholarship session in the WCA.

8.     The award ($1500, normally in the form of a bank draft or money order) and a certificate will be presented during the General Assembly and in addition, scholars will be acknowledged in the conference reception/dinner, opening or closing ceremony or in a special session, whichever deemed appropriate by the OC of the respective WCA. Scholars are expected to attend the award presentation and acknowledgement sessions.

9.     Only students who have successfully presented their papers during the Conference will be presented with the award. ISA will not be responsible for any bank charges incurred from drawing of the $1500. 

Obligations and responsibilities of scholars:

1.     The selected scholars will sign a letter of acceptance and be abide by the conditions stated in the letter.

2.     The scholars will personally present the accepted paper at the WCA

3.     The scholars will only be able to receive the scholarship after presenting their papers at the Congress. The scholars will sign a receipt.

4.     The scholars are expected to be actively engaged in furthering audiological research and services locally and internationally.

5.     ISA scholars are expected to have provided true information and complied to human ethics requirement of their respective institution and/or country. Failure to comply to these requirements will result in the scholarship being revoked and the scholar is expected to repay ISA the full amount of the scholarship. ISA will not be liable for implications due to untruthful representation of the research.  

After the award:

1.     The SC should provide a brief summary on the outcomes of the selection process and recommendations for future considerations. The summary should be submitted to the Executive Board within two months after the respective WCA.

2.     Any changes to this ToR and matters relevant to the scholarship should be approved by the EB.


Appendix A. Application instructions and form 


Finance Committee

Chair
Professor G. Tavartkiladze

Members
Professors
  • K Stephan
  • L. Hickson
The Finance committee are responsible to the members for all aspects relating to:
  • Annual Audit
  • Banking
  • Revenue and Expenditure
  • Investments
  • Governance 
  • Reporting to the members at the WCA

Communications Committee

Chair
Professor Astrid van Wieringen

Members
Professors
  • L. Hickson
  • D. Tsimpida

The Communications Committee shall be responsible for all print and electronic media activities of the Society, with the exception of the International Journal of Audiology (IJA) which is governed by its own council. The representatives of the International Society of Audiology to the IJA Board shall be appointed by the Executive Board.

The Communications Committee shall monitor communication strategy, where appropriate audit the running of any publication(s) of the society, propose new communications initiatives, and recommend to the Executive Board nominees for editor and/or co-editors of the various publications, including electronic
websites, of the Society.

Contact Us

Mr George Dempster

+44 7895 951871
gd@e2.co.za