Operational Structure

CITA Secretariat

The CITA Secretariat takes care of the day-to-day management and activities for the association. To this intent, it employs an Executive Directive, an Administrative Assistant as well as external advisors for strategic and new technology issues.

• Principal Activities

• Administrative day-to-day management of the organization
• Assist in setting out and implementing the strategic direction on a continuous basis
• Organise a.o. CITA Council, Bureau Permanent and Working Group meetings
• Organise CITA’s International Conferences
• Assist the activities of CITA Working Groups
• Internal and external communication
• Issue CITA publications

CITA General Assembly

The General Assembly is the highest decision making body of the organization. It represents all CITA Members and meets about every 18 months. Full Members have voting power.

The General Assembly has decisive power of approval for:

• Budgets and accounts
• Memberships
• Modifications to the Articles of Incorporation
• Dissolution and winding-up of the association
• CITA Recommendations
• Appointment of Council and Bureau Permanent Members and the President

CITA Council

The CITA Council consists of the CITA Bureau Permanent Members and the Chairpersons of the CITA Regional Advisory Groups. It meets at least once a year.

All members are elected at the CITA General Assembly and represent a Full Member of the association.

• Objectives

• Provide strategic direction at global level to the CITA organization
• Approve activities at global level within the CITA organization

CITA Bureau Permanent (BP)

The main objective of the CITA Bureau Permanent is managing the association and continue to give strategic direction between two General Assemblies.  The CITA Secretariat assists the BP by taking care of the daily work. 

The BP meets 3 to 5 times a year and may also decide to establish sub-committees to work on specific issues.  Two such sub-committees are currently active:

BP members and the position of President, are elected at the CITA General Assembly. Vice-Presidents are appointed by the BP.

• Principal Activities

• Supervise the administrative and financial situation of the organization
• Decide on granting provisional approval of membership applications. The formal approval is confirmed by the General Assembly.
• Supervise the work of the CITA Secretariat, allocate resources for activities. This can be work for Working Groups, Regional Advisory Groups, CITA Secretariat internal and external staff, new services to members, new studies and projects, etc.

CITA Regional Advisory Groups (RAG)

The Regional Advisory Groups' objective is to take forward the CITA objectives in their geographically defined region through regionally focused advice and activities.

Four Regional Advisory Groups are currently established and more may follow where justified. The chair of a RAG is situated at a CITA member location, within the specific region.  For Europe, the Regional Advisory Group is located at the CITA Secretariat.

The establishment of a RAG is put to the vote at the General Assembly. It consists of at least a Chairperson, possibly assisted by one or more assistants or advisors. All RAG chairpersons are elected by the General Assembly; other RAG representatives are appointed by the Bureau Permanent.

• Regional Advisory Groups

• Asia/Australasia
• Central & South America
• Europe
• North America

The European RAG's principal activities vary from the other Regional Adivsory Groups, which are predominantly occupied with developing activities in their specific regions.  The European activities are very well established, partially due to the fact that the CITA Secretariat is situated in Europe. Therefore the European RAG actively assists in developing CITA’s strategic direction, overseeing its European Working Group activities and maintaining contacts with European regulatory and international bodies.

RAG Europe - Working Group arrangemments for Technical Work

The nine former CITA Working Groups have been in a transitional period over 2010 and have gradually been replaced by 5 key Topic Areas. Technical work has since been taken forward under a Technical Expert Group and a Working Group for each. Major project are handled separately as individual project managed by project teams.

The proposal by the CITA Bureau Permanent to replace the former arrangements for the European CITA Working Groups was approved at the 2009 CITA General Assembly. The aim of it being to continue make CITA's work more effective by separating project work from the core objective of Working Groups, promoting exchange of views and best practices. Project work will now be handled separate as individual projects managed by project teams.

CITA Working Groups will now become a part of the CITA's work under specific topics areas, each with some sub-topics areas. Activities for these topic areas will be coordinated under the Regional Advisory Group for Europe. A Policy Expert (PE) will be leading each topic area assisted by 1 or 2 Technical Experts (TE) for each sub-topic area. All member will be able to give their input through Working Groups. More details

Since the CITA General Assembly in 2009 new topic area for CITA's work have been identified, covering state of art themes for modern vehicles roadworthiness. Working Groups were before especially technical orientated, the new topics areas are in addition also more operational and strategically orientated.

Five topics areas together with their Policy Experts have been approved by the CITA Bureau Permanent at its 132^nd meeting held on 17 March 2010. A Working Group will be set-up for each topic area to make sure the full range of CITA members and roadworthiness schemes is represented.

CITA Working Groups

CITA Working Groups meet as often as necessary and meetings either take place at locations on the invitation of CITA members, or in Brussels at the CITA Secretariat.

Projects

CITA is currently working on two major priority projects:

1. Inspection of Electronic Controlled safety Systems (ECS)
2. Databases for Periodical Technical Inspections (PTI) and RoadSide Inspections (RSI)

Don't hesitate contacting the CITA Secretariat if you have any further question.