| By Laws of the Ratsnake Foundation |
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A Non-profit Group ARTICLE 1. Name The name of the group shall be The Ratsnake Foundation referred to hereafter as the Foundation ARTICLE 2. Purpose The purpose of the Foundation shall be:- 1. To offer a source of reference material relating to 'rat snakes' primarily for its members. 2. A platform where members can upload articles sharing experiences of captive husbandry via documents of members own material, observations in nature and/or any relevant information concerned with rat snake species, including links to external sources, breeding, brumation, feeding, distribution ranges & other data displayed in an at a glance format. 3. The Foundation largely comprises of hobbyist rat snake enthusiasts that hope to provide useful data collated via surveys that may be further used for the benefit of academics and hobbyists alike. 4. To provide a near real time forum to facilitate the above and further discuss matters as described above in a courteous and respectful manner, promoting cooperation among individuals interested in all aspects of rat snakes. 5. Honorary membership may be granted to a small selection of individuals that have contributed to the understanding of rat snake behaviour, taxonomy, natural history or husbandry. 6. The overall aim is to distribute an ever growing body of information to benefit amateur and professional herpetology, to further increase our knowledge of these animals and provide a vector for the cross flow of information between academic and hobbyist rat snake enthusiasts. 7. As the Foundation is not a commercial venture in nature, any funds exceeding running costs and expenses incurred by members or the Committee, minus a float for unforeseen expenses and the setting up of merchandisable goods shall be donated to the Conservation Fund, which shall be donated annually to a conservation project that will benefit rat snake species as agreed by its members commencing after the first two years of operation. ARTICLE 2a. General Prohibitions The Foundation shall never be operated for the primary purpose of carrying on a trade or business for profit. No compensation or payment shall ever be paid or made to any member, officer, director, trustee, creator, organiser of the Foundation or substantial contributor to it, except as an allowance for expenditures of services made or rendered in the operation and maintenance of the Foundation. No sum of money (whole or any portion of the assets or net earnings, either current or accumulated) shall be given by way of reward to any Foundation member or private individual by way of distribution or divided amongst, for their personal financial benefit. (See Articles 3a. & 3b. for exceptions) ARTICLE 2b. General The Foundation is an International online society for rat snake enthusiasts. All Committee meetings are held on line through Digital messenger systems, forums or email. Minutes of these meetings will then be published on line in the Ratsnake Foundation Committtee announcement forum. Nominations and voting will take place on the Foundation forums via Poll. The domain name ratsnakefoundation.org is registered to the Foundation as is the web hosting. The Annual General Meeting shall take place on line, in a special AGM forum set up for its purpose where all Full Members on that date will be granted access to vote via anonymous Poll. ARTICLE 3. Membership Membership of the Foundation shall be open to all persons eligible to pay for membership over the age of 13. ARTICLE 3a. HONORARY MEMBERSHIP Persons of distinction who have contributed to the advancement and the understanding of rat snake behaviour, taxonomy, natural history or husbandry are eligible for election as Honorary Members on the nomination of the committee. The grade of Honorary Member is a significant honor bestowed by the Foundation and is awarded for life. Honorary Members are elected by the Board of Directors and Full Membership 'from among those individuals that have contributed to the understanding of rat snake behaviour, taxonomy, natural history or husbandry and who are not members of the Foundation. Honorary Members shall be entitled to all rights and privileges of the Foundation, except the right to hold office. ARTICLE 3b. Free Membership Free membership may be granted for a period of One Year to members that have submitted and had accepted more than 3 articles of 1000 words or more. Free membership shall run for one year from the renewal date of an individuals present membership. ARTICLE 4. Dues Dues shall be set by the Board of Directors and will run for one full year from the date of joining. ARTICLE 5. Board of Directors The Foundation shall comprise of a Board of Directors; Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Secretary & Admin. The term of office shall be one year commencing on January 30th following election, with the exception of the formation of the Foundation, which shall run for a year initially or up to January 30th. ARTICLE 5a. Committee The committee shall be Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Secretary, 3 Ordinary Members & Admin. Ordinary members of the committee shall be elected as the membership grows. One ordinary Committee member shall be elected for each 50 full members who join, which shall be limited to 3 ordinary members. These will be nominated by the members as membership reaches the 50, 100, 150 status and then voted on by the membership. Their term of office in the first year will end on 30th January 2008, thereafter one year, with elections taking place on 30th January each year. ARTICLE 7. Staff All additional staff required for the smooth running of the Foundation must hold Full Membership to the Foundation. As the Foundation grows there maybe a need to add additional staff positions, these will be decided by the Board of Directors and taken to vote at a Committee meeting. 7a. The Moderation Team shall consist of no fewer than 2 members they will be responsible for maintaining order on the boards. 