Migration to IAE e.V.

The bank account of the IAE was closed because its legal status no longer complied with the new banking requirements. To change the Association’s legal status, the IAE e.V. was founded. IAE e.V. is a recognised legal entity registered under national law and entitled to hold a bank account. It is also of general importance that an association has a legal status, for instance for tax purposes.

e.V. stands for eingetragener Verein, which is the German term for a registered association.

International organisations have to be registered in one particular country. Since the bank account of the “old” IAE was in Germany and the current and previous Secretary General were based in Germany, the Presidium and Council considered it the most practical way forward to select Germany as the country in which the “new” IAE officially resides. Further considerations were that Germany is in the EURO-zone and has the largest number of Egyptologists who are member of the “old” IAE.

The major difference is that the IAE e.V. has an official status as a non-profit international organisation. The statutes have a number of paragraphs that are legally required in Germany, but there are no fundamental changes to the aims and purpose of the organisation.

The Statutes and the Rules & Regulations define the structure and procedures of IAE e.V. However, the statutes of the IAE e.V. have been formulated with the help of a lawyer and are registered legally. This means that any change to the statutes will have to be approved by the German court, which is a costly and time-consuming procedure. By splitting off the “stable” aspects of the association (such as the aims, purpose and legal structure) from aspects that are prone to be changed at some point in the future (for instance the membership fees), the membership has a greater flexibility to make decisions and implement changes.

The membership of the “old” IAE will vote on the dissolution of the association in order to avoid two associations of the same name running parallel. Everybody who is an IAE member in 2026 will be asked to vote electronically. This vote will take place in early December 2026. The membership will also be asked to agree that the funds of the “old” IAE will be transferred to the IAE e.V.

According to the Statutes §8 (similar to §4.1 of the old statutes) the General Assembly of the members is in charge of the IAE e.V. The transition to a new structure that did not have members required a temporary solution. The IAE e.V. was formally established in a meeting of the current Presidium of the IAE and members of the Council. In this foundation meeting the Presidium was requested to start off the new association for a period of maximum 4 years to help guide the IAE e.V. into this new chapter of its existence. The Presidium members, Tarek Tawfik, President; Willeke Wendrich, Vice-President; Richard Bussmann, Secretary General, have agreed to this.

By law, all members have the same voting rights. However, the right to stand for election is limited to Egyptologists with a doctorate. Furthermore, the Rules & Regulations distinguish levels of membership fees and define rights to present at ICE.