BYLAWS of USTC ALUMNI FOUNDATION
(revised on 9/30/2002 -- to be approved by the Board)
Article I Section 1. Name: The name of the organization is the University of Science and Technology of China Alumni Foundation, hereinafter referred to as "USTCAF". The University of Science and Technology of China will be abbreviated as USTC in this document. Section 2. Nature: The USTCAF is a non-profit organization. All members of the USTCAF work voluntarily. The USTCAF is independent of USTC. The USTCAF is independent of any USTC alumni association. Section 3. Address: Registered Office. The registered office of the USTCAF within the State of Delaware shall be at 7 Burkwood Drive, Newark 19713. [[ Address is changed. ]] Section 4. Other Offices: The USTCAF may also have offices other than said registered office within the United States and around the world. Section 5. URL: The website of USTCAF shall be http://af.ustc.edu The email address shall be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [[ Section 5 is new. ]] Article II Section 1. Mission: The foundation is founded to (1) promote the excellence of members of USTC, including students, teachers, and alumni in USA and elsewhere; and (2) promote the academic and cultural exchange between USTC and researchers in USA. Section 2. Goals and Awards: a. USTCAF shall raise donations from USTC alumni and elsewhere. USTCAF shall present various awards to USTC students and faculty members, but not limited to. [[ Section II-2-a is new. ]] b. USTCAF offers awards defined in following sections. Depending on the fund availability and circumstances, USTCAF can decide additional criteria for scholarship or award recipients. USTCAF will announce these additional criteria before the application procedure starts. USTCAF will also sponsor awards set up by private groups (see Article IV-5). Any new award and its selection criteria must to be consistent with USTCAF mission and must be approved by the Board (GB) (see Article IV-1). USTCAF current or retiring leadership within certain years may not be eligible for any award (see Article III-3(i)). [[ Add, above, "must be approved by the Board (see Article IV-1)." ]] c. Provide a scholarship to the most outstanding high school graduates in China to attend USTC. The scholarship is named "USTC Alumni Foundation Outstanding New Student Award". The recipients must be either ranked top in his/her province, or ranked top among all new students admitted to USTC. [[ Deleted: The recipients must fulfill at least one of the following three requirements: 1) scoring within the top one hundred in his/her province on his/her National High-Education Entrance Examination; or 2) being a winner of national/international high school student competition in mathematics, physics, chemistry, or other major academic field, within the last two years of high school education; or 3) scoring within top 5% of all new USTC students in the National High-Education Entrance Examination. ]] d. Provide an award, named "USTCAF Young Faculty Career Award" to outstanding young USTC faculty members at the HEFEI campus, based on achievements or promises in teaching and research. [[ New d. the old item d is moved to i: Assist USTC to recruit distinguished faculty members. Provide fellowship to bring promising young postdoctoral researchers from USA and other countries to work in USTC. ]] e. Provide a scholarship to the USTC students based on financial need with some minor academic standing requirements. The scholarship is named "USTCAF Goodwill Fellowship". [[ New e. ]] f. Provide award to people making significant, recognized achievement in promoting scientific exchange programs between USTC and universities in the USA and other countries. Provide financial assistance to bring distinguished professor(s) based in USA and other countries to give (series) lectures in USTC, or qualified USTC professor(s) to visit and lecture in USA and other countries. g. Provide a scholarship to the best graduates of USTC to assist them going to good graduate schools in the USA and other countries. h. Provide a scholarship to the best college graduates in USA and other countries, excluding those from USTC, to attend USTC for their graduate studies. i. Assist USTC to recruit distinguished faculty members. Provide fellowship to bring promising young postdoctoral researchers from USA and other countries to work in USTC. Article III Section 1. Organization: The USTCAF shall have a Governing Board, being referred as GB in this document, consisting of no less than ten (10), but no more than twenty (20) members. These members are called directors. The important decisions must be made by the GB meetings. The USTCAF shall have a three-member executive committee (EC), consisting of a chairperson, a vice-chair, and a secretary, and several other standing committees in charge of various functions/areas. Standing Committees include Membership/Alumni Services, Fund-raising, Finance, Publicity, Communication, USTC Liaison, and Scholarship. The Chairperson, Vice-chair, and directors of subcommittees are appointed by the GB, and they are