How to join the Alliance
If you are an organisation implementing workcamps and other forms of international voluntary service, and you wish to expand your cooperation worldwide, in this section you can find information about the procedures to apply for guest and partner status in the Alliance.
Guest status
An organisation that wishes to join the Alliance, participate in the Technical Meeting for the first time and start cooperating more closely with the members, is required to apply first for Guest status in the network. Guest status entitles organisations to one year participation to Alliance events. The main criteria for guest organisations must be the quality of the work and the potential of co-operation within the Alliance.
A new organisation interested to be invited to the Alliance event as a Guest shall contact at least five member organisations of the Alliance, that will send the “letters of support” to the Alliance General Secretary (Appendix 12 of the Standing Orders). The applying organisation must also send to the General Secretary (general.secretary@alliance-network.eu) a Guests Application Form (Appendix 11 of the Standing Orders). All documents must reach the General Secretary at least three weeks before the Alliance General Assembly, which usually takes place at the beginning of November. At the GA, member organisations take a decision about the guest application. One of the supporting members has to take the function of tutor of the guest for the following year. In the case of organisations wishing to apply for Guest status after the GA, they can only be invited directly by the Executive Committee of the network (the complete application form and at least one support letter from an Alliance member organisation are needed).
Partner status
A partner is an organisation involved in International Voluntary Service, implementing workcamps, currently working with Alliance members and well known by the Alliance because they have already joined events they were invited to; they already respect and follow Alliance Quality Charter (Standing Orders 11.1). Partner organisations have permanent invitations to take part in certain Alliance Events (Technical Meeting, trainings and evaluation events, General Conference). After a three year period in a guest status, an organisation should apply to become an Alliance partner. In order to obtain this status it has to send an application (Appendix 13 of the Standing Orders) to the General Secretary, and this application is brought for voting at the next GA. The partnership status has to be reconfirmed every five years by the General Assembly. Furthermore, an evaluation process of the organisations having a partnership status within the Alliance can be initiated if the request of at least five Alliance members is submitted to the Executive Committee (EC), as well as if the EC identifies a specific need and/or if the partnership status is not reconfirmed by a General Assembly. For more information about partners reconfirmation and evalution, check the Article 11.5, 11.6 and 11.7 of Alliance Standing Orders.
Candidate member status
An organisation that wishes to apply for candidate membership in the Alliance, must have carried out international voluntary service in its own country for at least two years and have had an exchange relationship with Alliance members for at least two years (article 3.5 of the Constitution). This status lasts for a minimum of 2 years until a maximum of 5 years: after at least two years of candidate membership status, the organisation can apply for full or associate membership.
In order to obtain this status an organisation has to send the Candidate Member application form to the General Secretary, 6 weeks before Alliance GA (this year the application deadline is 27th September 2021). The application is brought for voting at the upcoming General Assembly.
Membership fee system
An annual subscription shall be payable by the members of the Alliance (article 8.5 of Alliance Constitution) as decided by the General Assembly. As the annual subscription is based on the figures of exchange all members are responsible to send the statistics to the Alliance Secretariat. The fee amount is to be fixed by the Alliance Treasurer before the Technical Meeting for each member and must be paid before the beginning of the upcoming General Assembly.
Explanation of article 8.5:
All Alliance members must pay the inscription fee. The annual subscription system can only be decided by the General Assembly. The proposal to change the size of the subscription can be made at the GA. The rights and obligations of the treasurer: the treasurer can make a statement about proposals to change the size of the annual subscription. The treasurer has to accept the change of the annual subscription if decided by the General Assembly. A new elected organisation will be member after the closing of the General Assembly. They do not pay the membership fee in the year the organisation has been elected but in the next year following the General Assembly, if the GA takes place after 1st of June.
For more information about Alliance membership, partnership and guest status (rights, responsibilities and new procedures), consult Alliance Constitution and Standing Orders at this link.
