Operation
Forum Operation
The "Columbus Torino Association" was created for the administrative and financial management of the Forum. It is a non-profit institution, under Italian legislation and with seat in Turin.
In agreement with its bylaws, the Columbus Torino Association intends (art. 4):
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Establish a suitable environment to promote the in-depth analysis, elaboration and international consultation of innovation based regional development strategies taking place in Europe and Latin America, specially through the creation and management of the "Euro-Latin American Forum for innovation based regional development".
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Support internationalisation projects between Europe and Latin America that shall involve the participation of international bodies, public institutions, agencies working in areas of research, training and transfer of technologies as well as the participation of other players of the socio economic system at large.
The regulations of the Association define two types of members (Article 5): Public and Private Founding members, Public and Private regular members. The Founding members are those public and private institutions that participated in the creation of the Association and the Forum. They will pay an annual fee. Its value will be established by the Members Meeting. The Regular members are all those public or private entities who apply for membership. Their admission shall be proposed by the Steering Committee and approved at a Members Meeting. Regular members pay an annual fee, the value of which shall be suggested by the Executive Board and approved by the General Assembly. Regular members agree to pay an annual fee for a minimum period of three years. Finally, the members belonging to the "Columbus - Geneva" and "Columbus - Paris" associations are also members of the Forum, once their corresponding authorities ratify their intention to belong to the Association.
The Association will have the following bodies (Article 9): a) The General Assembly, b) the Executive Board, c) the President, d) the Vice-President, e) the Audit Council. Their functions have been set forth in the Statutes.
For operational purposes, the Forum organization will be relying on an Executive Secretariat (in charge of COLUMBUS Torino) responsible for the operation, administration and organizational activities.
The Executive Secretariat has four main work areas:
- Political-Institutional (contacts with member Regions, organization of the annual Conference),
- Technology (support of topic areas, channelling technical services),
- Webmaster (management of the Website),
- Project Funding Management (supporting members and cooperation projects in the field of financial access and management).
