{"id":11379,"date":"2018-09-07T13:35:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T12:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation.pdf"},"modified":"2018-09-07T13:35:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T12:35:52","slug":"ga-delegate-orientation-2","status":"inherit","type":"attachment","link":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/seccion-de-miembros\/guias-y-formularios\/ga-delegate-orientation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"GA Delegate Orientation"},"author":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"acf":[],"description":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
\nGENERAL ASSEMBLY DELEGATE
\nORIENTATION GUIDE
\nA ROADMAP THROUGH THE POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND
\nPURPOSE OF THE WMA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
\nOctober 2016 GA Delegate Orientation
\n2
\nINTRODUCTION
\nThis booklet was developed to assist Delegates of the World Medical Association General
\nAssembly to understand the processes of WMA and to guide their participation as effective
\nmembers of the General Assembly.WMA meetings are paperless and all working documents are
\navailable into the WMA website members \u2018area.
\nROLE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
\nThe General Assembly is composed of all WMA constituent members (usually refered to as
\n\u201cNational Medical Associations (NMAs)\u201d. As a delegate to the WMA General Assembly, you have
\nthe privilege and responsibility to take action on behalf of your national medical association on a
\nrange of decisions. WMA Bylaws Chapter IV: General Assembly, Section 2: Responsibilities of
\nthe General Assembly, outline these responsibilities:
\nThe General Assembly shall:
\nA) elect a President of the Association pursuant to the provisions of these Bylaws;
\nB) appoint a place and time at which future meetings of the General Assembly shall be held;
\nC) consider and determine applications for membership;
\nD) consider and act upon the annual dues determined by the Council;
\nE) consider the Annual Financial Statement and the Balance Sheet presented by the Council and
\narrange for such action to be taken thereon as may seem appropriate;
\nF) consider and act upon an estimate of probable income and expenditure (budget) for the next year;
\nG) consider the annual Report of the Council to the General Assembly and motions relating to the
\nadoption of the Report in whole or in part, and arrange for such action to be taken thereon as may
\nseem appropriate;
\nH) instruct the Council concerning initiatives and activities to be undertaken in the pursuit of the
\nobjectives of the Association;
\nI) consider proposed declarations, statements and resolutions that have been approved by the Council
\nfor transmission to the General Assembly;
\nJ) consider and act upon proposals to amend the Bylaws of the World Medical Association, provided
\nthat such proposals are in accordance with the requirements of Chapter X \u2013Amendments;
\nK) consider and act upon such other and further business as may properly come before the meeting.
\nTHE AGENDA OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
\nThe agenda and most documents for the General Assembly are prepared several weeks before the
\nmeeting and provided to all NMAs so that delegates can study them in advance. The \u201cAgenda of
\nthe General Assembly\u201d includes a number of action items, such as election of a president,
\napproval of the minutes from the previous General Assembly, and, perhaps most important,
\nconsideration of the Report of the Council to the WMA General Assembly.
\nThe Report of the Council to the WMA General Assembly provides details on all of the work the
\nCouncil has undertaken since the last Assembly. It is very important to understand that the action
\nitems relating to adopting WMA policy and approving financial documents are contained
\nwithin the Report of the Council to the WMA General Assembly. This report includes sections
\nOctober 2016 GA Delegate Orientation
\n3
\nfor Finance and Planning, Medical Ethics, and Socio-Medical Affairs and each section has action
\nitems for the Assembly. Being familiar with the structure and content of Report of the Council to
\nthe WMA General Assembly is perhaps the most important thing you can do to prepare for the
\nmeeting.
\nThe Report of the Council to the WMA General Assembly has two pieces. The main report is
\nprovided several weeks prior to the Assembly and at the end of the report, you may find the
\nprovisional annex which lists all of the policy and financial documents approved by the Council at
\nits previous council session in April. However, because the Council also meets immediately before
\nthe Assembly, it may approve new documents at that meeting that are not contained in the
\nprovisional annex of the original Report. Any new documents are listed on the \u201cCouncil Report
\nAnnex\u201d, which is provided as soon as the Council finishes its pre-Assembly work. The Annex and
\nthe new policy or financial documents are available on the WMA website and also provided in hard
\ncopy in the meeting room.
\nWhen it is time for the General Assembly to consider the Report of the Council to the General
\nAssembly, and the Annex, the Chair of Council will go through the action items one at a time so
\nthat delegates can discuss and vote on each item. Discussion and voting procedures are described
\nbelow.
\nVOTING IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY: RULES AND PROCESS
\nRules for voting in the General Assembly are described in the WMA Bylaws, Chapter IV, Section
\n6. Voting in the General Assembly. Please read and be familiar with the following rules from the
\nBylaws.
\nA) Each Constituent Member shall be entitled to one vote for each 10,000 physician members, and\/or
\nportion thereof, for which that Constituent Member has paid dues to the World Medical Association.
\nThe delegate or delegates of each Constituent Member present in the General Assembly will cast all
\nof the votes to which the Constituent Member is entitled under these Bylaws. It shall not be necessary
\nto have a separate delegate present in the General Assembly to cast each vote. However, no vote by
\nproxy shall be permitted on behalf of a Constituent Member not in attendance at the meeting.
\nB) Unless otherwise required under the Articles of the Association or these Bylaws, any matter before
\nthe General Assembly shall be adopted by a simple majority of the votes given thereon.
\nC) Proposed Declarations, Statements or Resolutions of the Association determined by the Council to
\nbe matters of medical ethics shall require for adoption the affirmative vote of 3\/4 of the General
\nAssembly delegates present and voting.
