Preamble
These internal rules complement the association's statutes and specify the practical operating procedures. They apply to all members.
Membership
1.1 Mythodologie's Values
Mythodologie upholds values and a stance to which it attaches paramount importance, based on a few strong principles. Joining Mythodologie implies acceptance of these principles, under penalty of possible exclusion or non-renewal in case of serious breaches.
These principles include inclusivity and respect, detailed in the association's Charter. The board may be consulted in case of disputes between members regarding behaviors contrary to these values. Charter.
1.2 Membership Validation
Candidates must contact the board to formally request membership. Before validation, the board must ensure that the candidate has read and approved the association's statutes, charter, and internal rules. statutes, charter.
After board approval, a vote is launched among all members. The association commits to ruling quickly on membership applications. Decisions may be suspended if doubts remain about the candidate's alignment with the association's values.
Acceptance entails payment of the membership fee, registration on member lists, and announcement to existing members.
1.3 Membership Fees
The membership fee is 20 euros/year.
The executive board (or by delegation the Treasurer, in obvious cases) may however decide to grant other arrangements in the following cases:
Student members without income
Members without employment or in precarious financial situation
Payment deadlines
The fee must be paid:
- •New members: within one month after acceptance of the application by the board
- •Existing members: within two months after the date of the ordinary General Assembly
Association Life
The association's activities include the collective creation and distribution of content as well as in-person internal actions: monthly meetings, debates, training sessions, conferences, and workshops.
Note: These are not necessarily limited to monthly meetings: smaller group workshops are welcome (however, regular collective reporting should be ensured).
2.1 Mandate for Participation in Activities and Tools
There are many modes of action (files, articles, investigations, experiments, media, etc.). Any help, idea, or participation is welcome: there is no need to be an expert in substance or form, and any request or offer of support on an action will be gladly accepted. In particular, care must be taken to ensure that the expertise of senior members does not discourage or leave aside the less experienced.
Each person assigned to a task takes an informal mandate for a duration that can range from a few minutes to several months. Transparency must be maintained towards other members.
For important tasks, commissions may be created with a designated leader; members who join may designate a commission leader. The association recognizes the importance of not concentrating the mental load of various tasks on too few people, which can be a source of burnout and/or abuse of power. Attention will also be paid to potential inclusivity problems that some members may create by their presence, voluntarily or not (see article 3.1 of the charter on inclusivity). (article 3.1 of the charter on inclusivity).
Association tools
Their proper functioning is vital to the association but requires work. Don't hesitate to offer your help, even if not expert: it's easy to train.
2.2 Member Engagement and Contribution
Participation not mandatory, but responsibility of commitment
Active participation in projects, meetings, and other activities is not mandatory. Each member is free to engage in actions that interest them, according to the time and energy they can devote. However, if a member chooses to take on a project or action, it is essential to honor that commitment. The association relies on the goodwill and collaboration of its members, and failure to honor commitments can have consequences on the progress of activities and projects.
Participation in association life can take many forms: responding to an email, proofreading a publication, etc. But to claim to be part of the association, members must participate at least minimally.
Communication about impediments
If a member who has committed to an action or project finds themselves unable to honor their commitment, for whatever reason, it is strongly recommended to communicate this impediment as soon as possible. This will allow other team members to adapt, reorganize work if necessary, and avoid delays or problems that might arise.
In case of impediment, the member concerned is invited to inform the project or action leaders, either directly or via the association's internal communication tools. The goal is not to blame or penalize, but to promote open and honest communication that will allow the association to function effectively and harmoniously.
It is understandable that each member may have personal, professional, or other commitments that can affect their availability. The important thing is to maintain clear and respectful communication with other members. In this spirit, the association encourages tolerance, empathy, and mutual understanding.
