New Zealand Mathematical Society : Constitution

Constitution of the New Zealand Mathematical Society Incorporated

Article I: Name

The name of this organization shall be the New Zealand Mathematical Society Incorporated (hereinafter referred to as “the Society”).

Article II: Objects

The purposes for which the Society shall be established are:

To promote research and education in the mathematical sciences and to promote the development, application and dissemination of mathematical knowledge within New Zealand.

To assist mathematicians in New Zealand to maintain effective cooperation with one another and with mathematicians and mathematical societies in other countries, and to facilitate collaborative research in the mathematical sciences as a consequence of such cooperation.

The Society shall be administered with these ends in view and not for the purpose of financial gain for its members.

Article III: Members

The membership of the Society shall consist of three classes of members-ordinary, honorary, and institutional members.

Ordinary membership shall be open to any person interested in the objects of the Society. Election to ordinary membership shall be by vote of Council (Article VI) upon written application and upon payment of the annual subscription. However, a person who is not normally resident in New Zealand and who is a member of a Society with which the New Zealand Mathematical Society maintains a reciprocity agreement shall, upon application to Council, be admitted as and remain an ordinary member of the New Zealand Mathematical Society at a reduced subscription.

An honorary member shall be any person of distinction in the field of mathematics or any other person whose work or whose services to the Society are judged by the Council to merit election to honorary membership. There is no subscription for honorary members.

Institutional membership may be granted by the Council to Institutions, Associations, business enterprises and other organizations interested in the objects of the Society.

The Annual General Meeting shall set the subscription for the following financial year (1 January to 31 December) for ordinary members, which shall be payable in advance. The subscription for Institutional members will be determined by Council in each case.

Resignations from membership of the Society shall be made in writing. Any person more than two years in arrears in subscription is no longer a member of the Society.

Article IV: Optional Accreditation

An Ordinary Member (or Reciprocity Member) may apply to the Council to become a Graduate Member, Accredited Member, or Fellow. The Council shall make and issue, and may revise from time to time, Rules which shall give effect to the following requirements.

A Graduate Member shall have completed a degree or diploma at a recognised university or other tertiary institution, the studies for which shall include mathematics as a major component, and shall be currently employed or occupied in the development, application or teaching of mathematics.

An Accredited Member shall have completed a postgraduate degree in mathematics at a recognised university or other tertiary institution, or shall have equivalent qualifications, and shall have been employed for the preceding three years in a position requiring the development, application or teaching of mathematics.

A Fellow shall be a person who currently has or previously has had the qualifications of an Accredited Member and who, in addition, is deemed by the Accreditation Committee (see paragraph below) to have demonstrated a high level of attainment or responsibility in mathematics and to have made a substantial contribution to mathematics or to the profession of mathematician or to the teaching or application of mathematics.

An Honorary Member shall have the right to become a Fellow immediately upon application to the Council and without payment of a fee.

The Council shall establish an Accreditation Committee to consider applications for designation as a Graduate Member, Accredited Member or Fellow, and to administer the Rules described in the first paragraph of this Article. In its determinations, the Accreditation Committee shall discount interruptions to employment such as temporary unemployment and parental leave.

A Graduate Member may use the abbreviation GNZMS, an Accredited Member may use the abbreviation MNZMS, and a Fellow may use the abbreviation FNZMS. These designations and the corresponding abbreviations are the rights of that class of Member only while the member remains a financial member of the Society and while the occupational requirements outlined in the first paragraph of this Article continue to be satisfied. The occupational requirements shall be deemed to be satisfied by Honorary Members and in the case of interruptions to employment such as temporary unemployment and parental leave, and they shall not be applied in the case of retirement or promotion to an administrative or other position.

A fee shall accompany each application to the Accreditation Committee. The fee shall be additional to the annual subscription charged by the Society and shall be the only charge for accreditation.

Article V: Branches

With the approval of the Council (Article VI), regional branches may be formed from members of the Society normally residing in a particular region. Each such regional Branch shall elect annually a Convener and a Secretary (who may be the same person) and other officers from among its members. The persons so elected shall constitute the Committee of the Branch, and shall arrange meetings, including an Annual General Meeting, and otherwise conduct the business of the Branch. Each Branch may send a delegate to each meeting of the Council. Delegates shall be allowed to speak but not to vote.

Article VI: The Council

The Council shall be the governing body of the Society. It shall consist of the President, one Vice-President (Article VII), and seven elected members.

The elected members shall each serve for three years. These members may be available for re-election but shall not serve for longer than six years in succession. If a current Council member is elected to the office of Incoming Vice-President (Article VII) the vacancy will be filled by the election of a further Council member for a term of three years. In this event if there are insufficient nominations to Council to cover this circumstance, then extra nominations will be called for immediately at the Annual General Meeting.

Editors of any journals the Society may publish, if they are not already members of the Council, shall have the right to attend meetings and vote on matters pertaining to their journals. Council may co-opt further members for limited periods for specific purposes. In addition to the above members, one Council member will be a representative appointed by the New Zealand Association of Mathematics Teachers.

The Council shall determine the policies of the Society and shall supervise the affairs of the Society according to such by-laws as the Council may adopt. A by-law or amendment or repeal thereof shall come into effect thirty days after notification to the membership in a publication of the Society or otherwise in writing, unless during this thirty day period twenty members of the Society shall so petition and the by-law or amendment or repeal thereof shall then be submitted to a vote of the membership and shall not come into effect unless approved by a majority of those voting. However, this restriction shall not apply to those by-laws adopted by the time this constitution is first ratified.