usually directors of GB. Section 2. Executive Committee: a. The EC supervises the management, represents USTCAF externally, solves urgent problems, and sets agenda for the board (GB) meetings. b. The EC shall follow the bylaws and execute the resolutions of the GB. After vetoing any resolution made by the GB, a written report must be presented to the GB's next meeting. c. The EC must file a report on GB operations once every two months. d. The EC is responsible to deposit fund raised by the USTCAF into a bank and to co-sign all checks. e. The EC is responsible to record all contributions, member lists, and all expenditures. f. EC can invite advisors to attend GB meeting and monitor GB email discussion. However, the advisors can not vote. g. Vice-chair will serve as acting chair at Chairperson's absence. h. Chairperson is the official spokesperson for USTCAF. He/she can authorize any other officer or board member to represent him/her externally. i. Chairperson and other leaders of USTCAF are forbidden to conduct any political, business and other activities under the name of USTCAF inconsistent with the mission of USTCAF. Section 3. Procedures: a. GB is elected by members of the USTCAF. The procedure is defined by Article III-4. The term of the GB is one-year. Only those who have been members of the USTCAF for six months or more, but not a current USTC student nor an employee, are qualified to be the members of GB. All directors of GB must have electronic mail access (see III-3(h)(j).) b. Any member of GB can send a petition to the EC for a board debate on his/her proposal, usually, by electronic mail. The voting deadline must be at least seventy two hours after the call. A quorum needs two-third of directors. A passing resolution needs two-third votes. Only the Chairperson or three GB members can initiate such debates and voting. c. The Chairperson is elected by GB. Only those directors of GB are qualified for the Chairperson. The term for the Chairperson is one year which is understood not less than ten months, but not more then fourteen months. No one is to hold the Chairperson position for two consecutive terms. d. Upon an impeachment of two-third directors of GB, the Chairperson is to step down in fifteen days. e. Any officer can resign from the GB, the EC, or other subcommittees provided a notice of resignation seven days in advance. f. Any officer can be dismissed by 2/3 directors of GB at anytime. g. Committee chair's term is one-year and there is no term limit. h. Every GB member must report to the Chairperson by email once every other month either by contacting the Chairperson directly or participating in discussions at GB email list. A GB member can be dismissed by the EC if he/she fails to report for more than 4 months. i. Current GB members and GB members served in the past two terms are not eligible for any award sponsored by USTCAF. Other than normal expenditures, GB members or volunteers should not receive compensation from USTCAF for their work (see Article IV-3). j. GB may select new GB members if the lower limit of GB is about to be reached. k. GB may appoint advisors for USTCAF. Such advisors may participate GB meetings, but do not have a voting right. [[ New j, new k. ]] Section 4. Election: A general election for GB will be conducted between November each year and February the next year by electronic mail ballot. The election will be conducted by the current GB, or by a committee appointed by the current GB. A quorum needs one-forth of members. See III-3(a), III-5(d) and III-5(i) for qualification specification. The election needs to be announced thirty (30) days in advance. All nominations must be submitted to the election committee at least seven days before the election. GB members that have served only one year are encouraged to be self-nominated or nominated by others for a consecutive term to ensure continuity of USTCAF policies. [[ Deleted mail ballots. Add : See III-3(a), III-5(d) and III-5(i) for qualification specification. -- Note those sections are not revised. ]] Section 5. Membership: a. Founding members are alumni and teachers of USTC. b. Life-time members are those donating no less than the lifetime membership due within one year. They are eligible for all future voting. c. Regular members are those donating no less than the regular membership due within one year. The membership expires in one year. Regular members for at least three consecutive years with accumulative donation above a limit set by the GB will automatically become lifetime members. d. Payment of annual dues one hundred days prior to the election is a a prerequisite to being a voting member. e. The amount of dues is set by the GB. It may change each year. f. The EC shall be responsible for collecting the dues and keeping membership records up-to-date. The collected dues and records shall be kept by GB as well. g. Any financial contribution from one individual to the Foundation is considered as a membership payment. Unless specified by contributors, those who donate more fund than the membership due will be listed as members automatically. h. The