Legal status

The Institute of Cultural Affairs International (ICAI) was first established and registered in Brussels, Belgium in 1977.  ICAI relocated to Canada in 2006, and is now registered as a charity in Canada, no. 849849161RR0001.

General Assembly

The charity is governed by a General Assembly comprised of (voting) Statutory members and (non-voting) Associate members of our global network. It is governed according to revised ICAI Bylaws adopted in 2014, following ICAI’s ‘Continuance’ under section 297 of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act.

Until 2010 the ICAI General Assembly (GA) met face-to-face every two years – for one or two days in conjunction with each  quadrennial ICAI Global Conference, and for a week or so each intervening two years.  These intervening GAs were held in Bilbao Spain 1986, Taipei Taiwan 1990, Lonavala India 1994, Brussels Belgium 1998 & 2002, Toronto Canada 2006 and Talegao India 2010.  Since 2012 in Nagarkot Nepal, an informal ICAI Global Network gathering instead is held in conjunction with the ICAI Global Conference.

ICAI online GA, July 2015Since 2010 the ICAI General Assembly has met online, normally twice each year in June and December.  Two or three online meetings are scheduled for different time zones for each GA. Regional and other gatherings before each GA, both online and face-to-face, are used to build consensus on any resolutions before they are put to the GA. Consensus on GA resolutions are confirmed and symbolised by a vote of Statutory members by asynchronous online poll over 10 days following the GA meetings.

Board & Trustee

Members of the ICAI Board are elected by the General Assembly, currently every two years in December for a four year term.

The Board has appointed Bill Staples of ICA Canada as a volunteer Trustee, without fixed term, authorised to represent ICAI in its legal and financial affairs in Canada.

Global working groups

Working groups and committees are convened by the Board and General Assembly from time to time, as a means for member ICAs to collaborate together on issues and tasks that require global engagement and therefore do not lend themselves well to peer-to-peer initiatives among individual ICAs.

Currently these include the Global Board nominations committee, the Global Conference committee, the joint ICAI/IAF working group and the Global ToP working group.