Letter from WAPOR President (December 2024)
Note: This document was translated from English into many different languages. In case of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the English version and any other translation, the English version shall always prevail.
Video from WAPOR President (December 2024): https://youtu.be/LFiS-HJyf0U?si=qcm0hNeULr31_z_o
Time flies! This is my 22nd President’s Letter to our dear Members, and most likely to be the last one using this format.
I started my presidency with a Joint Presidents’ Letter straddling 2023 co-written by Tim Johnson and me, I will end my presidency with another Joint Letter straddling 2025 to be co-written by me and Christian Haerpfer, our next President.
After posting my Joint Letter with Tim in January 2023, I spent my first 100 days in office consulting members and consolidating ideas, one of which was to increase the frequency of our Presidents’ Letters to once per month. I stayed on course up to now, and I would like to thank all of you for bearing with me. Starting from July this year, inspired and impressed by members’ support for the creation and donation of short videos on Humanity, I started to add a two-minute President’s Video to each of my President’s Letter. The one you see here is my sixth video.
Yes, it is not yet time to bid farewell. We have one more Council Meeting in mid-December, and there are tons of reports and year plans to be discussed. What is more, along with the resolution of our recent constitutional crisis, Tim and I have pledged to provide as much support to our next President Christian as possible, because he has so kindly agreed to shorten his “apprenticeship as a Vice President (VP)” to only one month, in order to help us resolve our crisis in the easiest and most legitimate way. This I need to explain more, in order to clear up some doubts among some members.
I will not repeat what I wrote in my last President’s Letter, I will start from November 28, the day when our annual election ended. Any open discussion after that date would not have affected our election in any way.
On November 28, about one hour after the close of poll, all Executive Council (ExCo) members were notified by our Secretariat of the election results. Tim as the Chair of our Electoral Committee (EC) then informed all candidates individually of the results, followed quickly by a bulkmail issued by our Secretariat to all members, adding an announcement/reminder that a Consultation Meeting with members would be held on November 30. Everything worked according to a tight schedule set by the ExCo at its meeting on November 18, but it was tough.
The issue at stake was: The post of VP for 2025-26 was open for nomination in mid-September, but the post of VP for 2023-24 suddenly became vacant in late October after nomination was closed. According to our Constitution, the President has a duty to fill the vacancy “giving first consideration to the next candidates receiving the most votes at the time of [the previous] election”, and there is no provision for any by-election for any post. A more important point is that our Constitution has also not spelled out the engagement of any other body – whether ExCo, Council, EC, or even the general membership. Usual expressions like “with the advice/consent/approval of so and so” are completely absent, so it seems not right for the President to shift this responsibility to anybody else, although it can be argued that the President is always answerable to the Council which in turn is answerable to the membership. In such a case, constitutional experts would say that we should observe the spirit of representative democracy, and spare members from spending unnecessary time on deliberating on matters which they may not know enough. I respect this school of thought, but I needed to ascertain very carefully the breadth and depth of such mandates conferred to me and our leadership under our existing Constitution.
Had I taken the very simple approach in late October to appoint Christian as VP, since he was “the next candidates receiving the most votes at the time of [the previous VP] election”, EC will have to ask him to withdraw his candidature from this year’s VP election, thereby deprived him of the opportunity to gain a stronger and more direct mandate this year. Moreover, it will also become impracticable if not impossible for EC to find enough candidates to compete for this year’s VP election, given that there was only a few days left. Going for an uncontested VP election or delaying that election beyond November 1 are both unconstitutional. There is also no “withdrawal mechanism” prescribed in our procedures, and preventing a colleague from seeking a new mandate may bring more harm than good to the association. I had therefore deferred the appointment of VP until the election is over.
Meanwhile, I received many well-thought suggestions from many caring members, including the elevation of our Secretary-Treasurer to fill the vacancy (which would in turn induce the elevation of another Council Member to fill the new vacancy, and yet another member to fill the Council post), asking the incumbent President and Past President to stay on for one or two more years, or to split the two-year term between the staying-on and incoming Presidents. We also heard suggestions that we could invite some former Presidents to come back, or to split the next two years among the incumbent Past President, incumbent President, and the new President.
While some of these suggestions are very persuasive, most of them seem to have infringed our Constitution in one way or another. For the few which do not, we still face the problems of election dyssynchronization and shortened apprenticeship for the new President. Needless to say, every option requires the acceptance of every individual at stake, and everyone has the right to refuse, or to resign after serving a while. Legality and practicality go hand in hand.
After considering all possibilities, at the Consultation Meeting held on November 30, I presented the following 5 motions to the membership, plus the question of holding or not holding a referendum:
Motion 1
Notwithstanding apparent contradictions with the WAPOR Constitution, the President appoints one Former President (including the incumbent Past President) to become VP by the end of 2024, and that person becomes the President in 2025 for no more than 12 months, but in case no Former President is willing to serve, this motion will be invalidated.
Motion 2
Notwithstanding apparent contradictions with the WAPOR Constitution, the President appoints one Former President (including the incumbent Past President) to become VP by the end of 2024, and that person becomes the President for 2025-26, but in case no Former President is willing to serve, this motion will be invalidated.
Motion 3
Notwithstanding apparent contradictions with the WAPOR Constitution, the service of the incumbent President and Past President shall be extended for no more than 12 months.
Motion 4
Notwithstanding apparent contradictions with the WAPOR Constitution, the service of the incumbent President and Past President shall be extended for no more than 24 months.
Motion 5
The President appoints the winner of the VP election of 2024 to become VP by the end of 2024, and that person will become the President for 2025-26, while the runner-up of the VP election will be appointed by the new President as VP in 2025-26.
I also explained that Motion 5 is the only option which does not require any amendment to our existing Constitution, thus the qualification of “notwithstanding apparent contradictions with the WAPOR Constitution” does not appear in the motion. If adopted, no former or incumbent President will need to stay in the Council one day longer than six-years.
A total of 35 members attended the Consultation Meeting, including 6 Council Members. There is no doubt that Motion 5 was the majority view, although many supplementary qualifications and long-term concerns were also raised. Most important of all, our VP-elect Christian had also agreed to follow this decision if it is adopted.
Immediately after the Meeting, I as the President quickly moved the following motion to the Council: “The President appoints Christian Haerpfer as Vice President to fill the vacancy left by David Jodice without the need to hold a referendum.” The motion was seconded by our Past President, and the Council quickly voted in favour of it unanimously. Christian subsequently accepted the appointment on December 1, and the ordeal was finally over! Christian is now our VP and will proceed to become our President on January 1, 2025. Christian is in fact no stranger to us, he has served our Council as Liaison Chair before, and had also been a member of our Electoral and Award Committees. It was not his wish to become President so soon in 2025, but he is willing to make some sacrifice in order to help us resolve the crisis. I am deeply grateful to him.
Likewise, I feel deeply grateful to all members who had participated in this year’s election as candidates, nominators or voters. Let me congratulate all winners of the election, and more earnestly, thank all colleagues who had competed in the election but did not win. Being nominated for the election is a great honour, staying with us after the election as an active supporter is even more admirable and respectable.
As WAPOR grows bigger and stronger, there will be many more openings in our Council, committees, task forces, chapter leadership and honorary positions. We need more supporters, so please stay with us, while we together turn all challenges into opportunities.
Humbly yours,
Robert Chung
WAPOR President