The Council may enter into working arrangements and reciprocity agreements with other societies and organizations.

The Council shall meet at least once a year, and at other times if requested by the President or at least three members of Council. Members of Council shall be notified at least two weeks before any such Council meeting. In addition, a special meeting of the Council shall be held as soon as possible after the Annual General Meeting (Article VIII) to appoint a Secretary and a Treasurer (Article VII) who shall be chosen from among the seven elected members of Council.

Five members of the Council shall constitute a quorum, provided that at least one of the members present shall be the President or the Vice-President. Meetings of the Council shall normally be chaired by the President, if present, or by the Vice-President. All matters at Council meetings shall be decided by a majority vote of members of Council present and voting. In the case of a deadlock, the Chairperson shall have a casting vote.

Any vacancy in the Council or Offices (Article VII) occurring other than by the normal expiration of a term of office, may be filled by an appointment of the Council. Officers and members thus appointed shall hold office until the next Annual General Meeting. When the vacancy is in the office of President of the Society (Article VII) the Vice-President shall be appointed President. In the event of the Incoming Vice-President resigning during his~her term of office, the next President shall be elected at the following Annual General Meeting.

Article VII: Officers

The Officers of the Society shall be as follows:

The President
The Vice-President
The Secretary
The Treasurer

The term of office of the President shall be two years. The Vice-President shall normally be either the person who held the office of President immediately before the President in office (in which case he~she shall be known as the “Immediate Past President”) or the person elected towards the end of the first year of a President’s term of office to succeed the President in the following year (in which case he~she shall be known as the “Incoming Vice-President”). The term of office of the Vice-President shall be one year. The term of office of the Secretary and Treasurer shall be one year, but these officers shall be eligible for re-election.

The President shall be ex officio a member of all committees, and shall deliver the Annual Report of the Council at the Annual General Meeting (Article VIII).

The Secretary shall be responsible to the Council for the records of meetings and correspondence of the Society.

The Treasurer shall be responsible to the Council for the records of membership and the management of the financial affairs of the Society in accordance with the policies determined by the Council. The Treasurer shall keep the Society’s financial records and prepare the necessary financial statements.

Article VIII: Meetings

There shall be an Annual General Meeting of the Society at such a time and in such a place as the Council may determine. The business of the Annual General Meeting shall be:

To receive the Annual Report of the Council.
To receive the duly audited Annual Statement of the income and expenditure and assets of the Society.
To elect the Incoming Vice-President in alternate years (Article VII).
To elect members of Council.
To appoint an Auditor for the ensuing year.
To transact any other business of which notice in writing has been given to the Secretary at least six weeks prior to the Meeting.

Special General Meetings may be convened at any time by the Secretary or the President under the direction of the Council or upon the requisition of a petition of not less than 20 members of the Society to discuss only those matters specified in the petition.

Four weeks’ notice of any Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting shall be given to members.

At every Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting the Chair shall be taken by the President, if present, or by the Vice-President. If both President and Vice-President are absent, a Chairperson shall be nominated from members of the Council by the persons present at the Meeting. The quorum for General Meetings of the Society shall be twenty members. All business shall be decided by a majority vote of those present and voting. In the case of a deadlock the Chairperson shall have a casting vote.

For election of officers voting shall be done by secret ballot; other matters shall be voted by voice, or by a show of hands if called for by any members of the Society present at the meeting.

Article IX: Amendments

An amendment to the Constitution may be proposed by five members of the Society.

An amendment shall be adopted by a majority of not less than three- fourths of the members who vote on the amendment by mail or at a General Meeting, provided the amendment has been duly proposed and the membership notified at least four weeks before the vote is taken.

Article X: Common Seal

There shall be a Common Seal of the Society which shall be that as appointed by the Council which shall be responsible for the safe custody and control thereof. Whenever the Common Seal of the Society is required to be affixed to any deed, document, writing or other instrument, the Seal shall be affixed pursuant to a resolution of the Council or of the Society by the President or Secretary and any two other members of the Council. The person so affixing the Seal shall at the same time sign the document to which the Seal is so affixed.

Article XI: Control and Investment of Funds

All monies received by or on behalf of the Society in an account with any bank or savings bank from time to time to be fixed by the Council and all cheques or withdrawal slips drawn on the account shall be signed by any two of the President, Secretary and Treasurer. The Society may from time to time invest and reinvest in such securities and upon such terms as it shall think fit, the whole or any part of its funds which shall not be required for the immediate business of the Society.

Any income, benefit, or advantage must be used to advance the charitable purposes of the organization.

No member of the organization, or anyone associated with a member, is allowed to take part in or influence any decision made by the organization in respect of payments to, or on behalf of, that member or associated person of any income, benefit, or advantage.

Any payments made to a member of the organization, or person associated with a member, must be for goods or services that advance the charitable purpose and must be reasonable and relative to payments that would be made between unrelated parties.

Article XII: Dissolution

The Society may be wound up voluntarily if the members, at a Special General Meeting duly called for the purpose, pass a resolution requiring the Society to be so wound up and the resolution is confirmed at a subsequent General Meeting called together for that purpose and held not earlier than thirty days after the date on which the resolution so to be confirmed was passed. Any assets remaining after all debts have been paid shall be given to charitable organizations established mainly to promote or encourage scientific or industrial research.