\nD) The adoption of any proposal on an urgent matter shall require the affirmative vote of three quarters
\nof the Assembly delegates present and voting.
\nE) A motion to vote by secret ballot shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of the Assembly
\ndelegates present and voting.
\nF) The election of the President shall be decided by secret ballot unless there is only one candidate
\nnominated, in which case election may be by acclamation. If there are more than two candidates for
\nany office, no candidate shall be declared elected unless he or she has received a majority of the
\nvotes cast. If no candidate has received a majority of the votes cast, then the name of the candidate
\nreceiving the smallest number of votes shall be dropped and the remaining candidates shall be voted
\non again until one receives a majority.
\nOctober 2016 GA Delegate Orientation
\n4
\nThe process used to manage discussion and voting in all WMA meetings is based on standard
\nparliamentary procedure. While the exact processes used in each organization may vary, most
\norganizations apply some version of these rules to make decisions. The process is described
\nbelow:
\n\u2022 Any delegate can make a motion.
\n\u2022 That motion must be seconded by another delegate.
\n\u2022 Once a motion has been seconded, the Chair will invite discussion.
\n\u2022 After the discussion is finished, or if there is no discussion, the Chair will ask for
\ndelegates to vote by raising the cards provided by the Secretariat that indicate the number
\nof votes to which the NMA is entitled. The Chair will begin by asking for a count of
\nthose \u201cFor\u201d the motion, then those \u201cAgainst\u201d the motion and then those who \u201cAbstain\u201d
\nfrom voting.
\n\u2022 The votes will be counted and the Chair will announce whether the motion is passed or
\ndefeated.
\nFor detailed information on the parliamentary procedures of the WMA, please see the Rules of
\nProcedure for all Deliberative Bodies of the World Medical Association, which can be
\nobtained from the WMA website. If you have questions about the process during the meeting,
\nask the Chair to explain. An Assembly orientation session, opened to all WMA representatives,
\nis organised right before the General Assembly session and is dedicated to explain in details the
\nWMA procedures. The WMA values all of its members and wants everyone to understand what
\nis happening so that they are able to vote effectively.
\nA summary of the Rules of Procedure for all Deliberative bodies is available onto the website:
\nhttps:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Overview-of-WMA-Parliamentary-
\nProcedures-v1.pdf in French, Spanish and English.
\nMEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIO-MEDICAL AFFAIRS POLICY PROCESS
\nWhile the responsibility to adopt policy lies with the General Assembly, the responsibility for
\ndevelopment of WMA policy falls largely to the Council and its Committees, with input from all
\nWMA members. By the time a proposed policy is presented to the General Assembly for
\nadoption, it will have been circulated to NMAs for input (sometimes several times), undergone
\nmultiple reviews and revisions by the relevant Committee, and received the approval of the
\nCouncil. It is important to understand this process so that you can ensure your organization is
\nparticipating in policy development throughout the year.
\nThe workflow for a policy document normally entails the following basic steps:
\n1. A document is submitted to the Secretariat by a constituent member in one of the three
\nofficial languages of WMA (French, Spanish or English). The Secretariat evaluates the
\ndocument, translates it into the other languages, and assigns it to the proper Council
\ncommittee.
\n2. The document receives initial consideration by the Committee at its next meeting. In most
\ncases, the Committee will recommend that the document be circulated to NMAs for
\ncomments. All NMAs are encouraged to review the document and provide input. By doing
\nso, each WMA member has the opportunity to influence the content of the document.
\nOctober 2016 GA Delegate Orientation
\n5
\n3. The comments are reviewed and compiled by the Secretariat and a revised document is
\nprepared. (This function may be commissioned by the Chair of Council to a rapporteur or
\nworkgroup.) The Committee considers the revised proposal, often making further changes
\nand, when necessary, re-circulating the document for further comments from NMAs. This
\nprocess often takes between one and three years to complete. Once the Committee agrees that
\nthe document is ready, it will submit the proposed policy to the Council with the
\nrecommendation that it be approved and forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption.
\n4. The Council considers the recommendation of the Committee to approve the document. By
\nthe time this happens, there has been so much work, consultation, and debate on the paper
\nthat it should reflect the majority viewpoint and the Council will approve the document and
\nforward it to the General Assembly with a recommendation that it be adopted. Sometimes,
\nhowever, the Council decides that further work is required and returns the document to the
\nCommittee.
\nThe above description of the WMA policy process is not exhaustive. Most policy proposals are
\nhandled in this way, but sometimes the Committee or the Council will decide to take a different
\napproach.
\n\uf0a7\uf0a7\uf0a7
\n06.10.2017<\/p>\n"},"caption":{"rendered":"

WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY DELEGATE ORIENTATION GUIDE A ROADMAP THROUGH THE POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND PURPOSE OF THE WMA GENERAL ASSEMBLY October 2016 GA Delegate Orientation 2 INTRODUCTION This booklet was developed to assist Delegates of the World Medical Association General Assembly to understand the processes of WMA and to guide their participation as effective […]<\/p>\n"},"alt_text":"","media_type":"file","mime_type":"application\/pdf","media_details":{"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-106x150.jpg","width":106,"height":150,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-106x150.jpg"},"medium":{"file":"GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-212x300.jpg","width":212,"height":300,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-212x300.jpg"},"large":{"file":"GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-725x1024.jpg","width":725,"height":1024,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf-725x1024.jpg"},"full":{"file":"GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf.jpg","width":1059,"height":1496,"mime_type":"application\/pdf","source_url":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation-pdf.jpg"}}},"post":1026,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/GA-Delegate-Orientation.pdf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11379"}]}}