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INTERNATIONALE
BIOMETRISCHE GESELLSCHAFT
The Biometric Society is an international society for the advancement of biological science through the development of quantitative theories and the application, development and dissemination of effective mathematical and statistical techniques. To this end the Society welcomes to membership biologists, mathematicians and other interested in applying similar techniques.
The Society shall have Regular Members, Sustaining Members, Associate Members and Student Members. Applicants for each class of membership must be approved by the Regional or National Secretary or, in the case of applicants for At Large membership, by the General Secretary. The Society also shall have Honorary Members, who shall be granted all the rights of Regular Members. The Council may designate any individual Regular Member of the Society as an Honorary Member, in recognition of his scientific distinction and of his service to the Society, provided that no current member of the Council may be so designated. The total number of Honorary Members shall not be increased by more than two in any calendar year.
The general officers of the Society shall be the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, and the Editor. The Council shall elect biennially a Vice-President, who has not earlier served a term as President. The Vice-President shall serve for one year, then automatically succeed to the office of President in which he shall serve for a two-year period, and finally serve a further term of one year as Vice-President. A vacancy in the Presidency shall be filled by the Vice-President. A vacancy in the Vice-Presidency shall be filled by an Acting Vice-President, chosen by lot from among those Members of Council who are in the final two years of their terms of office. A President or Acting Vice-President coming to office in this manner shall exercise the full duties and responsibilities of office until 31 December of the same year or until the Council shall have taken steps to restore the appropriate succession of office, whichever date be the later. In the event of any unscheduled succession of the Vice-President to the Presidency or any appointment of an Acting Vice-President, the Council shall determine, as early as is practicable, what new elections may be necessary to restore the regularity of succession to office. The Council may chose to elect a new President, a new Vice-President, or both, subject only to the provision that any person so will complete the term of office of the person replaced unless unwilling or incapacitated. The Secretary and the Treasurer shall be elected by the Council for a four-year term and may be re-elected once. The intent is that the terms of office of Secretary and Treasurer overlap by two years, one being elected at each regular election for the Vice-Presidency. A vacancy in the position of Secretary or Treasurer shall be filled by appointment by the President, subject to approval by Council, until the next election for the Vice-Presidency. The terms of Secretary or Treasurer so elected will be reduced if this is necessary to restore the phasing of the two offices. The Editor shall be appointed for a specified term by the President with the advice of a special nominating committee acting for the Council. The general officers shall form the Executive Committee of the Council. Upon request of the President, the Regional Presidents and National Secretaries shall solicit the members of the Society for names of candidates for Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. At least eight weeks shall be allowed for this. Each Region or Group shall develop procedures for selecting up to two nominees for each office, not more than one of whom can be from within the Region or Group. All these names shall be submitted by the appointed date to the President who shall in turn submit the names to the Council in a mail ballot to be conducted according to a procedure determined previously by the Council.
The Council may establish geographically delimited Regions of the Society subject to the condition that a new Region have at least 50 members. Each Region shall be governed by Regional By-Laws approved by the Council. The officers of a Region shall include a Regional President, a Regional Secretary, a Regional Treasurer, and such other officers as may be provided in its By-Laws. The offices of Regional Secretary and Regional Treasurer may be combined. A Regional President may not serve continuously more than two consecutive years. Regional Secretaries and Treasurers shall be elected for terms of one year but may be re-elected. Nominations for officers of a Region shall be submitted by a committee appointed by the President of the Region with members of the Region being given opportunity to make further nominations. For new Regions, the committee is appointed by the President of the Society. When membership in any nation outside an organized Region reaches ten, the Secretary shall provide a list of that membership to each member in that nation and invite them to form a National Group and elect a National Secretary. National Secretaries shall act as treasurers for the Society within their respective Groups. They are subject to the same statutes as Regional Secretaries in respect to their term of Office. If membership in a Region falls below 40 members, Regional status may be reduced to Group status, subject to approval by Council. If Group size falls below 8 members, the Group may be dissolved, subject to approval by Council.