account summary shall be presented to the GB and public at least once every two months. i. The Foundation keep the anonymity of all or part of information of a contributor from the public, if he or she wishes so. However, only those who are willing to release their names to USTCAF members have the voting privilege. Section 6. Member meetings: Only the GB can call the general member meetings. Members can submit proposed agenda items to the Chairperson or the directors of the GB. Announcement of the general member meeting including the agenda will be sent to all members no later than seven days before the meeting. A quorum needs one-third of members in such a case. Any resolution needs two-thirds for-votes. Such meetings are rare. Section 7. Minutes: Minutes of the meeting shall be prepared by the chairperson of the meeting and shall be distributed within two weeks after the meeting. Records of the approved minutes shall be kept by the EC. Article IV Section 1. Award Procedure: All USTCAF awards, no matter the source of funding is the general fund, or any subfund (see IV-5), must be approved by the Board (GB). In general, the Board (GB) would approve the award criteria and the awardee selection made by a private group whose USTCAF subfund covers the award, unless there is a concern, such as negative recommendations from USTC when verifying applicants' materials, or narrow selection base which may cause frauds, or possible discrimination in criteria or selection. In a normal situation, a subfund must submit a description and criteria of a new award to the Board (GB) six months in advance before the award can be issued. [[ New. ]] Section 2. Fund campaign: All donation forms and campaign letters under the name of the Foundation must be approved by the chairperson. All contributions must be payable directly to "USTC Alumni Foundation". To make checks payable to any fund raising member is illegal. Section 3. Expenditures: Guaranteed eighty five percent (85%) of fund will go to the scholarships. The rest of the fund would cover registration cost, fund transaction fee, postage cost, materials for printing award certificates, and other operational costs. Salary or work compensation for USTCAF officers/directors of the board is forbidden. Expenditures for fund raising parties will never be paid by USTCAF. Such expenditures must be paid by the party members only, not from the checks payable to the Foundation. Any expenditures inconsistent with the mission of USTCAF are forbidden. [[ add: The rest fund would cover registration cost, fund transaction fee, postage cost, materials for printing award certificates, and other operational costs. ]] Section 4. Financial reports: At least once a year, the Bookkeeper(secretary) needs to present a list of all contributions that year and a list of total contributions by each person in the history, which will be sent to every member as a form of receipt. All fund transactions and their description would be listed on USTCAF website so that the fund balance can be checked at any time by public. [[ add: All fund transactions and their description would be listed on USTCAF website so that the fund balance can be checked at any time by public. ]] Section 5. Private Scholarship: Anyone who wishes to set up private scholarship under USTCAF sponsorship and management is welcome to do so. In general, the organizers of the private scholarship should be responsible for the fundraising; a certain percentage of the private fund will be paid to the general fund; the organizers of the private scholarship have the right to set up their own criteria within the mission of USTCAF. Details of the private scholarship will be regulated by the guideline for private scholarship and the contract between the organizers of the private scholarship and USTCAF (see IV-1). All such private funds and the general fund must be listed on website for public to view. All funds are to be centrally managed by a committee under the supervision of GB, according to a fund management guideline. [[ add: All such private funds and the general fund must be listed on website for public to view. All funds are to be centrally managed by a committee under the leadership of the governing board, according to a fund management guideline. ]] Section 6. Regional subcommittees: All members are encouraged to form local subcommittees for the Foundation. A regional subcommittee will be expelled from the Foundation if it collects its own member dues, or its own fund. The Chairperson shall make decisions to dismiss any regional subcommittee if its policy disagrees with that of the Foundation. Article V Section 1. Amendments: The Bylaws may be amended by member meetings specified by Article III-7. The Bylaws can also be amended by two-thirds for-votes of GB. However the new Bylaws can be effective only after fifty days of the amendment. To ensure the continuity and independent nature of USTCAF, Article I-1, Article I-2 and Article II-1 of this bylaw shall never be changed in principle. The end.
The University of Science and Technology of China Alumni Foundation
BYLAWS