BY-LAWS /May 2024

By-laws to the following articles of the Constitution:
Article 5f. – Membership
Art. 6 – Procedure of Admission
Article 7 – Removal
Art. 9 – Membership fees
Art. 15 – Authorities of the Council
Article 19f. – General Assembly
Art. 21 – Holding and Invitation to meetings
Art. 23 – Deliberation
Article 28 – Revision of articles

Article 1 – Procedure of Admission of Membership, cf. Article 5f.

1. Admission requirements
1.1 An Institute must have at least 2 permanent in-house trainers responsible for the training process.
1.2 An Institute must have at least one ongoing education group with at least 6 participants.
1.3 Minimal training standards of FEPTO 880 hours.
1.4 The institutes accepted by FEPTO are authorised to put “member of FEPTO” on their certificates and to mention on their certificates that this training program complies with FEPTO’s Minimal Training Standards.

Article 2 General Assembly, cf. Art 19

2.1 An annual statuary General Assembly will occur during a meeting organised by one or several institutes.
2.2 Representatives of the organisations, individuals, and founding members have the right to participate in the GA by video conference or by assigning a proxy.
2.3 The FEPTO Council and the Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee, in cooperation with the LOC, are responsible for organising the GA.
2.4 At the beginning of the GA, three vote counters will be elected by the GA members. They must not be Council members or candidates.
2.5 The Council will compile the agenda for the GA.
2.6 The Council will appoint two facilitators before the Annual Meeting and inform them accordingly. The facilitators’ obligations are described below.
2.7 At the opening of the AM, the Chair will announce the procedure and deadline for candidates for the election of Council members.
2.8 The Chair of AM is responsible for collecting the signatures of the members who attend the GA. Members attending remotely will send a signed electronic form.
2.9 The list of the candidates will be printed by the LOC in sufficient number of copies.
2.10 Chairs of AM and Communication, in cooperation with the LOC, will organise the ballot for both physically and remotely present members.

Article 3. Determination of the Quorum

3.1 The Executive Council will establish the Quorum according to the list of the members in good financial standing, before the GA and decide at its start whether the number of members attending meets the criteria for a valid Quorum.
3.2 The Quorum and the number of maximum votes possible will be presented at the start of the GA to the participants.

Article 4 – Organisation of the Annual Meeting and the Conference, cf. Art. 21

4.1 The Chair of the Annual Meeting will coordinate between the LOC and the Council.
4.2 The Council will prepare the agenda for the Annual Meeting. The LOC will be responsible for the agenda, program, and organisation of the Conference.
4.3 The preliminary program of the Annual Meeting and the Conference will be agreed upon by the Council Meeting in November, except for force majeure.
4.4 The financial distribution of loss and profits is defined in the following way:
In case of profit from the conference, the LOC will receive 75% and FEPTO 25%.
In case of loss from the conference, the LOC will take the charge 100%.
In case of profit from the AM, the LOC will receive 20% and FEPTO 80%.
In case of loss from the AM, the LOC and the council will share a 50% charge each.
4.5 The financial equivalence of two participation fees is granted to the LOC, which will decide its distribution.

Article 5 – Procedures of Admission, cf. Art. 6

5.1 The candidate organisation, whose membership must be voted on, must have a representative present at the Annual Meeting at which the Institute will be proposed to become a member. The GA will vote on the admission.
5.2 The representative/s of the candidate organisations may participate in the GA, except the discussion and voting procedure for all candidate associations/training organisations.

Article 6 – Amendments of the Constitution cf. Art. 28

6.1 At least four (four) member organisations must propose any change (new article, amendment, or removal in the statutes and Constitution). The proposal must be emailed to the president and secretary of FEPTO at least five months before the GA.
6.2 The new proposition of by-laws has to be sent to the president and secretary of FEPTO by email at least three months before the GA.”

Article 7 – Contributions, cf. Art. 9

7.1 Founding members and Honorary members do not pay membership fees.
7.2 Individual members will pay a membership fee of not less than 80€.
7.3 As of January 1, 2021, training institutes and accrediting organisations pay 275€, 175€, or 90€, depending on their countries’ gross domestic income (GDP). The membership fee must be adjusted every third year according to the country’s GDP.

Article 8 – Individual Membership, cf. Art. 6.4

8.1 Individual members may become senior trainers or representatives of FEPTO member institutes for at least ten years, not existing anymore, or former Council members by the recommendation of the Council or personal application.
8.2 The personal application for individual membership must be sent to the Membership Committee, which will give its approval to the Council for it to be accepted and recommended to the GA.
8.3 The application should include two recommendation letters from members of an existing FEPTO institute or Accrediting Organization in good standing.
8.4 The individual membership has to be approved by the GA.
8.5 The individual membership lasts five years and can be renewed by simple application.
8.6 Individual members may apply to become council members, but there must be no more than one individual member of the Council.

Article 9. Use of the logo

9.1 The FEPTO logo can only be used with the council’s approval. It is reserved for activities organised by FEPTO.
9.2 The use of the FEPTO logo is not allowed to appear on documents, posters, emails and announcements of training institutes, accrediting organisations, individual members and national/local organisations of psychodrama. The FEPTO members are welcome to mention their membership to FEPTO in their official documents without publishing the logo.
9.3 The FEPTO logo can be used only with the written consent of the FEPTO Council if FEPTO is one of the organisers/partners/hosts of a specific project or event.
9.4 It is also noted that the training institutes/accrediting organisations/founding members are welcome to mention their membership to our Federation. Still, they should not state in any document that FEPTO accredits them, as the Federation does not provide accreditation.
9.5 The consequences of misuse of the FEPTO logo may remind us of paragraph 7.2; in severe cases, it may be an exclusion.

Art. 8 Obligations of the Facilitators, cf. Art. 21

10.1 The facilitators are responsible for running the GA according to the agenda, the Constitution, and the by-laws.
10.2 The facilitators will inform the Council about their methods of facilitation.
10.3 The facilitators will present the voting results to the GA and announce them on the flipchart and PowerPoint presentation.
10.4 Regulation of the proxies, cf. Art. 21.1
10.4.1 Proxies must be given to the Council in written form one day before the GA starts.
10.4.2 One FEPTO member must not represent more than one other member.
10.4.3. The possibility of using the proxy votes is permitted only for the three following GAs.

Art. 11 Procedure of Renewal, cf. Art. 5.3

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL RULES for Training Organizations/Accrediting Organizations/INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS

11.1 The Chair of the Membership Committee will ask Training Organizations, Accrediting Organizations, and individual members to start their membership renewal process six months before the expiration date.
11.2 The organization / individual member will submit to the Membership Committee (MC) its application and all supporting documents within two months.
11.3 The MC reviews the application, and if it is complete, it recommends renewal of membership to the Council.
11.4 If the documentation is not completed within two months, the MC informs the applicant, notifies the Council and the application procedure is paused.
11.5 If the application for renewal is not received by the expiration date, the membership is suspended, and the member may reapply the following year. During the suspension, the member will not have voting rights and still need to pay membership fees.
11.6 If the member does not reapply within two years after the expiration of their membership, then the Council will recommend to the GA removal from membership.