November 2002
ICO Secretariat

Guidelines for application for ICO membership

• This document is availble as a 152K PDF

The ICO welcomes membership application from bodies that are representative of optical science and engineering communities in identified geographical territories. ICO member territories may not overlap. They often correspond to countries, but in some cases it is appropriate to have several territories for one country or one territory for several countries.

Although, of course, an ICO membership application involves some administration, it usually consists of one to three pages. It may in some cases, however, require prior registration of the applicant territorial committee under local rules. The present guidelines are intended to facilitate the procedure.

The following attached documents together give full information about the procedures applicable:

1. ICO Statutes (new version, approved August 1999, for more detail see articles 3a and 4 of ICO Statutes on the ICO web site)
2. ICO Rules and Codes of Practice (for more detail, see article 2 of ICO Rules and Codes of Practice on the ICO web site)
3. list of IUPAP members with membership category.

In addition, the following documents may be sent upon request by the ICO Secretariat: information about ICSU and the free circulation of scientists, ICO history, selection of recent issues of the ICO Newsletter, sample Territorial Committee statutes, addresses of IUPAP member Committees. The ICO web site, www.ico-optics.org , and the IUPAP web site, www.iupap.org, together have essentially all of this information.

Completed applications should be sent to the ICO Secretariat (address above). In any event, early contacts are most welcome for most efficient action.

One frequent question is how to set up the Territorial Committee organization; this will often imply establishing statutes. Short but precise statutes are usually appropriate. The following guidelines should in general suffice:

• the statutes should make sure that the ICO Member Territorial Committee is representative of the whole Community of Opticists in the Territory and that it maintains close contact with it ;
• there should be an executive board, consisting for example of a chairperson and a secretary and/or a treasurer, with well defined rules for their appointment in relation with the Opticists in the Territory and term of office ;
• if there is a territorial optical society with individual members in the territory (or a physics society with an optical division), it is often a good solution to have the leadership of the society (division) automatically serve as Territorial Committee ; if there is no such society, the newly established committee may consider taking up the initiative of organizing any territorial meetings, schools, seminars, exhibits,... that appear appropriate. Another good solution is to establish a subcommittee of the IUPAP Liaison Committee in the Territory if it exists.

As a suggestions to help with the process, appendix 4 has a sample for an application letter in its simplest form, requiring no special statutes aside those included in the letter itself.

In 2002-2005, the annual unit membership fee is US$150. The number of units depends on the country and is the same for ICO as for IUPAP whenever a given Territory is a member of both organizations. The appended table gives the number of units for IUPAP and ICO members.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

With best regards,
Maria-Luisa Calvo, Secretary, ICO

Appendix 1. From the ICO Statutes

Article 3 Membership

The Commission has three categories of Members.

3a) Territorial Committee Members, that represent identified optics communities in a set of non overlapping geographical areas. A Territorial Committee Member should be listed under a name that avoids any misunderstanding about the area represented. The word "territory" does not imply any political position on the part of the Commission, which seeks to assist scientists in optics everywhere in the world to co-operate on an international level. Each Territorial Committee should receive endorsement of the appropriate authority representing science in its territory, such as an Academy of Science. In addition, it should either (a) be a subcommittee of the body representing the Member in IUPAP, (b) be recognised by the body representing the Member in IUPAP, or (c) if no such body exists be recognised by the council of IUPAP.

3b) International Organisation members. Such members are membership organisations active in the field of Optics on an international level.

3c) The Commission may also accept organisations active in optics as Associate Members. Associate Members pay no dues and have no voting privileges.

Application for all categories of membership shall be made to the Secretary of the Commission and submitted to the next General Meeting for approval. Applications in the Territorial Committee Member and Associate Member categories may be approved by the Bureau, subject to ratification at the next General Meeting of the Commission.

Article 4 Shares and votes

Each member of ICO has a specified number of shares, which determines its financial contribution as well as its number of votes at the General Meeting.

4a) Each Territorial Committee member whose territory is also a member of IUPAP has the same number of shares, N_s1, in ICO as it has in IUPAP. The number of votes N_v1, which is also the maximum number of voting delegates of the Territorial Committee Member, is determined according to the IUPAP scale, which presently reads as follows:

4b) The number of shares N_s2 of an International Organisation Member is determined in agreement with ICO during the Membership admission procedure†; it may be changed following the same procedures as for membership admission. The International Organisation Members are represented by one voting representative carrying a number of votes N_v2 proportional to the number of shares N_s2 of the member determined in such a way that the total number of votes of all International Organisation Members cannot exceed that of all Territorial Committee Members. The exact method for determining N_v2 is included in the Rules and Codes of Practice.

Appendix 2. From the ICO Rules and Codes of Practice.

2 - Membership:

Application

This section complements article 3 of the statutes.

