ARLIS/NA Southeast Chapter

BYLAWS

ARTICLE I. Name.

The name of the organization shall be the Art Libraries Society / Southeast Chapter, hereafter referred to as ARLIS/SE.

ARTICLE II. Purpose.

ARLIS/SE shall promote the purposes of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) within the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and the American Virgin Islands.

ARLIS/SE is organized and will be operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, in order to advance the cause of art librarianship and to promote the development, good management, and

enlightened use of all art libraries and visual resources collections. In the furtherance of such purposes, the organization is authorized.

  1. To promote the continuing professional education of its members and the general knowledge of the public by sponsoring conferences, seminars, lectures, workshops, and other exchanges of information and materials concerning all aspects of art librarianship and visual resources curatorship;
  2. To stimulate greater use of art libraries and visual resources collections by sponsoring, supporting or publishing resource directories, bibliographies, inventories, periodical journals, occasional papers, reports and related materials concerning the organization and retrieval of art information;
  3. To foster excellence in art librarianship and the visual arts by establishing standards for art libraries and visual resources collections, by promoting improvements in the academic education of art librarians and visual resources curators, by sponsoring awards for outstanding achievement and by other means to that end;
  4. To engage in any activities conducive to furthering the organization's purposes, provided that such activities may lawfully be carried on by an organization exempt from federal income tax under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (or the corresponding provision of any future United States internal revenue law).

ARTICLE III. Membership.

  1. Eligibility. Membership is open to all members of ARLIS/NA.
  2. Dues.
    1. Dues shall be determined by the Executive Committee and shall be ratified by vote of the membership.
    2. Dues shall be paid to the Secretary/Treasurer.
    3. The membership year shall be from January 1st to December 31st.
    4. The Executive Committee shall have the right to impose additional fees upon the membership for specific reasons, subject to the approval of the membership.
  1. Privileges.
    1. Personal members of the Chapter are eligible to vote.
    2. Personal members of the Chapter are eligible to hold elected offices.
    3. All members, both personal and institutional, shall be entitled to receive announcements of the meetings of the Chapter, the Chapter newsletter, and other notices of general interest to the membership.

ARTICLE IV. Elected Officers.

  1. The elected officers of the Chapter shall be the President, the Vice-President/President-Elect, the Secretary/Treasurer, and the Editor of the Chapter's Newsletter.
  2. Terms of office.
    1. The term of office of the Vice-President/President-Elect shall be three years. (See C.1.)
    2. The term of office of the Secretary/Treasurer shall be two years.
    3. The term of office of the Editor of the newsletter shall be two years.
    4. The terms of office of the Secretary/Treasurer and the Editor of the Chapter's newsletter shall overlap, so that elections for those offices will occur in alternate years.
    5. The terms of office shall expire at the close of the calendar year.
  1. Duties of officers.
    1. The Vice-President/President-Elect shall serve as Program Chair during the first year in office, having the authority to appoint any committee or committees to assist in the planning and/or promotion of the annual meeting, and shall be responsible for the sending of all announcements of the meetings to the membership. The second year of office shall be served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chapter, having the authority to appoint the Nominating Committee and other special committees as states in the Chapter Bylaws and presiding over the annual business meeting in the fall and a second meeting at the ARLIS/NA annual conference. The third year of office shall be served as Past President, being an official member of the Executive Committee, who shall act as official advisor to the Chapter.
    2. The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve as Membership Chair and shall be responsible for the maintenance of all Chapter documents, the Chapter Archives, and all correspondence other than announcements of meetings, acting as liaison to ARLIS/NA Headquarters for the Chapter.
    3. The Editor of the Chapter's newsletter shall be responsible for the compilation and mailing of at least two newsletters per year, one preceding the annual business meeting and the second following the ARLIS/NA annual conference, and at other times as the need arises. The Executive Committee and the membership assume responsibility for contributing news items and short articles to the Chapter newsletter.
    4. Resignation of officers or vacancy of office. A formal letter of resignation shall be submitted to the Executive Committee. In case of the resignation of the President, the Vice-President/President-Elect shall assume the duties of that office. If the Vice-President/President-Elect, the Secretary/Treasurer, of the Newsletter Editor shall resign, the other members of the Executive Committee shall have the power to fill any vacancy that may occur.

ARTICLE V. Nominations and Elections.

