Updates from the Board of Directors

Requesting Nominations for New Members of the AISL Board of Directors! Having postponed our election in May due to COVID-19, the Board of Directors is planning to hold an annual Election General Meeting (EGM) on 23 September.  We anticipate three vacancies on the board for the 2020-21 school year. According to the school’s Articles of Association, one of these vacancies is for a member who is affiliated with the U.S. government (employee or spouse). The other two vacancies are open to any school parent.  Please consider nominating yourself or someone you know. Nominees must submit an updated CV and a one or two paragraph biographical statement that can be shared in the Leopard’s Tale by 7 September. Please send nominations to board@aislusaka.org.
  
Revised Articles of Association and By-Laws! After a thorough review by the Board of Directors’ Governance Committee, the Board has recommended that we revise the schools Articles of Association and By-Laws. The changes to these documents were discussed in our AISL community meeting on 9 June, and have been posted on the Board of Director’s section of the Parent Portal for community review. The Board will hold an online Extraordinary General Meeting (XGM) on Thursday, 10 September for an additional discussion of the revised drafts and a vote on their ratification. You can join the meeting by clicking here.  As per the Articles of Association and the By-Laws, ratification will require support from two-thirds of the association members (i.e. parents and legal guardians of AISL students) who are present at the meeting. Feel free to send any comments or questions to the board at board@aislusaka.org.

In summary, the proposed revision includes:

• Improved formatting and clearer language in several areas, including the functions of the board and duties of its officers
• Increased flexibility for the Board in the scheduling of meetings across the year
• Expanded quorum requirement from 4 to 5 board members, for meeting and voting purposes
• Flexibility to use electronic balloting for decisions by the Parent Association
• Clarified authority for the Board to postpone elections/extend board member terms in extenuating circumstances, with the approval of the U.S. Ambassador
• Requirement for board members to declare Conflicts of Interest (this was previously in Board Policy but not the By-Laws)