Become an IMO volunteer expert delegate

The work of The Nautical Institute at the IMO is supervised by the eight members of our IMO Committee. Candidates for our IMO Committee are scrutinised by our Nominations Committee, which recommends people to The Nautical Institute’s Council for formal appointment. Based on this process of selection and appointment by the elected members of our governing body, our IMO Committee is deemed to be representative of all our members.

All Nautical Institute IMO Committee members have extensive experience of both maritime regulation and the workings of the IMO. This committee is chaired by Captain Robert McCabe FNI and meets in formal session twice a year. In between these sessions, correspondence ensures collaboration and decision making regarding our activities and influence at the IMO continues.

Within our full-time staff, the Accredited Representative for The Nautical Institute is Captain David Patraiko FNI, our Director of Projects. The day-to-day preparation for IMO events and the leadership of our delegation at almost all IMO meetings falls to our Senior Technical Manager, Captain Chris O’Flaherty AFNI. 

Preparation for the many IMO meetings every year requires Captain O’Flaherty to review the agendas and papers submitted to the IMO by all member states and other consultative organisations. Working alongside many of the flag states and the other consultative organisations at the IMO, The Nautical Institute provides comment, advice and expertise on subjects that fall within our remit.  This includes initiating about six detailed papers per year on regulatory subjects that are particularly important to our members, as well as reviewing papers drafted by other delegations from which co-sponsorship is sought.

The amount and quality of maritime expertise within the membership of The Nautical Institute is exceptional. To ensure the highest possible quality of comment, advice and experience is imparted by our organisation to the members of the IMO, we have developed our Volunteer Expert Delegate Scheme.

Expert delegates are members who are specialists in their field who volunteer their time and knowledge to support The Nautical Institute at the IMO. By working with both our full-time delegation and our IMO Committee, expert delegates assist with the development and preparation of our positions, which comprise formal written opinions as well as ‘lines to take’ or oral statements.

The role of a Nautical Institute expert delegate starts many months before any IMO meeting occurs. The delegates start to read papers in detail about four months before a formal IMO session; these papers can include proposals for new regulations, comments on other member state’s proposals, or reports that may influence discussions. To note and potentially comment on such papers at an early stage, volunteer expert delegates are encouraged to monitor the IMO’s meeting documents portal, which is only available to registered delegates. At this early stage, any expert comments from organisations such as The Nautical Institute have the greatest impact on future discussions, regulations and official guidance.

The development and possible formal submission of comments by The Nautical Institute requires expert delegates to become involved in drafting papers in accordance with IMO (and United Nations) guidelines. That is when the considerable experience of our full-time delegation in the headquarters of The Nautical Institute, as well as that of our IMO Committee, is crucial to ensure the expertise of our members can best be harnessed to deliver the highest possible impact at the IMO.

As the date for an IMO meeting approaches, our volunteer expert delegates receive The Nautical Institute’s formal pre-meeting briefing. This sets out all the agenda items, including a summary of the key points of each item and paper, as well as any specific issues of interest to our members. The briefing also sets out proposed positions, which our delegation will adopt during any discussions.

For some items that are not within the remit or expertise of The Nautical Institute, we will adopt a neutral position or have no position. We will listen to the discussions or debate, and then impartially note and report the outcome.

For topics within our remit (in accordance with our bylaws and Articles of Association), and for which we have suitable expertise available, we may decide to comment or advise on a specific matter. Expert delegates are expected to be part of any such decision that falls within their speciality for meetings they have volunteered to attend. Once those discussions are completed, with the Nautical Institute’s IMO Committee acting as the elected representatives of our membership, we formally endorse the agreed positions of The Nautical Institute as well as the text of any pre-planned oral statements, which the IMO refers to as ‘interventions’.

Of note for all members of our delegation, the positions endorsed by our Nautical Institute IMO Committee in advance of meetings are binding on our delegates, who must represent those positions at the IMO.

During IMO meetings, our expert delegates provide real-time advice to the leader of The Nautical Institute’s delegation, especially if an oral intervention by another delegation raises a material fact or issue not considered as part of The Nautical Institute’s pre-meeting deliberations.

Once suitably experienced in the protocols of meetings at the IMO, expert delegates may be invited to take the lead for specific subjects and to be our official representative in the working groups and drafting groups that breakout from plenary sessions.

Another role for our expert delegates is to join IMO correspondence groups, which develop and refine the detail of future regulations via e-mail in-between formal IMO Committee meetings. All members of any IMO correspondence group are experts in the subject under development and are sponsored by either a flag state or an accredited consultative organisation such as The Nautical Institute.

Determining suitability to be an expert delegate with The Nautical Institute’s delegation requires consideration of these three questions:

• As part of their registration, members of the Volunteer Expert Delegate Scheme inform our full-time staff (led by Captain Chris O’Flaherty AFNI) of their areas of specific interest and experience.
• When meetings or workstreams are announced by the IMO that fall within their sphere of expertise, expert delegates are expected to contact our full-time staff to volunteer for our delegation at the relevant event or as part of an IMO work package. It is this contact that starts the cycle of pre-meeting consultation and attendance outlined above. In some cases, our staff may make contact direct with registered subject matter experts to ask for input. Of note, for meetings at which we have too many volunteers as expert delegates, we may refine the participation list accordingly.
• It is important to note that our expert delegates are all volunteers. The Nautical Institute does not pay consultation fees, expenses, travel or subsistence for volunteers who attend IMO meetings.
• Attendance by expert delegates at IMO meetings is generally expected to be in person. This is of particular importance in the early stages after becoming a volunteer expert delegate. Once experience has been gained of how the IMO operates, including the diplomatic formalities and protocols to be followed, some expert delegates from The Nautical Institute do attend some meetings via the IMO’s hybrid online system.
• Once registered for a specific meeting by The Nautical Institute, all delegates are required to follow the lines to take and positions approved by our IMO Committee. These approved positions must be maintained throughout all discussions or interventions, both in formal IMO meetings and when informally networking with other delegations during coffee breaks, at lunch and also during any official receptions (such as the IMO Secretary General’s reception on the Monday evening of all IMO committees and sub-committees).
• On completion of an IMO meeting, all members of our delegation are expected to contribute to our formal written reports. Depending on the size of our delegation, our expert delegates may also be asked to write short articles within their area of expertise for our website or as a specialist subject article in Seaways. Unless they ask not to be included, expert delegates will also be tagged on our social media posts associated with IMO meetings.

Joining our Volunteer Expert Delegate Scheme is limited to members and fellows of The Nautical Institute (MNI, AFNI or FNI). The key steps are:

1. Contact our lead delegate to the IMO at [email protected]. Your email should outline your interest in becoming a volunteer expert delegate, your areas of expertise and the IMO meetings at which your expertise will be most beneficial. Please include your CV.
2. Once your application has been assessed by our team, you will be invited for a short interview, during which we can discuss the scheme with you and identify the areas in which your expertise can create the most impact for The Nautical Institute.
3. Complete the application and declaration form, which will be sent to you.
4. Identify a suitable IMO meeting that you can attend and at which your expertise is of most use and volunteer to help prepare for and then attend that meeting.
5. Meeting registration will then be completed on your behalf by the team at The Nautical Institute headquarters.
6. Partake in the preparations for your chosen meeting, focussed on your area of expertise.
7. Attend the meeting and enjoy being a delegate who can influence the course of maritime regulation.