Foreword by ibby president, Peter Schneck

REPRESENTATION AND ORGANIZATION

To a large extent, the NS are directed and represented by a President, a Secretary General or Executive Officer and up to two Liaison Officers. Their names, as at June 2008, are listed in the following table. The current contact information can be found on the IBBY website: www.ibby.org

Other staff members, often employed by supporting organizations, occasionally complement these core representatives. It is worth noting that many of the NS rely on voluntary work and usually develop a great number of wide-reaching activities.
Of the 59 NS that completed and returned the BR, 20 said that they were affiliated or were a branch of another institution; 39 declared themselves to be totally independent. Thus, there is not a prevalence of a single structure, though independent NS are in the majority.

• 
  Affiliated to another organization or branch of an institution: Australia, Belgium (Flemish branch), Bolivia, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela.
  
• 
  Independent: Albania, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay.
  

There are NS with their own office and some that do not have one: 38 of the NS have an office and 21 do not.

• 
  NS with an office: Argentina, Austria, Belgium (Flemish branch), Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, New Zealand, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela
  
• 
  No office: Albania, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Rwanda, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay
  

Different NS have different rules regarding their membership. In some cases, membership is restricted to organizations, usually because the IBBY NS is an umbrella organization (e.g. Austria and Croatia). In other cases, members are exclusively individual members, although these will sometimes represent a publishing house or an organization that they direct. By far the most common pattern for membership is a combination of organizations and individuals.

In almost all cases, the NS charge membership fees. Many NS have different categories of membership such as: Student, Individual, Organization, Donor, etc. Most of the NS say that membership fees cover only a small part of their budget.