7b. Guidelines for the Moderation Team The Forum Moderation Team shall be appointed by the Committee. They are responsible for the smooth running of the forum and to make sure that members abide by the forum rules. Members of the Forum Moderation Team will differentiate between their own personal posts and those made in their role as Moderator by clearly marking their posts with Moderated by: *their name* Reason: *profanity for instance* The Forum Moderation Team is answerable to Admin and the Committee. The Forum Moderation Team shall have no banning powers over Full Members; this decision is to be made by The Committee. If a Moderator believes that a persons action warrants this, a discussion by all Moderators and Admin will take place and only then will it be passed to the Committee for a final decision. The Forum Moderation Team privileges will include the ability to delete, close/re-open, and move threads and posts. The forum Moderation Team will abide by the rules of the forum at all times. They should act as a role model to the rest of the members. The Moderators behaviour must set an example to how other members should behave. The Moderation Team does not have friends or enemies, all members should be treated the same. Moderators should not allow their personal feelings to influence their judgment about the content posted on the forum or the behaviour of members. These are defined by the forum rules and Moderators personal feelings have nothing to do with them. Moderators should always keep in mind that this forum is (and will always remain) a gentlemen's playground, where members come to enjoy discourse with other rat snake enthusiasts. They deserve the utmost respect and that is what they should get. Your actions should be well justified and the member against whom you are taking actions, should be aware of the reasons that caused your actions. Under no circumstances can a Moderator edit/remove a thread or post, without explaining his actions to the offending member. As well as stating in the thread their reasons and name, we ask that Moderators show a courtesy to members and also PM them of the action taken. If Mods are asked to intervene between disputes between members, then this MUST be done by PM or E-mail, under NO circumstances should it be allowed on the public forum. Members of the Moderation Team must also be Full Members. Privileges Closing/locking threads. Moderators can close a given thread to further posting, effectively ending the conversation if the topic has run its course or it has generated a heated debate. This allows the existing content to remain fully visible, so that readers can easily see why the thread has been locked, the Moderators will post an explanation immediately before or after closing a thread. Closing a thread should be a joint decision by a majority of the Forum Moderation Team. Editing posts. In the event that a post is made that contains only some content that breaches forum rules, Moderators are able to remove that content while still leaving any legitimate content. Even if an entire post is removed via editing, users will still be able to see who originally posted it and when it was originally posted, so that users who view the thread later won't be confused by any references to it. Usually this method is used to remove illegal or grossly offensive material that would remain visible in a closed thread, or to stop a single post from derailing an entire thread. Pinning/sticking threads. The threads in a section are usually displayed in reverse chronological order by last post. This means that the threads at the top of the listing for a section will be the ones in which someone has most recently posted, and therefore posting in a thread will "bump" it to the top of the listing. However, pinned threads remain above unpinned threads at all times, no matter how old. This may be used to, for instance, keep a copy of forum rules or other important information at the top of every section of the board. Deleting posts and threads. There are different kinds of deletion. In general, something that's deleted vanishes from public view, if it continues to exist at all. Posts that break forum rules can be moved to the Deleted forum in the Staff Area, which makes them invisible to forum members. They can then be dealt with by a joint decision by a majority of Moderators. Splitting and merging threads. If two threads exist on similar topics or multiple topics are being discussed in one thread, the threads can be merged or the thread can be split to provide clarity to the reader. 7c. The Editorial Team shall consist of as many editors as needed. 7d. Guidelines for the Editorial Team Editors are appointed by the Committee. Article editors shall be responsible for sourcing new articles which are then approved by the Committee. Request permission from authors for inclusion on the Foundation Site of articles already published elsewhere and forward permission onto the Secretary. Editing articles for spelling and grammar. Editors will liaise with authors where alterations are to be made for approval. No one editor can send an article live on the website; this requires a joint decision between at least two editors and Admin. Article Editors are responsible for making sure that at least two new articles are available to members each month. ARTICLE 8. Board of Directors Section 1. The Board of Directors shall consist of the Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, Membership Secretary, Secretary & Treasurer Section 2. The Board of Directors shall manage the affairs of the Foundation and shall make all rules and regulations deemed necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Foundation. Actions of the Board of Directors may be countermanded at any membership meeting upon motion, duly passed by a majority of the members voting at said membership meeting (see Article 11). Section 3. The Board of Directors shall meet at least twice a year. A majority of the Board of Directors shall constitute a quorum. A majority vote of the Board of Directors present at a meeting shall be sufficient to pass any motion, except as these By-laws otherwise provide. Section 4. The term for Directors shall be one year commencing on January 30th following election. Provision shall be made for any individual that wishes to end their tenure prematurely and duties will either be delegated or a replacement via election shall be appointed to cover the post. Section 5. Meetings of the Board of Directors shall be called by the