Past Bylaws: 2003

The USTCAF BYLAWS

The current bylaws of the USTC AF was adopted in 2003, pursuant to the laws of the state of Delaware and the article of incorporation of the USTC AF filed with the Delaware Secretary of State.

 

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 (revised on 9/30/2002 -- adopted on 1/16/2003)
 
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.

 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.

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, to accomplish USTCAF mission. 

  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)).   

  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. 

  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.

  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".
   
  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 than 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.

 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.

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

   [* The percentage is set zero at a Board resolution 2003-3.]

 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.

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