Organisation assurance Switzerland (overwiew) | All Swiss case studies

Canton of Berne

Middle Schools: Gymnasium Köniz-Lerbermatt

Status: accomplished in Spring 2009

There were 2 middle schools in Berne (Gymnasium Bern-Kirchenfeld and Köniz-Lerbermatt) who worked together to achieve a organisation assurance for both schools. This documents the experience we had in order to get organisation assured. - As Switzerland is very specific to local legislation details this can only give an idea on how an Orga Assurance can be achieved on similar school - but you might certainly have to find your own, but still similar way elsewhere in Switzerland

If you are interested in more don't hesitate to contact MathieuSimon, I'm willing to share our experience also in practical use after the assurance itself.

Proof of existance

We proofed our existance to the Orga Assurers through a chain of laws who build on each other. Basically this means:

Proof of the directors' existance

The laws and decrees did not identificate the Director of a school, the so-called Rektor.

There is a cantonal conference called "Konferenz der Schulleitungen der Gymnasien" (KSG). Informations about the KSG can be found here on the homepage of the education direction ERZ. There is list of the members of this KSG. Each director of a middle school is automaticaly part of the KSG (AFAIK). The up-to-date members' list with address information can be found here.

Proof of directors' eligibility (? Berechtigung) to sign for the school

Each middle school should have a Directions- and Organisation Manual (Führungs- und Organisationshandbuch) for internal purpose. There normally is a description of the directors rights in the description of its job (Stellenbeschreibung). Because it is a cantonal document, in the way that the Education Direction has to accept it's also "official".

Verification of the directors' signature

A quite difficult point: It would be nice to have either the director at the Assurance Meeting signing the COAP in persona or either to have to send him to a notary in order to get a notarized signature. - But normally there is no realistic chance to do so.

There are some discussion points now: Maybe it is sufficient that the director signs the COAP in front of a certified CAcert assurer (or even senior assurer with 150pts.?) which could be the organisation administrator.

On OpenExpo we (P. Dunkel and A. Bürki) agreed together that the directors' signature could not be accepted if the director of the institution signed the COAP alone. At least not without presence of a CAcert Assurer during this moment.

'How we did it:' The Organisation Assurers came to the Director, verified its identity with primary documents in order to be sure that he was the intended person. The OA's documented the moment of the signature for their archves.

Also the (future) organisation admins, were present at the moment of signature therefore at least 2 CAcert certified assurers were on place during this moment.

Final result