2.3 External Solicitations
The association receives a number of solicitations from outside, ranging from occasional questions on social media to interview and conference requests. Care must be taken to ensure that all requests and correspondence are handled, and at minimum an acknowledgment of receipt is quickly sent (except for solicitations that are too insulting or far-fetched). All members must be able to access sent responses upon request.
Request management and mandating
If an intervention request is received by the association as a whole, a collective discussion takes place to choose the person mandated for the occasion, or if the invitation is declined.
If urgent requests arrive often, a 'media coordinator' may be designated to handle these urgent requests. Either they decide not to follow up because our association's presence doesn't have a positive benefit/risk balance, or they find an available and relevant person to respond to this solicitation, or they designate themselves.
Risk assessment
Public speaking should be assessed according to the inherent risks of the type of audience (nature and size) or media (written, audio, visual), the program format (live or recorded, heavily or lightly edited, with multiple guests, audience, questions...), its reputation, the generic or specialized scope of the intervention, and the difficulty of the topic. It is strongly advised to review a previous opus and inquire about the conditions of the expression opportunity.
Responsibility and consequences
It is important to both measure the responsibility of public speech and ensure that public expression is not restricted to too few people. The consequences and therefore the responsibility are greater as the audience is larger (taking into account any recording).
It should be appreciated that even limited educational action has meaning (as long as it is positive) if it reaches a very large audience, or provides access to a type of audience that is not easily reached otherwise, but that the mere presence of our association can be double-edged.
Since our association's presence on certain spaces carrying values contrary to those of the association can easily be used to acquire legitimacy, it is necessary to carefully measure what such an experience would bring us.
Training and supervision requests
As we are an association and not professionals, we must recognize that we do not necessarily have the skills and framework truly required to reasonably fulfill this task.
Therefore, these participations should be limited to situations where the members concerned are sufficiently competent, or to situations that are more like workshops and conferences rather than courses and tutorials.
It is in principle not our responsibility to provide school training or internship supervision (unless the member has dedicated skills); the significant specific responsibility of this task must be carefully measured.
2.4 Epistemological and Ethical Guarantees
Any communication made externally within the framework of Mythodologie's activities tacitly commits the association. Just as public participations must be validated, public content on any medium must be reviewed at some point by other members of the association (via internal work tools).
As part of the association's work involves transmitting the current state of scientific research, rigor corresponding to good scientific popularization is necessary. This includes compliant and well-summarized sources, transparency in approach and level of certainty, etc. (in accordance with the charter).
Members are not required to be specialists in all the themes or disciplines they choose to address in their content: lack of knowledge is therefore not subject to sanction.
However, each member is required, as far as possible, to take into account sourced criticism or relevant and respectful arguments addressed to them in order to disseminate content whose accuracy approaches, as much as possible, the current state of knowledge on the subjects addressed.
2.5 Publications
Members of the association who create or publish works of any nature (articles, educational tools, etc.) through it, grant Mythodologie a right of publication and exploitation, limited to the framework of the association, without profit motive.
Recognition of contributions
The association recognizes each participant's contribution and does not erase it behind a generic associative appellation. Contributions are recognized by name.
Non-exclusive distribution right
The right granted to the association is not exclusive. The author remains free to distribute and exploit their works as they wish and outside the association.
Work withdrawal
Amicable withdrawal is possible for good reasons (obsolescence, overhaul, etc.). This must always be done in a spirit of understanding and compromise.
2.6 Conduct During Meetings
The various meetings are organized according to an agenda that, if possible, is known in advance. At the beginning of the meeting, someone is designated to take meeting minutes that will be accessible after the meeting, and a person is responsible for facilitating the meeting so that it does not last too long.
So that each point of view can be expressed and debated and to avoid potential authoritarian drifts, no one is supposed to monopolize the floor during association meetings.
Even more so when a decision must be made, the floor must be able to circulate and no member should be silenced without having been able to express their point of view.
Since each member has a different relationship to speaking, the association must be able to guarantee its circulation, even if it means implementing tools to this end (speaking turns, double list, etc.).