The legislative body of the Society is the Council, which shall make all policy decisions, submitting any vital question affecting the Society as a whole to the members for a mail vote. It shall fix dues for members and approve the receipt of gifts and bequests; it shall appoint representatives to international and other agencies; and shall act upon proposals submitted to it by its Executive Committee and by the Chair of other committees. The Council shall consist of ex-officio and of ordinary members. The President, the Vice-President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the Editor shall be ex-officio members, the President acting as Chairman of the Council. The Chair of the Finance Committee shall be an ex-officio member if not already an ordinary member. There shall be three times as many ordinary members of Council as there are Regions, considering the areas outside of organized Regions as a single region. Every Region shall have at least two ordinary Members of Council. They shall be elected by a mail ballot of all Society members for terms of four years, with approximately one-half of the members being elected every second year. If imbalance occurs between the number to be elected in alternate elections, Council may decide that some of the members to be elected shall serve for a term of two years only. Council members should be selected, so far as possible, to be representative of the fields of activity of the Society members. The Secretary shall submit biennially to the members eligible to vote a list of candidates to fill the ordinary vacancies in the Council. Members may also vote for names not on this list. No ordinary member of Council may serve continuously more than two consecutive terms of four years each, nor serve concurrently as both an ordinary member and an ex-officio member. Vacancies on the Council created by the resignation or death of an ordinary member, or by change to ex-officio status of such a member, shall be filled for the period remaining to be served by an appointee of the President of the members Region, or, in the case of a Member not belonging to a Region, by an appointee of the President of the Society. Such appointments are subject to confirmation by the Council.
Any activities which fall within the sphere of interest of the Society may be authorized by the Council, such as international and local scientific meetings and the issuance of publications reporting the activities of the Society, or containing other matters of biometric interest. The Society may affiliate itself with international organizations or with national organizations in areas not represented by authorized Regions. With Council approval a Region may affiliate itself with regional or national organizations.
No part of the net earnings of the Society shall ever inure to the benefit of any private individual. No officer, member, trustee, agent or employee of the Society shall ever receive any compensation or any pecuniary profit whatsoever from the operations of the Society except reasonable compensation for services actually rendered to the Society in effecting one or more of its proper objects and purposes, or shall ever receive any part of its property or assets, upon its dissolution or the termination of its corporate existence or otherwise.
Amendments to the Constitution may be proposed by the Council, or in writing by at least 25 members of whom not more than 80 per cent shall belong to any one region. Before becoming effective, any proposal must be reviewed by the Council and ratified by a two-third majority of those voting in a mail vote taken among all members provided, however, that this Constitution shall never be amended in such a manner as to abrogate or impair the terms of Article 7 hereof.
Council By-Laws consist of its working rules and agreements. A current copy shall be provided by the Secretary for each incoming general officer, member of the Council and Regional officer, and on request to any member of the Society. Council By-Laws may be amended by a two thirds majority vote of mail ballots received from members of the Council. All Council members, ordinary and ex-officio, shall have equal voting rights in all ballots and elections.
Persons residing in an organized Region or in an area served by a National Secretary who satisfy the rules governing full membership may become Associate Members of the Society for that period in which they have immediate access to a copy of BIOMETRICS or in effective collaboration with a Member as judged by a Regional officer or a National Secretary, or are subscribers to a journal officially sponsored by a Region with the approval of the Council, and meet any additional requirements in their respective regional By-Laws. An Associative Membership shall terminate automatically at the end of the year in which these conditions are no longer met, but the Associate Member may then become a Member upon payment of the annual dues of a Member. Associate Members shall have all the rights of Members except those of voting in Society elections, holding elective office and receiving BIOMETRICS. The number of Associate Members in a Region shall not exceed the number of ordinary Members.
During years they are full-time students attending accredited schools and universities, students who satisfy the rules governing full membership may become student members of the Society. Student members shall have all rights of membership except for those of voting in Society elections and holding elective office.
Institutions may become Sustaining Members of the Society. Each Sustaining Member shall receive two institutional subscriptions to BIOMETRICS and also be entitled to designate one person to have full prerogatives of a member without further payment of dues (including receipt of a personal copy of BIOMETRICS). Sustaining Members shall be attached to the Society as a whole, but each representative of a Sustaining Member shall be regarded as a member of the Region in which he or she resides and be subject to its By-Laws. A representative residing in a nation having a Group shall be regarded as a member of that Group. The Sustaining Members shall be listed in at least one issue of each volume of BIOMETRICS.
