BYLAWS of USTC ALUMNI FOUNDATION
(revised on 3/30/1998)
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 901 Rahway Drive, Newark, DE 19711.
Section 4. Other Offices:
The USTCAF may also have offices other than said registered office
within the United States and around the world.
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. We offer 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 or criteria has to be consistent with USTCAF
mission. USTCAF current or retiring leadership within certain years
may not be eligible for these awards (see Article III-3(i)).
b. Provide a scholarship to the most outstanding high school graduates
in China to attend USTC. The scholarship is named "USTC
Alumni Outstanding New Student Award". He/she 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.
c. Assist USTC to recruit distinguished faculty members. Provide fellowship
to bring promising young postdoctoral researchers from USA and other
countries to work in USTC.
d. 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.
e. Provide a scholarship to the best graduates of USTC to assist them
going to good graduate schools in the USA and other countries.
f. Provide a scholarship to the best college graduates in USA and other
countries, excluding those from USTC, to attend USTC for their
graduate studies.
Article III
Section 1. Organization:
The USTCAF shall have a Governing Board (GB) consisting of no less
than ten, but no more than 20 members. These members are called
directors. The important decisions must be made by the Governing Board
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 Governing Board, and they are usually directors of
the Governing Board.
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 prsented 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. The Governing Board is elected by members of the USTCAF. The
procedure is defined by Article III-4. The term of the Governing
Board is one-year. Only those who have been members of the
USTCAF for six months or more are qualified to be the members
of the Governing Board. All directors of the Governing Board must
have electronic mail access.
b. Any member of the Governing Board 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 Governing Board
members can initiate such debates and votings.
c. The Chairperson is elected by the Governing Board. Only those
directors of the Governing Board 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 the Governing Board,
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 the Governing Board
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 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-2).
Section 4. Election:
A general election for the Governing Board will be conducted between
November each year and February the next year by mail and electronic
mail ballot. The election will be conducted by the current Governing
Board, or by members appointed by the current Governing Board. A
quorum needs one-forth of members. The election needs to be announced
thirty days in advance. All nominations must be submitted to the
election committee at least seven days before the election. Board 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.
Section 5. Membership:
a. Founding members are alumni and teachers of USTC.
b. Life-time members are those donating no less than the liftime
mebership due within one year. They are eligible for all future
votings.
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 the Governing Board 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 7. 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 8. 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. 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 2. Expenditures:
Guaranteed eighty five percent of fund will go to the scholarships.
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.
Section 3. 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.
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.
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.
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 the Governing
Board. 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.