Worded by the Bureau at Bologna in February 2016

1. Aims and Activities
The International Commission for the History of Towns aims to establish contacts and facilitate the coordination of research between specialists in all branches of the history of towns.

To achieve these aims, the Commission:
organises within the framework of the scientific part of its General Assemblies colloquia dedicated to a particular theme;
publishes an information bullettin (“Nouvelles”/ “Newletters”) on the homepage of the Commission;
sponsors the publication of urban bibliographies by country, of selected urban history texts (Elenchuses), historic atlases of towns etc:, and supports all other kinds of study and research in urban history.

2. Status
The Commission constitutes an international body affiliated to the International Committee of Historical Sciences in accordance with their regulations.

3. Members
3.1 Categories
The Commission is composed of three categories of members:
(a) Active national members, confirmed by the General Assembly, after examination and approval of the candidates by the Bureau. These will be a maximum of about 70 full national members;
(b) Full intercontinental members, confirmed by the General Assembly. There will be a maximum of 10 full intercontinental members.
(c) Honorary members proposed by the national members and confirmed by the General Assembly after deliberation by the Bureau

3.2 Mandate
The mandate of full members, national and intercontinental, will last for 5 years with the possibility of renewals on the condition of active membership within the Commission.

3.3 Voting rights
Only full members may vote.

4. Working groups
The members of Atlas Working group consist of active members of national Atlas Working groups and of full and honorary members of the Commission for the History of Towns. The Atlas Working group has own working assemblies in addition to the General Assembly of the Commission.
Other working groups may be installed by the General Assembly to carry out tasks enumerated in article 1.

5. The Bureau
5.1 The Bureau consists of a president, 2 vice-presidents, a secretary and a deputy-secretary, a treasurer and a deputy-treasurer and of a not more than 5 full Commission members with at least one representative of the latter. Bureau members are elected every 5 years by the General Assembly following the International Congress of Historical Sciences. Their mandate is renewable.

5.2 The election of the president and of the two vice-presidents will take place on one ballot before that of other members of the Bureau who will be elected by a single vote from a list presented by the newly-elected president and vice-presidents.
Elections are made by an absolute majority of votes from the full members present. A quorum is fixed at 50% of full members. If members are not able to come they have to send a procuration; each member can present only one procuration of an absent member.

5.3 The Bureau will meet at least once a year. The meeting could take place as a virtual conference.

5.4 The Bureau is concerned with financial matters, with preparations for General Assemblies, with relations with national and international organisations and with working parties and with the works or the Commission.

6. The General Assembly
The General Assembly is the regular meeting of the three categories of members of the Commission.

6. 1 There will be at least one general assembly every year.

6.2 The choice and preparation of an Urban History theme for the International Congress of Historical Sciences, as well as the discussion of those theme and other scientific research based on work done by members of the Commission and/or external experts is the prime concern of the General Assembly.

6.3 The General Assembly is in charge of statutary business, the proposal of the Bureau concerning the election and re-elections of members, elects the Bureau, confirms honorary members and receives the reports of Bureau meetings and the annual report of the treasurer.

6.4 The General Assembly may set up from its membership working parties to carry out certain of the Commission’s tasks, notably those enumerated above under article 1.

7. Finances
7.1 At the time of a General Assembly or a meeting of the Bureau, each member will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs, unless the host country undertakes to pay them in whole or in part. In special cases the Commission will try to facilitate the General Assembly’s attendance of members.

7.2 Each member of the Commission pays an individual subscription, which is fixed by the General Assembly.

7.3 All active members of the Commission who omit to pay their subscription for three successive years without good reason, will be considered as having resigned. The honorary members are invited to keep on paying the equivalent of the member’s subscription.

(These new statutes have been worded by the Bureau at Bologna in February 2016).

Annex: Current list of memberships by country:

Albanie : 1
Allemagne : 3
Autriche : 2
Belgique : 2
Biélorussie : 1
Bosnie-Herzégovine : 1
Bulgarie : 1
Croatie : 1
Danemark : 1
Espagne : 2
Estonie : 1
Finlande : 2
France : 3
Grande-Bretagne : 3
Grèce : 1
Hongrie : 2
Irlande : 2
Italie : 3
Lettonie : 1
Lituanie : 1
Luxembourg : 1
Moldavie : 1
Montenegro : 1
Norvège : 2
Pays-Bas : 2
Pologne : 3
Portugal : 1
République tchèque : 2
Roumanie : 1
Russie : 2
Serbie : 1
Slovaquie : 1
Slovénie : 1
Suède : 2
Suisse : 2
Turquie : 1
Ukraine : 1