Consisting of Sylvie Marshall, Mark Pearce and Monique van den Dries

At the ABM in Riva del Garda (2009) it was proposed to add a student representative to the board. The board suggested at the ABM in The Hague (2010) to attribute responsibility for student affairs to a Board member. It was suggested at the ABM however, to appoint an actual representative who is elected as such.

The temporary working group that was created to prepare a proposal for a statutes amendment, discussed the various pros and cons of the options. Despite the fact that everybody agrees that it is very important to stimulate student involvement, there was no consensus on the way to achieve this. Therefore, the working group has come up with three options. These are:

1. to change the statutes according to the suggestions provided in Appendix I;

The main arguments are:
- to make sure that students become involved in EAA-matters; now students are not on the board or the other committees, as it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a student to gain the support of the professional archaeologists in the association, particularly since many of the students are under the supervision of those other members as their professors etc. 
- to make sure that their interests are better represented; the association is not currently seen by students as representing their interests or offering them any useful benefit to being a member. Students need to see the EAA as relevant to them. At present, the low number of student members and even lower active participation by them, indicates that this is not the case. 
- treating students as a 'special interest' group with particular needs, is not a new concept.  The EAA just needs to embrace the concept. 

2. not to change the statutes;

The main arguments are:
- there are already various opportunities for students, as being ordinary members, to take part in EAA-activities and to enter the board. It is for instance possible for student members to nominate their follow students. Each year more than 100 students join the annual meeting, so there should be enough people to support a nomination. About the same amount of people vote, so if it is being organised that students vote (and the message is being communicated to students), the chance is rather high that a student is elected. Presumably many members would even like to see more young people on the board, so they even may end up with many votes. 
- as a principle, EAA has no special interest groups represented at the board. To abolish this principle would mean that other interest groups can demand a special treatment too;
- there are various organisational difficulties involved in a statutes change: for instance it is very difficult to define 'a student' on an European level. It has to be defined though if this person represents this group. And he/she must be replaced once he/she stops being a student. Moreover, students would have to serve equal terms (3 years), but many students are hardly interested already in the first year to become a board member (of any board). So, there is a big chance that part of their term they are not a student anymore and then they have to be replaced. 

3. to create a committee that will stimulate student involvement according to the suggestions given in appendix II. 

The main arguments are:
- there is no indication that only a (problematic) statutes change will help to improve student involvement: it has not been tried before to involve students better through less problematic ways, i.e. by improving communication and by improving facilities for communication (through a committee);
- the creation of a committee can be effectuated fairly soon (as opposed to awaiting a change of statutes - which probably will not be accepted at the next ABM as there is no consensus on this issue).
- creating a committee is a flexible solution: the effects can be evaluated after a while: if these are not satisfying, additional measurements (like a statutes change) may still be considered. 
 

Appendix I: Suggestions to change the EAA-Statutes and EAA-Handbook

1. Change in article IV (Organisation), part 3:

"The board shall consist of three or four officers and six ordinary members."
into: "The board shall consist of three or four officers and six ordinary members. 
The board preserves one chair of the six ordinary board members for a student representative."

The alternative is to change "The board shall consist of three or four officers and six ordinary members."
into: "The board shall consist of three or four officers and seven ordinary members. 
The board preserves one chair of the seven ordinary board members for a student representative."

Issues for the board to decide on:

Does the board/membership want to create an extra chair or preserve one chair of the 
ordinary board members for a student representative? 

An extra chair in the board means additional costs, one chair for the student representative 
obviously means there will be one ordinary board member less to take up non-student 
specific tasks.

In the latter case, this representative is considered an ordinary board member and as such, 
all other rules and regulations of the statutes and handbook are applicable to this person. If it is added as a special member, in all another regulations it has to be specified whether this rule applies to this member or not. Moreover, it has consequences for the voting procedure within the board.

2. Definition of student

The student representative on the board will be the only member that actually represents a particular group from within the European archaeological community. Therefore it is important that this person is actually part of this group. The question is whether this needs to be secured in the statutes. It could be done by adding a definition:

The student representative is a person who can demonstrate (through a subscription or invoice) to be studying at a university or other institution for higher education, in order to get a bachelor or master degree.

Issues for the board to decide on: 

Many students study and work and some even have already retired. Can they represent students as well? Is there an age restriction? Should all kinds of students (full time - part time - contract education?) be allowed to represent this group?

And what about PhD's. They are in many countries not considered to be a student, because they earn a living through a university appointment or through funding.
(how is it being checked that a member is a student and pays a reduced fee? Maybe we can use the same criteria?)

It is of course possible to keep is simple and to experience first what happens without these specifications being made and only to make further arrangements if this turns out to be necessary.

3. Term

As students actually represent a particular group, they preferably are part of this group (see 2). But students may finish their studies within the period that they serve. Is this considered a problem? If not, no additional regulation has to be added to the Statutes. The term is only three years. It should in any case be checked by the Nomination Committee whether a candidate for election will still be a student and is expected to be a student for a while, at the time the elections will be held. 

If this is considered a problem, it has to be organised that they resign once they are not a student anymore. This then will have to be defined in the Statutes. In the Statutes it can be added to article IV (Organisation), part 4:

When the student representative is no longer entitled to subscribe to the association as a student member, he/she can no longer represent students in the board. This representative will  be replaced after the following elections. 

4. Nomination
The nomination and election procedure for this student representative is the same as for other candidates. No statute changes are required.

It could be considered to add in the EAA-handbook that the candidates turn in a demonstration of their subscription as a student together with their candidate statement. (which is not to be made publicly).
 

Appendix II: suggestions for creating a Committee for Student affairs

Student involvement could be promoted through the creation of a Student Affairs Committee. This committee could transmit issues that need to be discussed by the board, and could stimulate students to actively take part in all EAA-activities to which they are entitled as they are full members.
The chair of this committee and the other members should be students and could be nominated by the student members of EAA. Nominations could be called via email/Facebook etc, stipulating that to be nominated for a position on the committee, any nominee must first be/become a member of the EAA.
It needs to be considered whether a special regulation for election is needed (which differs from the guidelines in the EAA-handbook).

The committee could select a board member to become their liaison.

Once established, the committee's role should be to draw up an action plan to stimulate students to become much more involved in EAA-activities. There are numerous possibilities, like including a student day with student sessions at the annual meeting, a student entry at the website, a dedicated part in the newsletter, etc. Then it could broadcast via email/Facebook/Academia etc the benefits of being a member of EAA, and offer some stimulus for doing so. 

In order to implement a student Committee, it needs to be added to the EAA-handbook in Part II, article 3B (Non-Statutory Committees). 

Moreover, in the EAA-handbook Guidelines for the executive board, under the heading Committees and Working Parties it can be specified that there is a special guideline for the liaison between the Student Affairs Committee and one of the board members.