Bylaw 600 – A Bylaw respecting Open Governance
The Vice President Communications and Student Governance Officers are responsible for enacting Bylaw 600 on regular operational basis.
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Definitions
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International Students: Students currently holding a valid study permit and paying the international students’ differential fees at the University of Alberta.
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Domestic Students: Students who are not paying international students’ differential fees.
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Councils: The Graduate and Undergraduate Councils of International Students’ Association.
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Chancellors: The Graduate and Undergraduate Chancellors of ISA-G and ISA-U respectively.
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ISA Board (ISA-B): The Executive Committee of the International Students’ Association (ISA). It consists of,
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the President of the International Students’ Association (ISA);
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Vice Presidents of the International Students’ Association (ISA);
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the Chancellors of the Councils;
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Department: ISA shall have seven departments with a Vice President leading each department.
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Councillor: Every elected member of the council with voting right.
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ISA Legislature: Constitution and Bylaws of ISA are considered as ISA legislature and they should be used to govern the framework/operations of ISA.
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Internal Communication: Any email sent to members of the council is considered as internal communication.
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External Communication: Any email sent to a non-member of the council is considered as an external communication.
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Classification
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Documents can be classified into the following categories:
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Public: Available to any general member and posted on the ISA website. The Following are public by default:
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Meeting minutes
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Official statements
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ISA Legislature
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Meeting Schedule and names of the members.
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Internal: Available to members of the Council by default. In-camera session minutes are by-default internal.
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Strictly Internal: Available to the ISA Board members by default. Meeting minutes with any external organization are by-default strictly internal.
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Confidential: Available to the intended recipient only. The documents containing email IDs or personal information of the members of the ISA are also considered confidential.
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Confidentiality policy
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Only the net outcome of the votes conducted in any ISA meeting is public, however, votes casted by individual members are confidential and are only available to the Chair of the meeting;
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All emails sent to the ISA are confidential to board members, if they contain a confidentiality statement/clause;
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All emails sent to any ISA email ID’s are available to all ISA Board members and are considered as strictly internal;
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All official ISA documents shall be on the ISA letterhead;
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Every ISA Council/board/director/coordinator member shall sign the confidentiality policy of the ISA known as Non-Disclosure Agreement,
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The violation of Bylaw 600 shall lead to a bad standing; and,
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ISA shall bcc people on the mass emails to protect that recipient email addresses.
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Right to information
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Documents can be accessed in the following manner based on their classification:
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Public: Available to any general member and posted on the ISA website. No request is needed to access public documents.
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Internal: Available to members of the Council by default. In-camera session minutes are by-default internal.
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Strictly Internal: Available to the ISA Board members by default. Meeting minutes with any external organization are by-default strictly internal.
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Confidential: Available to the intended recipient only. The documents containing email IDs or personal information of the members of the ISA are also considered confidential.
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All right to information requests shall be handled by the Student Governance Officers of the ISA.
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Contracts and Agreements
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Any strictly confidential contract or agreement shall be approved by the ISA Board prior to the President signing it.
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Any agreement classified as strictly confidential shall be made on a balance of probability as to whether or not such information contained therein is of such a nature as to warrant the limitation of ISA members’ right to access information.
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Contracts shall be made available to the ISA’s council members upon their request and signing of the confidentiality agreement. The ISA can hide the sensitive content of the contract.
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Agreements signed with the University, SU or GSA shall require council’s approval.
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No force or effect
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Any decision of the ISA’s Councils/board that conflicts with the federal or provincial statute, common law, or traditional law and/or practices is of no force or effect.
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Any decision that violates the constitution or the bylaws, is of no force or effect.