Dear Members of the Zoological Society of Japan

Elections for directors, branch committee members, and others will be held this year. Regarding this year's elections, we would like to inform you that at the Board of Directors meeting held on December 24, 2021, one item in Article 4 of the Branch Regulations was revised. This pertains to the election of branch representatives. Branch representatives play an important role, distinct from directors and officers, such as electing members for the Academic Award Selection Committee and others, working together with branch-elected directors to promote branch activities, and organizing various committees when commissioned by the President.

Previously, the number of branch representative committee members was defined by the number of members in each branch, which sometimes resulted in some branches having zero branch representative committee members. With this revision, we have decided to assign a fixed number of branch representative committee members to each branch regardless of the number of members (specifically, half the number of fixed board members for each branch) with the aim of ensuring a diverse range of review fields.

The election of branch representative committee members is usually held around June, but we would like to inform you in advance of the election.

◇Revision of branch regulations

＜変更前＞
Article 4
Each branch shall have branch representative members. Branch representative members shall be elected from among regular members and student members, excluding honorary members. The fixed number of branch representative members in each branch shall be determined in conjunction with the fixed number of directors for that branch. The combined fixed number of branch representative members and directors shall be two for branches with up to 100 regular members, and shall increase by one for each additional 100 regular members exceeding 100 members for branches with more than 100 regular members. However, the maximum number of branch representative members in a single branch shall be limited to ten.

＜変更後＞
Article 4
Each branch shall have branch representative members. Branch representative members shall be elected from among regular members and student members, excluding honorary members. The fixed number of branch representative members in each branch shall be half of the fixed number of board members for that branch.

Please note that Article 4, Paragraph 2 and subsequent paragraphs concerning the definition of branch representatives remain unchanged as follows:
2 The election of branch representative committee members shall be conducted by secret ballot with multiple votes allowed up to the fixed quota for each branch, and candidates with the highest number of votes up to the fixed quota shall be elected. In the event of a tie in votes, the member born later shall be ranked higher.
3 Branch representative committee members, together with branch-elected directors, shall mutually elect members of the Academic Award Selection Committee and others.
4 The branch representative committee members shall, together with the branch-elected directors, endeavor to promote branch activities and, when commissioned by the chairperson, organize various committees.
5 The term of office for branch representative committee members shall be two years, and consecutive election for a third term shall not be permitted.
6 Directors and auditors may not concurrently serve as branch representative committee members.

Public Interest Incorporated Foundation, Zoological Society of Japan