President IALT
Letterkenny Institute of Technology,
Co. Donegal.
074 918 6249
presidentatialtdotorg
(In this form to avoid spiders picking up for spam)
However in the past year there has not been one quorate meeting of the Council of the IALT, over the past number of years it has proved difficult to contact officers of the Council at times. As Membership Secretary during the past year I have not performed as well as I should. There was no Mid Year Conference during the course of the past year. Attendance at Conferences in recent years has not been great in my view, in particular only a small number of members of the association attend Conference. Most of the conference participants are those who are giving papers, most papers are given by those who are not members of the association, and very little association business other than conference business is conducted.
My first conference was in Galway in 1983 and I have seen a decline in the association since that time. You meet far fewer people who are involved in law teaching or its administration in Ireland at conference now. There are members of this association whom I have never seen at a conference or have not seen at such for a long number of years. It would appear that the IALT has lost its attractiveness to senior people involved in the teaching of the law in Ireland. It may be that there are rival associations (variously described as Societies and Centres) that people are involved in.
At the Annual General Meeting held yesterday there were only seven persons present. There were thus insufficient persons available to establish a full Council. As well as being President I am Acting Membership Secretary. It will be necessary over the next few months to beg people to go on the Council. Is this not an appalling vista? I can remember some well-attended and fiery AGM’s; indeed I was probably responsible for the fire. Many questions have to be asked about the future operation of our association.
The Objectives
The objectives of the association are the advancement of legal education; legal research; and the work and the interests of law teachers. I feel that the Council and the membership have not directed themselves to these objectives. Over the years issues have arisen but they have not been able to advance from one Council to the next. A major impediment to the work of the Council is that it is often reduced to being a conference organising committee.
Conference 2005
I believe that the organisation of the next Conference should begin at the earliest possible date and that the day to day organising of the conference be in the hands of an ad hoc organising committee composed of the membership in the relevant and nearby institutions, chaired by the President of the association and all decisions subject to the approval of the Council. I consider that the Council and the ad hoc committee I referred to should be backed up in their work by a paid administration. In an era of cutbacks the Association could well afford to hold conference at a reduced fee, which might encourage greater attendance by the membership. Many institutions at the present time have virtually eliminated their conference budget for staff.
Venue for Conference
The venue for the next Annual Conference has yet to be decided. Consideration should be given to such decisions being made two to three years in advance. This is what the Society of Legal Scholars does, and there are obvious benefits
Date of Annual Conference
There is the question of whether conference should be moved from Easter back to Early December. This might facilitate the membership but not the many visitors whom we are always glad to see. I am particularly interested in hearing the views of the Membership on this. Please cast your vote on this matter on the IALT Homepage
Mid Year Conference
In my view the mid year conference should be about one issue “The future of the IALT’’. The preferred location is Dublin perhaps around November/December and we could encourage the membership to come their being no registration fee and laying on a meal. The greatest effort should be made to gather the membership together for such conference.
The Council
It is extremely difficult in this modern society to get people together for a meeting, everybody is so busy, and who likes meeting anyway. In our case meetings are held in Dublin and people have to travel, I myself have to come 160 miles. One option open to us is electronic meetings; we should aim for eight meetings a year. When one looks at the membership of the association we should have no difficulty having a good number of people on the Council, but we do. If the organisation and administration with respect to the conference is left in large measure to the ad hoc committee to which I have referred the Council could concentrate upon the objective of the association. How can we do so without a paid administration this is an issue for consideration and after our first twenty-five years why not an archive of the association, being someone who never throws anything away I think that a I could help make a start here.
It would make for the better administration and working of the Council if certain positions were held for a three-year period. An obvious candidate for such is the position of Treasurer; it is quite awkward organising signature changes with the Bank every year.
Personal Liability
A very important issue is the possible personal liability, which might attach to members of the Council in their activities on behalf of the association. I personally deny that such liability exists. Perhaps a legal vehicle should be found to deal with such a possibility, a possible resolution may be found in the organisation of Annual Conference for I cannot see where such a difficulty might otherwise arise.
Communication with the membership
There have been proposals and attempts at a Newsletter in the past, but it has never quite happened. This website is an innovation of mine, so perhaps an Electronic Newsletter is the answer. Of course we will have to have some news to put into such a newsletter.
Relationship with other bodies
Another important issue is to explore our relation with other bodies, for example: the Law Reform Commission in the South and Office of Law Reform in the North, Department of Justice and NIO, Offices of the Attorney General, and of course the judiciary and the legal profession. There should be great scope for law teaching in respect of the last two. I would ask you as a member of the Association to let me know your views.
President IALT
Letterkenny Institute of Technology,
Co. Donegal.
074 918 6249
presidentatialtdotorg
(In this form to avoid spiders picking up for spam)
