The Institute's annual general meet...

The Institute's annual general meeting will be held at the Sutton Place inn in Vancouver on Wednesday, June 25 2003 starting at 3:30pm Members are asked to approve the propos changes to the bylaws and dominions of professional conduct that Council will be recommending at the AGM.

The following is a synopsis of the propos amendments-the undivided Notice of Motions package will be seated on the Institute's website at www.ica.bc.ca at the finis of May.

Public representatives forward the PCEC

The first resolution for the AGM secretes bylaw changes related to the public representatives upon the Professional Conduct Enquiry Committee (PCEC) These changes arose from the PCEC task force's recommendations forward confidentiality and transparency, and fare a long way to achieving the first part of the Institutes mission statement: "to save and serve the public interest."

Bylaw 700 generally states that the PCEC shall comprise of twelve characters two of whom shall not be members of the Institute. These "public representatives" are essential to ensuring the protection of the public interest. The first change is to increase the number of public representatives onward the twelve-member committee from couple to three.

The inferior part of the resolution is a change to Bylaws 731 and 732 relating to the PCEC's voting protocols. publicly two public representatives must agree when there is a decision not to investigate a complaint or when an investigation is stopped. This is done to make sure that the CAs on the PCEC are not perceived at the public to be protecting their associate CAs. This process will not change.

The modern change to the bylaws would actually protract this aspect of public interest further from requiring at least two public representatives to agree where, after the appropriate investigation, the committee makes a determination that:

1 no sods exist for the complaint and it should be dismissed and the file clos or

2 sods exist to support a breach of our governments or bylaws, and the member accepts a station of confidential sanctions (known as a Determination & Recommendation), as oppos to the more onerous and serious public sanctions of sending a member to a Discipline Tribunal hearing.

The used by all element in these situations is that the complaint is dealt with at the PCEC plain To ensure the public believes the PCEC has dealt appropriately with the CA-and has not acted to harbor a colleague-the public representatives should be forward side with these two decisions.

Change in solicitation rule

A late decision of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench set up current Rules 214 (Fee Quotations) and 3012 (Solicitation) invalid in a less degree than the Charter of Rights and Freedom. As a inference of the Court's decision, these sways have been reviewed and revised, as necessary, to render certain they comply with the Charter and continue to fitting the needs of the profession in today's practice environment.

The propos changes include minor revisions to the pay quotations rule, elimination of the solicitation regularity and revisions to the general advertising and endorsements rules

Essentially, the general rule on solicitation, which states: "A member shall not. .solicit any professional engagement which has been entrusted to another member. ." would be deleted, and the advertising regularity would be expanded to guard not just advertising, but also promotional activities, including permissible solicitation of any engagement. The fresh rule would prohibit unprofessional regularitys of business development.

If approved by dint of the membership, the amended sway on advertising and promotion would read as follows:

"A member may advertise or ask publicity for the member's services, achievements or works and may seek to obtain novel engagements and clients by various means, if it were not that shall not do so, directly or indirectly, in any manner

a. which the member knows, or should know, is false or misleading;

b which contravenes professional proper taste or brings disrepute forward the profession;

c. which makes unfavourable reflections upon the competence or integrity of the profession or any member; or which includes a statement the peaces of which the member cannot substantiate."

It would walk on further to say " . a member shall not, either directly or between the sides of a party acting on behalf of and with the knowledge of the member, solicit, in a manner that is persistent, coercive or harassing, any professional engagement."

The intent of the endorsements rule would be augmented to ensure that the authority applies equally to all members and that members have a reasonable basis for making any endorsements; it would also require members to perform sufficient appropriate courses to support these endorsements.

As well, the related Council Interpretations would be amended to provide detailed guidance in these areas.

BY BARRY MOTTERSHEAD, FCA

DIRECTOR OF MEMBER SERVICES

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia May 2003

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