In cases where informal discussion and consensus are not sufficient, a speaking turn or relative majority vote can be implemented.
2.7 Mediation
In case of a problematic dispute within the association, particularly during an exclusion procedure, a mediation team is formed to try to reconcile the different points of view. By default, board members are all mediators. This team cannot include the initiators of an exclusion procedure.
On a voluntary basis, members can join the team. In the absence of volunteers, a mediator is designated by random draw among active members. The person drawn by lot can refuse.
2.8 Suspension and Exclusion Procedures
When a person poses a significant problem to the life of the association (endangering the association or one of its members, disclosure of internal information to the association without the authorization of its authors, repeated non-compliance with the charter), an exclusion request can be made.
Exclusion procedure
- 1.A formal request to the board from three or more members (called the initiators) launches the procedure
- 2.The member is informed and their access to communication channels is suspended
- 3.By default, the initiators remain anonymous
- 4.Launch of a discussion (if a vote is needed) among all members, where the initiators can discuss the reasons behind their exclusion request, and members can vote on these arguments
- 5.Throughout the deliberation, a mediator person acts as liaison between what is criticized about the person and the member in question. The mediation team is then the only one authorized to relay the person's words to other members. It is important that the person can defend themselves against what they are accused of.
- 6.The procedure lasts at least one week but can extend up to three weeks by decision of the president
In case of a vote, the 'for' or 'against' exclusion options are the default options, but additional options can be added in the form 'maintaining in the association on condition that X'. The voting procedures (majority judgment vote, choice of options) are decided by the President. Once known, the result is communicated to the suspended person within 31 days of being informed.
If the exclusion is rejected, the suspension is lifted and access is restored. If it is enacted, the person loses their member status.
An excluded person can apply 6 months after their exclusion. The reintegration procedure is identical to that of a regular application.
Board Organization
The association sets a general objective of horizontality: each member is encouraged to participate in various tasks. The board is only there for execution tasks that cannot be delegated.
3.1 Constitution and Election of the Executive Board
The executive board consists at least of a President, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. The same person cannot hold more than one position on the Executive Board.
Board members are elected during a General Assembly of the association. All candidacies must be formally expressed before the start of all votes.
If a candidate for multiple positions is elected to a first position, their candidacy is automatically withdrawn for subsequent elections.
Voting rules
- •Two or more candidates: elections are validated by absolute majority of members present or represented. In case of a tie, a new vote is held, this time by relative majority.
- •Only one candidate: the candidate must receive at least one-tenth of the votes cast to be elected.
3.2 Tasks Incumbent on the Executive Board
The non-delegable tasks of the board are:
General Assemblies
General assemblies are, as specified in the association's statutes, the times when the association's texts and executive board can be renewed.
4.1 Convening the General Assembly
When an assembly is convened, several mandates must be taken:
- • Official convocation of all members
- • Preparation of vote on motions (text modifications, new orientations)
- • Preparation of the GA validating the term (moral, financial, activity report)
- • Organization of board elections
4.2 Term Review
All mandates taken over the long term, as well as board positions, must be accompanied by transparency and self-criticism, in accordance with our values. Time is set aside during the GA for mandated persons to present their review and self-criticism to members.
4.3 Modification of Statutes, Charter and Internal Rules
A member wishing for a change addresses a formal request. If at least one-fifth of members make the request jointly, a procedure is launched:
- 1Scope clarification: which articles are problematic, what additions or removals are desired?
- 2Deliberation: discussion and proposal of amendments and counter-amendments
- 3Formalization: drafting of consensual amendments or those submitted to vote
At the GA, key points are recalled with arguments, then voting takes place. Proposals can be voted together or separately.
Required majorities for validation
- •Charter and internal rules: relative majority of voters
- •Statutes: absolute majority of members
Internal rules adopted by the General Assembly. Last update in accordance with the association's statutes.