Collaboration with external societies

Unpublished

The purpose of this document is to act as a standard operating protocol for

Formal Collaborations with other Societies
The administration and organisation of strategic guest lectures at the ICS Annual Meeting which sit outside of the standard ICS Education Course/Guest Lecture applications which are monitored by the Education Committee. In general these strategic lectures are identified and approved by the ICS Board of Trustees (with reference to the Scientific Committee Chair and Local Scientific Programme Chair as appropriate) but any ICS member can propose. In general these lectures would mean a mutual exchange of lectures, by that meaning that an equal time slot with equal allowances (i.e. travel/registration etc) is agreed upon. The contents of this procedure are a general guide to operation and are not intended to be either exhaustive or all-inclusive.

Strategy
The overarching strategy for collaboration with other Societies is to provide education for professionals who may not normally attend the ICS Annual Meeting; to strengthen or develop strategic partnerships with similar or aligned organisations; to encourage and promote multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary collaboration and education; to prevent siloed reproduction of work, and to promote the ICS and its activities, mission and activities.

Budget
Any travel or other allowances not covered by the partnering society will be paid for from the ICS general budget rather than from the ICS Education Committee budget. The costs will be assigned to a pre-agreed budget within the ICS accounts or with direct reference to, and approval by, the ICS Treasurer.

Stage	Action	Comment
Expression of interest	Board of Trustees receive a request for formal society collaboration or mutual lecture exchange or identify a society with which they wish to partner
Application	Full information is received and placed on the Board of Trustee forum to discuss whether the formal partnership should be entered into and what terms are offered in the exchange.The Board of Trustees inform the Education/Scientific Committee and Committee Chairs of the planned exchange.	Board of Trustees also decide whether a Memorandum of Understanding is required. These parties are allowed to comment on the partnership within 2 weeks for the board to consider any issues they may not be aware of, e.g. additional collaborating societies that should be included on a project, ongoing discussions, etc.
Post Application approval	Through mutual discussion and agreement with the partnering society the collaboration or lecture title and speaker is agreed upon. When the discussion is held concerning the lecture to be held at the ICS Annual Meeting it is good practice to include the Scientific Committee Chair and Local Scientific Programme Chair so that they are aware of the topic to be covered by the visiting speaker to avoid duplication of topics. Any subjects which match an existing educational Module will have to use the ICS Standardised Slides. Modifications require approval. Speakers are confirmed. Budget is finalised.
Speaker invite	Speakers are contacted to check their availability and to arrange travel and registration (where applicable). The ICS faculty etiquette document is sent to the speakers.	Where offered, travel will be arranged in accordance with ICS Policy
Implementation	The ICS office will officially promote the lectures on the ICS website and via ICS publications.	The ICS office will be responsible for ensuring that the ICS course is appropriately advertised in promotional material.
Management	A roster of formal collaborations (e.g. standardisation documents) and historic and future speaker exchanges will be maintained as a live document. This will serve to organise collaborations but also to transfer institutional knowledge as General Secretaries, Trustees, and Committee Chairs transition. In close collaboration with the mutual society, the ICS office staff will assist in the management including collaboration or speaker and course host communication (e.g. webex), collection of course materials, organisation of local hotels and transfers. The ICS office will inform the Board of Trustee of any significant changes.