Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

For Decision

Form­al Board Paper 6 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 1 of 3

Title: Stand­ing Orders: Elec­tion of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener and Com­mit­tee Mem­ber­ship Substitutions

Pre­pared by: Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services

Pur­pose This paper noti­fies the board of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener’s upcom­ing end of term of appoint­ment and of the elec­tion pro­cess for this role. The paper also fol­lows up the board’s dis­cus­sions at its meet­ing in June 2023 on the quor­um for Com­mit­tee meet­ings and capa­city for Com­mit­tee mem­bers to nom­in­ate sub­sti­tutes for meetings.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Board Is asked to: a) Agree the pro­cess for elec­tion of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener, as set out in this paper. b) Agree the pro­vi­sion of sub­sti­tutes for Com­mit­tee mem­ber­ship and attend­ance, as set out in this paper.

Inform­a­tion

Elec­tion of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener

1. The terms of office of the cur­rent Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener comes to an end on 31 Octo­ber 2023. This paper there­fore gives noti­fic­a­tion to the board of the require­ment to elect a mem­ber of the board to the role of Pan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener.
2. The elec­tion is pro­posed to fol­low the same pro­cess as that adop­ted by the board for recent elec­tions of the Board Con­vener and Board Deputy Con­vener, as this pro­cess enabled all mem­bers to par­ti­cip­ate in the vote while retain­ing full anonym­ity of votes cast.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 2 of 3

1. The pro­posed elec­tion pro­cess will begin with the Prop­er Officer seek­ing nom­in­a­tions and seconds for mem­bers to stand as a can­did­ate for the role of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener. A peri­od of 10 work­ing days from the open­ing of the pro­cess will be allowed for nom­in­a­tions and seconds to be sub­mit­ted to the Prop­er Officer.
2. On close of the pro­cess, where there are two or more can­did­ates then the Prop­er Officer will arrange for can­did­ates per­son­al state­ments to be cir­cu­lated and for a bal­lot to be held.
3. Bal­lots will be under­taken using an elec­tron­ic plat­form. The bal­lot will be open for 48 hours. The bal­lot will use a single trans­fer­rable vote sys­tem as adop­ted in Stand­ing Orders.
4. In order to allow for the final­isa­tion of the cur­rent board appoint­ments pro­cess and facil­it­ate an elec­tion for Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener that will include all mem­bers who will be serving on the board with effect from 1 Novem­ber, it is pro­posed that the elec­tion would take place over the begin­ning of Novem­ber 2023.
5. The illus­trat­ive timetable for the elec­tion pro­cesses fol­low­ing on from the above pro­pos­als would there­fore be as follows:
   • Monday 6 Novem­ber — open call for nom­in­a­tions and seconds for can­did­ates for offices of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener;
   • Monday 20 Novem­ber at noon nom­in­a­tion pro­cess closes;
   • Monday 20 Novem­ber close of busi­ness — can­did­ate state­ments are cir­cu­lated where there are two or more can­did­ates for the role; res­ults announced where there is only a single can­did­ate for the role.
   • Tues­day 21 Novem­ber — elec­tron­ic bal­lot opened where required.
   • Wed­nes­day 22 Novem­ber — elec­tron­ic ballot(s) to close.
   • Thursday 23 Novem­ber — res­ult of ballot(s) announced.
6. As a point of note, a Plan­ning Com­mit­tee is cur­rently sched­uled for Fri­day 10 Novem­ber. This timetable would require the cur­rent Deputy Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener to con­vene this sched­uled meet­ing. The sub­sequent meet­ing is sched­uled for 8 Decem­ber, with this timetable allow­ing 2 weeks pri­or to the meet­ing for any brief­ings on the forth­com­ing meet­ing agenda with the new Convener.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 3 of 3

Sub­sti­tutes on Board Committees

1. The board agreed in June 2023 that it did not wish to amend quor­um arrange­ments for its Com­mit­tees to accom­mod­ate instances where there were reduc­tions in the num­ber of mem­bers appoin­ted to those Com­mit­tees. The board asked that con­sid­er­a­tion be giv­en to allow­ing sub­sti­tutes to attend meet­ings where mem­bers had sub­mit­ted their apologies.
2. It is pro­posed there­fore that mem­bers may nom­in­ate a sub­sti­tute for attend­ance at a Resources, Per­form­ance or Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee, provided that sub­sti­tute is iden­ti­fied and agree by the Chair of the Com­mit­tee at least 5 work­ing days pri­or to the date of the Com­mit­tee meet­ing. This peri­od of notice allows the Chair and staff respons­ible for man­age­ment of the Com­mit­tees to provide any required back­ground brief­ing to the sub­sti­tute and for the sub­sti­tute them­selves to have the same amount of time for famil­i­ar­isa­tion of papers and ask­ing any pre­lim­in­ary ques­tions to officers as the oth­er mem­bers of the Committee.
3. For Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee, any Com­mit­tee Chair unable to attend may nom­in­ate the Com­mit­tee Deputy Chair as their sub­sti­tute. As with the oth­er Com­mit­tees, the sub­sti­tute must be noti­fied at least 5 work­ing days pri­or to the date of the Com­mit­tee meeting.
4. The quor­um for Com­mit­tees shall remain as stated in the Com­mit­tee Terms of Ref­er­ence. Sub­sti­tutes agreed as attend­ing the meet­ing will count toward quor­um for the meet­ing in the same way as stand­ing mem­bers of the Committee.

Dav­id Camer­on davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk