Organisation & Management
Structure, governance and management of IDEA.
The Organization and its Management
IDEA is a voluntary professional organisation registered under Society's Act (No. 3621 of 1995) and it has its bye-laws for governing its clientele and managing its activities. It is an All-India Organisation with its membership spread over to different parts of the country. It has a wide coverage reaching every Open University and almost all the Distance Education Directorates operating in the public sector. Proposals are underway to cover Private Corporate Distance Education Universities and Centres on select basis. IDEA has a provision of Regional Chapters and State/ University Chapters and the objective of creating these decentralised bodies was to promote its activities on a large scale and involve a large number of ODL professionals in its activities.
IDEA has constituted several functional authorities operating at different levels to undertake different functions. Its office bearers are engaged on full-time basis in the Management of Recognised Distance Education Institutions. IDEA Membership is open to all those who are interested in the growth and development of Distance Education, including the Academic Counsellors and Part-time employees working in Distance Education Institutions at various levels.
Present Executive Council Members
| Role | Details |
|---|---|
| Honorary President | Prof. K. Murali Manohar |
| President | Prof. K. Seetharama Rao |
| Vice-Presidents |
Dr. D. Harichandan Prof. S. Jeelani Prof. S. S. Chougule, Prof. Romesh Varma |
| Secretary General | Dr. L. Vijaya Krishna Reddy (LVK) |
| Deputy Secretary General | Dr. J.S. Dorothy |
| Secretaries |
Dr. Ramu Naidu Dr. Raju Prof. Musthaq Ahmed Patel Dr. Avani Trivedi |
| Executive Members |
Dr. Srinivas Rao Dr. P. Siva Swaroop Dr. V.V. Kanaka Durga Prof. Ramachander Dr. P. Venugopal Reddy Dr. B. Anupama Devi Prof. Sampath Kumar Prof. Prasanth Prof. Ramana Reddy Prof. Venkateswarlu |
Authorities of the Association
General Body
All categories of members of the Association will have the right to attend the meetings of the General Body to be held at least once in a year. However, the Associate members shall have no right to vote at the meetings of the General Body. The General Body meetings shall be presided over by the President of the Association. The Functions of the General Body include:
- To approve the Annual Report of the Association.
- To approve the Annual Budget of the Association.
- To review the progress of the activities of Association and formulate annual calendar of various programmes.
- To elect the Executive Committee once in two years.
- To approve the proposal for the establishment of State Chapters and University Chapters on the recommendations of the Executive Committee.
- Other policy and development issues arise from time-to-time.
The Executive
The Executive of the Association shall consist of the following:
1) The president
2) The Working President
3) Three Vice-Presidents
4) The General Secretary
5) Three Secretaries
6) Twelve Members to be elected by the General Body
7) Immediate past President and Secretary General of the Association
The term of Office of all the elected members as above shall be two years. Wherever, necessary more members may be co-opted, especially to over all regions, all categories of staff and eminent personal from abroad. The Executive Committee shall meet at least once in a year and formulate the programmes of the Association. It may co-opt up to five additional members if necessary with a view to cover and provide representation to all the members if necessary with a view to cover and provide representation to all the regions of the country. It shall discuss various issues relating to the Association and take appropriate decisions. The Secretary General shall call for the meetings of the Executive Committee in consultation with the President. Apart from this the Committee shall also look after the following:
- To discuss about the problems relating to the institutions offering Distance Education programmes especially academic, administrative, personnel and funding, find out suitable solutions and represent the same at different platforms whenever and wherever necessary.
- To sort-out issues and other problems which arise between various institutions offering Distance Education programmes.
- To mediate for creating a network system with a view to facilitate sharing of resources.
- To approve the budget of the Association.
- To examine the proposals for the establishment of State and University Chapters and recommended the same for the approval of the General Body.
- To appoint sub-committee from time-to-time and examine various issues in detail for initiating necessary action concerned.
- To appoint the Auditor.
- To look after all other matter as entrusted to it by the General Body of the Association.
President/ Vice-Presidents
The President and in his absence the Working President shall preside over all the meetings of the General Body and the Executive Committee. He shall supervise over the general activities of the Association. The Vice-Presidents shall assist the President in discharging his functions and also discharge other functions entrusted to them by the President from time-to-time.
Secretary General/Secretaries
- Secretary General is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association and Custodian for all records relating to all the authorities of the Association. He shall on behalf of different authorities of the Association discharge various related functions.
- He shall look after the financial matters including preparing the Annual Budget and statement of expenditure and present before the Executive Committee for its approval and operate the accounts.
- He shall entrust from time-to-time various functions to the Secretaries and guide them in discharging various functions of the Office.
- Each Secretary shall discharge the work entrusted to them from time-to-time by the Secretary General. They shall perform the functions of the Secretary General during his absence as entrusted.
- The main office bearers and executive members during the last eighteen years were elected on unanimous basis. Nine successive bodies of IDEA had been elected almost unanimously every term during the general body meetings conducted for this purpose
- Till now (2017) twenty four general body meetings and thirty six executive meetings have been held, apart from its office bearers joining each other and sometimes under intimation meeting in different Universities often.
- The General Body meetings provided an opportunity to discuss various issues and problems relating to individual Universities and individual members and members have evinced keen interest and shown lot of enthusiasm during the first decade while in the later years there has been lesser participation for one reason or the other
- However in the recent years again there was a spurt in its activity and several matters of serious concern relating to both the failures and achievements of ODL Institutions have occupied its main agenda.
- These meetings helped the individual members share their expertise, experiences and concern with others. Now most of the members are found to be taking keen interest and coming forward to initiate discussion on various issues of mutual concern.
- IDEA is a registered Association with approved by-laws. The executive is democratically elected for a specific period and it is represented by reputed persons who also had experienced leaders of national and international distance education associations earlier, within the limitations existing the executive is able to discharge its functions well.
- IDEA has constituted several committees and sub-committees on several occasions on different subjects and after a thorough debate several reports are prepared and submitted top several Apex Bodies for onward action.