  1. Nominating Committee.
    1. Purpose. The Nominating Committee is charges with the selection of a slate of qualified candidates from the list of personal members who have expressed the willingness to serve on the Executive Committee of the ARLIS/SE Chapter.
    2. The Committee shall be appointed by the President by June 1st, and shall consist of three members, either personal members or a representative of an institutional member.
    3. The Committee shall draw up a tentative slate of candidates, in accordance with the Southeast Chapter bylaws, whereby, only personal members of the Chapter may be eligible to hold an elected office.
    4. The Chair of the Committee shall contact or shall delegate to other members of the Committee the responsibility for contacting prospective candidates, and shall keep copies of all official correspondence to be filed with the Secretary/Treasurer of the Chapter.
  1. Qualifications for Office. Candidates must be personal members of the Chapter and shall submit a written acceptance of the nomination with the Chair of the Nominating Committee.
  2. Elections.
    1. If only one nominee for each office is selected, the Nominating Committee shall present the slate of candidates before the membership present at the annual business meeting, and voting shall occur at that time.
    2. If more than one nominee for each office is selected, a ballot shall be drawn up and shall be submitted to the current Vice-President/President-Elect for inclusion in the announcement of the annual business meeting. The ballot shall be returned to the Chair of the Committee for tallying, and must be received by a designated dates of at least two weeks prior to the annual business meeting to be valid. The ballot shall include brief biographical information and a brief statement from the candidates in a similar fashion to that of ARLIS/North America. The Chair of the Nominating Committee, or a representative thereof, shall report the results of the election to the candidates and to the members of the Executive Committee prior to the annual business meeting. The Nominating Committee shall disclose the results of the election to the membership present at the annual business meeting and the results shall be reported in the Chapter newsletter.

ARTICLE VI. Executive Committee.

Executive Committee. The elected officers and the immediate Past President of the Chapter shall constitute the Executive Committee.

ARTICLE VII. Meetings.

  1. Meetings of the Chapter shall be called by the Executive Committee.
  2. ARLIS/SE shall have at least two membership meetings: one business meeting in the fall and a second meeting at the ARLIS/NA annual conference. Other special or statewide meetings are left to the discretion of individual state memberships with notification of the Executive Committee.
  3. The Vice-President/President-Elect, serving as Program Chair, shall act as host of the annual meeting and shall be responsible for the announcement of the annual meeting to the membership at least two months in advance, and any additional publicity, such as announcements of the meeting in various state and/or regional library publications.

ARTICLE VIII. Reports.

  1. The annual report of the Chapter shall be drafted by the Secretary/Treasurer and shall be approved by the other members of the Executive Committee following the guidelines set forth by the Executive Board of ARLIS/NA.
  2. The Secretary/Treasurer shall send reports of all meetings of the Chapter to the Southern Regional Representative and to the Executive Director of ARLIS/NA.
  3. The Secretary/Treasurer shall submit reports of annual meetings and other special meetings to the editor of the appropriate ARLIS/NA publication.

ARTICLE IX. Special Committees.

Special or ad hoc committees shall be appointed by the Executive Committee at the recommendation of the President of the Chapter or by written petition submitted to the Executive Committee by no less than five personal members.

ARTICLE X. Affiliation with Other Organizations.

Affiliation with other organizations in the Southeastern region shall be at the discretion of the Executive Board of ARLIS/NA and shall be in accordance with the guidelines supplied by the Executive Board.

ARTICLE XI. Charitable Activity Restrictions.

No part of the net income of ARLIS/SEW shall inure to the benefit of or be distributable to its officers or other private persons, except that the organization shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services actually rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of the purposes and objects of this organization. No substantial part of the activities of the organization shall by the carrying on of propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and the organization shall not participate in or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.

Notwithstanding any other provisions set forth in the Bylaws, at any time during which it is deemed a private foundation, the organization shall not engage in any act of self-dealing as defined in Section 4941 (d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws; the organization shall not own any excess business holdings that would subject it to tax under Section 4943 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws; the organization shall not make any investments in such manner as to subject the organization to the tax imposed by Section 4944 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws; and the organization shall not make any taxable expenditures as defined in Section 4945(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws.

Notwithstanding any other provision of these Bylaws, the organization shall not conduct or carry on any activities not permitted to be conducted or carried on by an organization exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws, or by an organization contributions to which are to be deductible under Section 170 (c)(2) of such Code or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws.

ARTICLE XII. Dissolution.

Upon the dissolution of the organization or the winding up of its affairs, the assets of the organization shall be distributed exclusively for charitable or educational purposes or to organizations which are then exempt from federal tax under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws and to which contributions are then deductible under Section 170 (c)(2) of such Code or corresponding provisions of any subsequent federal tax laws. Organizations having purposes similar to those of this organization shall be preferred.

ARTICLE XIII. Amendments.

  1. Amendments to the Chapter Bylaws may be proposed by any voting member and shall be submitted to the Executive Committee in writing.
  2. The text of the proposed amendment shall be distributed to the voting membership at least two weeks prior to a business meeting.
  3. Approval by a two-thirds majority of voting members and the approval of the Executive Board of ARLIS/NA shall be necessary to amend the Chapter Bylaws.
ARLIS/NA Chapter Bylaws
Created April 10, 1997