Akron Physics Club - By Laws
Date: September 28, 2019
I. Name, Purpose and Membership
The name of this group shall be the AKRON PHYSICS CLUB. Its purpose shall be to conduct meetings dealing with topics in science and technology that are of interest to members of the club. These meetings will usually A) be dinner meetings, B) occur monthly (except during summer and some Holidays) and C) feature an invited speaker on a previously-announced subject.
Membership will be open to interested scientists and engineers living in the general vicinity of Akron who regularly attend meetings and pay dues. Dues may be paid as a surcharge on the dinner cost or in the form of an annual fee, as determined by the Executive Committee. The dues are for the purpose of paying for communications to members, speaker expenses, and other necessary club operating costs. The dues will be set annually by vote of the Membership.
II. Officers, Terms and Executive Committee
The Officers of the Club, who must of course be Members of the Club, together handle the duties, listed in part III below. The Executive Committee organizes the specific positions needed in order to effectively accomplish the duties in part III. Positions of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Program Chair will always be needed. The Executive Committee may create other positions such as Program Vice-Chair, Reservationist, Name Tag Marshall, Vice-Treasurer, etc. and make minor changes in specific duties of certain position as needed, so long as these changes are announced to the membership at the next meeting. These Officers, meeting together, shall constitute the Executive Committee.
Officers shall be elected for one-year terms each May or September. The Officers will serve from June I through the following May 31, or until new Officers have been elected and installed.
III. Duties of Officers and the Executive Committee
A. The Chair will have general responsibility for the effective operation of the club, and will normally preside at all meetings.
B. The Vice-Chair will substitute for the Chair whenever necessary.
C. The Secretary will keep the club minutes and send out monthly notices of meetings to the members. (The Secretary may also act as Reservationist, handling various other duties in connection with taking dinner reservations from members, and arranging the necessary details with the restaurant for each monthly meeting --- but this is entirely negotiable between the Secretary and the Executive Committee, who may appoint another person to be Reservationist. In situations where the Secretary cannot attend a meeting, he/she will arrange with another member of the Executive Committee to handle these functions.
D. The Treasurer will collect dues from each member (keeping appropriate records), collect money for the dinners from members at the meeting, pay the restaurant for the meals provided at the meeting, and pay other authorized club expenses. The Treasurer also reports the status of the treasury at each meeting. (The Treasurer may also act as Name Tag Marshall, issuing name tags to those who made reservations at each meeting, making new name tags for new people, and collecting them at the end of each meeting.) A Name Tag Marshall position or Vice-Treasurer position may be added to handle or assist in some of these duties, as negotiated with the Executive Committee.
E. The Program Chair, with the advice and assistance of the Executive Committee, will arrange appropriate topics and speakers for the meetings throughout the club year. In the process of doing this, the suggestions for specific speakers and topics from all members of the club will be requested and carefully considered.
F. The Program Vice-Chair (if the position is needed) will substitute for the Program Chair whenever necessary. If there is no Program Vice-Chair, the Program Chair will arrange a substitute to handle duties in situations where he/she will be absent.
G. The Executive Committee shall (I) make appointment(s) to fill any vacant office(s) occurring between elections, (ii) propose to the Membership any needed changes in the annual dues, (iii) assist with arranging meetings and programs, and (iv) conduct annual elections. The Executive Committee shall meet after the May meeting and before August of each year to review direction and operations of the Club.
IV. Nominations and Elections
The Executive Committee will carry out the following procedures annually:
A. By April, it will solicit written or verbal nominations from the Membership of the Club for the offices to be filled, and will verify that those nominated would be willing to serve, if elected.
B. Prior to or at the May or September meeting, names of the nominees for each office will be announced and voted on. If the membership at the voting meeting approves, the Officers may be voted on as a group.