Last December, AmCham Vietnam conducted a survey of our members, which indicated that 94% of respondents favored a “Unified AmCham” in Vietnam (details at link). Considering that overwhelming response, in January of this year the AmCham Vietnam Board of Governors appointed an independent, multi-chapter Task Force to update our 24-year-old Charter to reflect current best practices in governance standards applicable to international business associations like AmCham Vietnam. The Task Force’s delegates have extensive experience in corporate governance.
Seven months later, the Governance Task Force completed its research. The Task Force’s key recommendation is to achieve lasting national unity by harmonizing and making transparent the policies and processes across AmCham’s local chapters through the creation of a National Board, to be democratically elected by AmCham Vietnam’s members nationwide. This National Board would be empowered to provide uniform oversight of the activities of local chapters.
The Task Force expects to submit its proposed new Charter to a binding democratic vote of the general membership nationwide by the end of this year. Before doing so, AmCham Vietnam conducted another survey in September to guide the Task Force as it finalizes its proposal for a new Charter.
We wanted to share with you the results of our September survey. AmCham Vietnam’s Governance Task Force Unity Survey found that once again, an overwhelming majority of our members support a more unified AmCham in Vietnam.
Specifically, respondents support:
- Centralization under a single, democratically-elected National Board of Governors (95% of total, 89% of dual)
- Centralization of Senior Management and Staff, reporting to the National Board (91% of total, 89% of dual)
- Unified national-level advocacy (94% of total, 89% of dual)
- Centralization of finances (92% of total, 83% of dual)
- Unified Website (97% of total, 89% of dual)
- National-level Committees and Working Groups (89% of total, 89% of dual)
- Access by members of all chapters to events, committees, and advocacy activities of any AmCham Vietnam chapter throughout the country (95% of total, 89% of dual)
Respondents’ comments largely aligned with the survey results, welcoming efforts towards greater unity, particularly on advocacy to increase AmCham influence, and noting this was long overdue. Some also stressed the need for the planned national board to ensure some level of designated regional representation in addition to at-large seats. Similarly, several welcomed the stated plan to retain local chapters, committees, and some staff to allow focus as well on local/regional issues.
Note, there were 141 survey respondents, including 85 voting members (including 16 dual voting members). Respondents represented 58/194, or 30% of corporate voting members.
We heard your views and our Task Force will do its best to reflect them in our new draft Charter. Many thanks to all who responded! Please feel free to contact [email protected] to let us know how we can serve you better.