The following are normally provided by a Territorial Committee applying for full membership:

1. if the Territory is represented in IUPAP, a statement from the president of the body representing the Territory in IUPAP, that the Territorial Committee is authorised by that body to represent optical scientists and engineers of that Territory within ICO ; if it is not, a motion to the same effect from a local scientific authority (Ministry, Academy, Council of Research,....) ;
2. a letter of application signed by the chair person or representative of the applicant Territorial Committee, including a statement of adherence of the Territorial Committee to the ICO Statutes ;
3. a description of the organisation of the Territorial Committee, including the number of members, their designation procedure, their term of office, and the procedures that are set up to ensure a good representation of the optics community within the territory. If the Territory is not a member of IUPAP, the Territorial Committee and the ICO Secretary or Associate Secretary shall jointly take the necessary steps to request approval of the Territorial Committee by the council of IUPAP.

The application of a Territory for Associate Membership in ICO shall be made to the Secretary. It may be considered and approved by the Bureau. At the next General Meeting, the decision shall be made

• either, subject to the desire of the applicant, to transform the associate membership into regular membership,
• or to extend the associate membership until the next General Meeting,
• or to terminate the associate membership.

In the case of a Territorial Committee applying for Associate Membership, item a) is required if the Territory is represented in IUPAP ; item b) is always required.

The following are normally provided by an International Organisation Member applying for membership (whether as full member or as associate member, except for the number of shares, that applies only to full members):

a) a letter of application signed by the President or its duly appointed representative, mentioning approval by the appropriate bodies in the Organisation, expressing adherence to the ICO Statutes, and including a proposition for the number of shares ;

b) a description of the operation of the Organisation, as provided for example by its bylaws, statutes, rules and codes of practice.

Organisation and duties of territorial Committees

The Territorial Committees normally have members elected or designated by some agreed procedure, with a well defined term of office; it is usually convenient for them to have a bureau or at least a chairperson; their organisation secures in all cases:

• a fair representation of the optics community in the Territory ;
• approval and support of the scientific authorities of the Territory (Ministry, Academy, council of Research,...).

The ICO Bureau may at any time request information from the Territorial Committees about their organisation as described above.

Territorial committees maintain mailing lists of at least an extensive representative subset of the optics community in the territory. They will include in the mailing list any bona fide scientist with an address in their Territory and requesting to be included. They distribute at no charge to ICO any document sent to them in an appropriate quantity either by the ICO bureau or on its behalf. This applies in particular to the ICO Newsletter and to the Meetings and Schools with ICO participation.

Appendix 3. List of IUPAP member Committees

(source: www.iupap.org, where address details and the latest updates can be found)

(The IUPAP member Committees are known as « Liaison Committees »). ICO Territorial Committee information is provided for comparison.

Appendix 4) Sample for a minimal application letter

Draft: application for membership in the International Commission for Optics.

to the ICO Bureau, c.o. M.L. Calvo, Secretary, ICO.

Dear Sir/Madam:

we are pleased to apply herewith for membership of the (country/territory) Committee for Optics in the International Commission for Optics. The application is in the category "Territorial Committee Members" and corresponds to x unit shares. The membership fees will be paid by....

The Territorial Committee for Optics is established as part of / in association with the (country/territory) Physical society according to the following rules (please adjust to the case ; if there is no Physical society or if no relations are established, the Territorial Committee for Optics may be independent but it must make sure to reach the community of optical science and engineering in the territory):

1. The Committee will consist of all members of the Physical Society who request to be members of the Territorial Committee for Optics. No additional fee will be requested
2. It is governed by a Board elected by the members (or appointed by the Physical Society Leadership, or any other rule) and consisting of
   • one President, who will receive all correspondance and be in charge of organizing any local activity of the Committee and of organizing the representation of the Committee in the ICO General Meeting
   • one Vice-President, who will replace the president if needed and may be appointed to take care of specific issues
     (add other Board members such as Secretary, Treasurer, etc., as appropriate).

For a first term, starting on (date), the Board will be composed as follows:

(list of names)

The term of office is three years (for example) ; membership in the board is renewable up to a maximum duration of ... years.

The following measures will be taken to make sure that the Territorial Committee for Optics is representative of the Optical Science and Engineering Community in the Territory: (complete to provide evidence of contacts with universities, government laboratories, private research institutions and industrial laboratories, as appropriate to the local situation).

The Territorial Committee for Optics has been authorized to represent the country/territory at ICO by ... (name of the governmental or government appointed body in charge ; in France, the Academy of Science appoints this kind of Territorial Committees, in some other countries the ministry of Science or the National Science Council is the appropriate body).

The Territorial Committee for Optics herewith agrees to comply with the ICO Statutes and to comply with the rules concerning the free circulation of scientists established by the International Council of Science, ICSU (www/lmcp.jussieu.fr:icsu).

Signed:
xx, President, Physical Society
xx, President, Territorial Committee for Optics
Approved:
Xx, representative of appropriate government agency.