At the ECCT's Annual General Meeting held on 1 December 2017, Regular ECCT members unanimously approved proposals made by the ECCT's 2017 Board of Directors to change the ECCT's constitution. The reasons for and a summary of the changes are outlined below.

Reason for the changes

Three types of changes to the constitution were made: changes in substance, sequence and in grammar.

• Changes in substance were made in response to a request by the Ministry of Interior to either change the chamber's current procedures or to update the constitution. The changes to the constitution will allow the chamber to maintain existing procedures in a manner, which is clear and transparent.
• The current sequence in certain articles is unclear and at times confusing. Sequence changes do not change the substance.
• English grammatical errors. Minor changes have been made to improve clarity, consistency and grammar. Grammatical changes do not change the substance.

A summary of just the main changes are listed here below:

SUBSTANCE

Articles 7 & 30
The changes will ensure that the membership categories are clear and consistent with our current practise and membership structure. Previously the way the various types of membership were listed in Article 7 was not consistent with Article 30, which confused the terms "regular" and "associate" members. Changes to the wording of the membership types and subtypes for clarity are as follows: There are 3 types of members: Regular, Associate and Honorary. Under the category Regular, there are 3 subcategories: Regular Full Corporate, Regular Limited Corporate and Regular Individual. Under the category Associate, there are 5 subcategories: Associate Full Corporate, Associate Limited Corporate, Associate Individual, Overseas and Non-Government Organisations.

Article 17
The procedure to elect vice chairpersons and executive directors stated in the previous version of the constitution was inaccurate and not in line with the standard practice the chamber has used in the past.

The changes remove reference to the election process of the executive directors from the constitution and only refer to the election of the chairman. Instead of a reference in the constitution, the executive director election process has instead been set out in a by-law. This change will have no material impact on the board or how the chairman and the executive directors are elected. In practice, the process of choosing vice chairpersons and executive directors will remain unchanged.

SEQUENCE

Article 7
The order of the membership types in Article 7 in the current constitution is not consistent with Article 30. The revised version of the Constitution therefore lists Full Corporate first, followed by Limited Corporate and Individual (both in the Regular Members and Associate Members) sections.

Article 30
Previously, the order of the amount of initiation fees and membership fees was:
Regular members: sixty seven thousand five hundred NT dollars and five representatives to be elected

The revised sequence and wording are as follows:
Regular Full Corporate Members and five representatives: Sixty seven thousand five hundred NT dollars

The sequence has been changed for all of the various categories as indicated above.

New ECCT By-law (approved by the ECCT Board of Directors on 23 August 2017)

As mentioned in Article 17 above, instead of a reference in the Constitution, the process to elect vice chairpersons and executive directors has been set out in a new By-law. The full text of the By-law is as follows:

Process for electing ECCT Executive Directors

ECCT By-law
Executive Directors
Following the election of the Chairperson by the Board of Directors, the Chairperson shall nominate four directors, including two Vice-Chairpersons, to serve as executive directors. The executive directors nominated by the Chairperson shall be subject to the approval of the Board of Directors at the board meeting in the month following the Annual General Meeting.
Whenever the position of one of the executive directors becomes vacant, the Chairperson shall nominate a replacement before the end of the following month. The Chairperson's nomination shall be subject to the approval of the Board of Directors.
Proposed changes, amendments or the cancellation of this by-law will require at least 10 votes in favour in a board of directors meeting in order to take effect.