On 19th February the Board will be discussing a Constitutional Amendment to allow member organisations to nominate a Deputy of age under 35, with full voting rights.

As the Deputy who successfully brought a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the upper age limit for Board Officers, I strongly oppose this "tokenist" Amendment.

All age-related discrimination is wrong - whether positive or negative. The Board should attract the best people, period - regardless of age. There are a number of Deputies who are under 35 already and they got there on merit - not by means of an artificial age "free pass". If we pass this amendment then the door is wide open to all categories underrepresented to follow suit, eg women or the non-able bodied.

The way to persiade more people - of all ages - to want to become Deputies is to make the organisation more responsive to its members, as opposed to using them simply as cyphers to show the world how "democratic" the Board is .........

http://cifwatch.com/2012/01/17/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes-who-guards-...