Nomination of a Member of the Society to Honorary Life Membership may be submitted to the Secretary at any time. It must be sponsored by five or more members, including at least two from outside the candidate's Region; a statement of support of the nomination should be submitted by the sponsors. In September of each year, the Secretary shall inform the Council on all valid nominations received before 1st August, but excluding any person currently serving on the Council. He shall enclose a voting form and a statement of the maximum permissible number of new Honorary Members. He shall be responsible for conducting an election, in which each Member of the Council may support any number of candidates but no candidate shall be elected to Honorary Life Membership unless supported by at least three-quarters of those who vote. The President shall have power to resolve any problem arising from a tie in the number of votes.
The General Secretary shall record the action of the Council and the Executive Committee, shall conduct the Society's correspondence and shall transmit to the Executive Committee, the Council, and the Business Manager such information as is necessary for them to fulfill their responsibilities. On authorization by the Council, the Secretary shall represent the Society in bodies to which it is affiliated and shall obtain, and transmit to Council, annual or biennial reports on the activities of Regions, of National Groups, and of affiliated organizations.
The detailed administration of the Society's office and records shall be performed by a Business Manager, a salaried post to which appointment is recommended by the Treasurer and made by the President subject to ratification by the Council. The Business Manager cannot authorize spending of funds without approval by the Treasurer. A Directory of the Society's membership shall be issued at intervals of not more than four years. This shall include the Society's Constitution and By-Laws, the Regional By-Laws and a listing of the membership, and will be distributed to all members receiving BIOMETRICS.
The Biometric Society is a single society in which some functions are delegated to regional subdivisions. Regional and National Officers shall maintain up-to-date lists of members of their areas and shall forward to their members material, such as ballot papers, provided by the General Secretary. Regional Treasurers and National Secretaries are responsible for collecting the annual subscription from members in their respective areas and for forwarding to the Treasurer the amounts due to the general officers of the Society as fixed by the Council. Each Region shall present a financial statement each year to its members and send a copy to the General Treasurer and Secretary.
The officers of each Region shall be elected at a Regional business meeting or by mail ballot. The Regional Secretary shall notify the results of the election to the Secretary, who shall in turn inform the Council. Regional and National officers shall be sent copies of Council Memoranda by the Secretary and shall be invited to comment thereon.
On behalf of the members in their Groups, National Secretaries are expected to arrange meetings with a scientific program, keep the Society advised of biometrical news and needs, endeavor to enroll all suitable persons in the Society and collect and transmit the annual dues of each member to the Treasurer of the Society. National Secretaries shall receive the general material sent to each Regional Secretary and be entitled to retain for local expenses part of the dues of each member as determined by the Council.
For purposes of representation on the Council all areas outside the organized Regions shall be considered collectively as a single Region.
Upon request from the President each Regional President shall submit to the Secretary the names of at least two nominees who are members of that Region. Each Region shall develop its own procedures for selecting these nominees. The President shall obtain nominees to represent the areas outside the organized Regions.
The Secretary shall prepare a printed ballot on which the nominees are listed in alphabetical order together with their regional affiliations and brief biographical sketches. The ballot shall also contain a listing, with regional affiliations, of all current members of the Council. The ballot shall display prominently the statement, "This ballot is for the election of ( ) ordinary members of the Council for four-year terms. It is recommended that the new members should be chosen to be representative of the regional subdivisions and, if possible, of the fields of activity of the Society members." All ballots carrying votes for not more than the number of members to be elected shall be counted. Following tabulation of the votes, the nominees to be declared elected shall be those who receive the greatest number of votes, subject to the conditions that at least one member be elected from each Region in each ballot and that no Region shall have more than one-sixth of ordinary Council members. The Secretary shall be responsible for distributing the ballots and for counting the votes. In the event that a Regional President fails to submit nominations with the consequence that a Region has fewer than two Council members, the President of the Society, after discussion with the Executive Committee, will appoint a member from that Region to serve a full term.
The Society's journal BIOMETRICS
shall be the responsibility of the Editor, who may be assisted by
a Managing Editor and by Associate Editors. General editorial
policy shall be formulated with the advice of an Editorial
Advisory Committee. The Chair of this Committee is appointed by
the President, subject to confirmation by Council. The Committee
shall include the editors of journals published by Regions of the
Society, and one additional member from each Region to be
appointed by the President for a term not exceeding four years.