Chairperson or a quorum of the Directors. At least one week's notice shall be given for meetings except in emergencies. ARTICLE 9. Vacancies and Absences Section 1. Permanent vacancies in any office or on the Board of Directors, other than the immediate past Chairperson shall be filled by the Board of Directors for the unexpired term, subject to the approval of a majority of members voting at the next membership meeting. Section 2. In the event of absence of any officer, his duties, as listed in Article 6, shall be assumed, where possible, by the officer below that position. ARTICLE 10. Elections Section 1. Candidates for each position on the Board of Directors and for members of the Committee shall be nominated by Full Members and must be a full member. Section 2. Any full member who is eligible to vote shall be eligible for nomination for the Board of Directors or Committee member. No member may hold two offices at the same time, nor can a person be on the Board of Directors and a Committee member at large simultaneously. Section 3. Board of Directors and Committee members at large shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting, and shall be eligible for re-election. Each member shall be eligible to vote. Section 4. A majority of the votes cast shall be required to elect any officer. In the event of a tie in any contest between two candidates, then the election will be repeated as many times as necessary until one candidate achieves a majority. In the event that three or more candidates are running for an office and none receives a majority, then a run-off election will be held between the top two vote-getters. Should it not be possible to distinguish the top two vote-getters (either because of a 3-or-more-way tie for first place or because of a tie for second place), then the election will be repeated as many times as necessary until either one candidate achieves a majority or until the top two vote-getters are clearly defined so that a run-off election can be held. A plurality shall be sufficient to elect members-at-large of the Board of Directors. Any tie for the final member-at-large position will be resolved by a run-off election among the tied candidates. The run-off will be repeated as many times as necessary until the tie is resolved. ARTICLE 11. Membership Meetings Section 1. Special membership meetings may be called by the Chairperson or by notice signed by at least twenty members, giving at least one week's notice. At such meetings no business other than that specified in the notice shall be transacted. Section 2. Ordinary Members of the committee shall be present at these meetings and represent the views of the full membership. Section 3. Votes may be made on behalf of the membership at these meetings by the Ordinary Committee Members or they can request a Full Member Voting system via Poll on the Foundation Forum. ARTICLE 12. Resignation and Expulsion Section 1. Resignations of officers, directors or members shall be in writing (email) and shall be delivered to the Chairperson. Section 2. No Committee member or director may be removed from the Committee or from the Board of Directors except for failure to perform the duties of his office or directorship or for violation of existing Foundation rules. Said Board of Director or member at large shall be given reasonable notice and opportunity to be heard. No such removal shall be effective unless passed by a majority of all the Committee members. See Section 4 for the procedure of termination from the Committee. Section 3. All or some of the rights and privileges of any member may be suspended or a member may be expelled from the Foundation but only for violation of existing Foundation rules. An accused member shall be given reasonable notice of the complaint against him and an opportunity to be heard by the Board of Directors. No suspension or expulsion shall be effective unless passed by a majority of all the Directors. Expelled members may apply to the Board of Directors for new membership not sooner than one year after expulsion. Any such application may be accepted or rejected by the Board of Directors. Section 4. Committee members are required to submit a monthly report and perform their duties as outlined in there committee position. 4a. The monthly duties of the committee are; Duty 1. To welcome new members, add posts or comment to others and be generally visible to the membership. Duty 2 .To carryout any duties that are either written into their specific duties or tasks that have been promised during the month. Duty 3.Submit a monthly report Duty 4a. To assist or create projects for the Foundation and attempt to encourage others to contribute to the Foundation. This is a Long Term Goal, to be reviewed quarterly in April, July, October & January and will be required to be included in that month’s monthly report. 4b. A points system is in place linked to these duties, with a point given for any duty not accomplished due to lack of commitment. 3 points and the committee member shall be asked to stand down. 1 point for no effort which is voted by a majority of the committee, not accomplishing 2 out of the 3 duties as outlined in Section 4. 4a results in 1 point (concessions are made for committee members who have signed in with their absence, illness, holidays, etc. during that month although continued absences may not be taken into consideration). Committee members can redeem themselves by not having any points for 3 months and will lose one strike for every 3 months without, with the exception of Section 4. 4a Duty 4, which is non redeemable. ARTICLE 13. Dissolution Upon the dissolution of the Foundation, the Board of Directors shall, after payment of all liabilities, dispose of all the assets of the Foundation to a non-profit organization with aims, interests and objectives similar to the Foundations, such as a conservation project for a rat snake species or funding for research of a scientific study. ARTICLE 14. Amendments Amendments to these By-laws may be proposed by the Board of Directors or by submission to any officer of a proposal signed by any ten members. Any such proposed amendments must be accepted by a majority vote. Amendments shall then become effective upon publication.
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