They shall be representative of the various scientific interests
of the Society's members. With the advice of the Editorial
Advisory Committee and a special nominating committee, the
President appoints, subject to confirmation by Council, the
Editor (if any), and also the Editor of Shorter A second publication, the BIOMETRIC BULLETIN, shall serve as the Society's news organ and may also contain other material of short-term interest. The BIOMETRIC BULLETIN shall be the responsibility of the Bulletin Editor who is appointed in the same manner as the Editor of BIOMETRICS. The Editorial Advisory Committee of BIOMETRICS shall also assist in formulating policy of the BIOMETRIC BULLETIN. The Bulletin Editor is an ex-officio member of the Advisory Committee.
Each international biometric conference sponsored by the Society shall be arranged by an organizing committee and a program committee, both appointed by the President, with overlapping membership. The organizing committee shall include representatives of the host country and/or institution. Within general policies set by Council, this committee shall make local arrangements, handle the publicity and have financial responsibility for the meeting. The program committee shall include representatives of the host country and of other countries. The offices of the Secretary and the Treasurer may be called upon for such services as they can supply. A committee on long-range planning of conferences shall be appointed by the President, consisting of the Secretary, who will serve as Chair, the Chair of each of the immediate past, present and future International Biometric Conferences, and six ordinary members appointed from Council, each to serve for six years irrespective of their membership of Council in succeeding years, with two members in rotation leaving the committee every two years. This committee shall recommend dates and locations for future conferences and wherever possible coordinate these with meetings of other statistical societies.
There shall be a Finance Committee consisting of four regular members from four different regions of the Biometric Society, appointed by the President with the approval of the Council. The General Treasurer,Business Manager, and Managing Editor shall serve on the Committee in an advisory capacity. The Committee's year shall extend from June 1 to May 31 of the following calendar year. The term of each appointed member of the Finance Committee shall be four years with one member retiring and being replaced each year.The chair of the Committee shall be the appointed member with seniority of service. The Finance Committee shall inspect and coordinate the annual budget proposals of the Secretary, Treasurer, Editor and Managing Editor, and be responsible for the annual audits of the books of the Biometric Society. It shall submit an annual budget report to the Council by December 31, making recommendations regarding Society dues and the administration of Society funds for the next financial year. It may submit other reports as appropriate. There shall also be a Finance Advisory Committee to advise the Treasurer on matters relating to finance. This shall consist of three members of the Region in which the Treasurer resides, to be proposed by the Chair of the Finance Committee, subject to the approval of the President. Appointments are to coincide with the term of office of the Treasurer. The Treasurer and employees of the Society who are approved by Council shall be authorized to deposit funds to the credit of the Society with banks and/or trust companies, and to invest monies in insured savings accounts or government bonds. All persons who are authorized to withdraw funds, sign checks, drafts or money orders for payment of monies shall be bonded or otherwise insured against default or other contingency. All transactions of the Treasurer shall be independently audited annually by competent persons or firms selected with the approval of the Finance Committee.
The dues of Regular Members, Associate Members and Student Members shall be fixed by the Council from time to time, and may be varied on a geographical basis. Regions may retain a part of the dues of their Members, the amount to be fixed by the Council. When authorized by a vote at a regional business meeting, which may be held by mail, the dues in any Region may be increased, the increase to be used for regional purposes, provided that any such increase shall be approved by the Council before continuing in effect for a second year. The dues of Regular and Student Members include a subscription to BIOMETRICS and the BIOMETRIC BULLETIN. Members reaching the age of 65 who have been Members for 5 years or more have the option of discontinuing their subscription to BIOMETRICS and retaining their subscription to the BIOMETRIC BULLETIN, their dues being reduced accordingly. A Sustaining Member shall pay annual dues as determined by the Council. Of this sum, one half shall be allocated to the Region or Group which the designated representative is a member. Honorary Members of the Society shall be exempt from the payment of annual dues.
The membership year of the Society and terms of service of its officers shall coincide with the calendar year, except where specified otherwise. The membership and annual assessment of new members shall date from January 1 of the year in which they join the Society, except for those who become members in October, November and December. The initial assessment of such members shall apply to the following year, but until the end of December they shall have the option of receiving the current volume of BIOMETRICS upon payment of the subscription rate for members. The fiscal year in the offices of the Secretary, the Treasurer and the Business Manager shall extend from February 1 to January 31 of the following calendar year. |
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