Bylaws

By-Law I: Statement of Purpose and Aims

1. To help students develop their skills in chess and become aware of their ability to think logically.

2. To organize the chess activities at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

3. To organize events on and off-campus for fund-raising, field trips, and etc. for student members.

By-Law II: Membership

1. Open to all students and personnel of M.A.T.C., without discrimination. Without regard to race, color creed, national origin, or physical impairment have equality of opportunity for membership in the organization, or, in place of this type of statement, the organization must make a statement of membership whereby all students satisfying a specific criteria of membership not based upon race, color, creed, national origin, or physical impairment shall be able to join the organization.

2. The members are entitled to use the club facilities under the pre-condition that they conform to the specific rules and regulations applying to these facilities.

3. No member is obligated to attend any meetings of the club. If a member is participating in any competitive event that is run by the M.A.T.C. Chess Club, inability to appear on the scheduled day and time for a particular game, may have, as a direct consequence, loss or forfeit of the game.

By-Law III: Elected Officers and Their Functions

1. The elected officers are servants of the club, entitled to no particular rights over the rest of the members of the club, except the ones specified in this constitution.

2. All organizational and bureaucratic responsibilities of the club may be covered by one elected officer alone, namely, the President. The President has the right to appoint provisory assistants who are willing to assist him/her, wherever he considers that the amount of organizational and bureaucratic work of the club has become exceeding.

3. In the case that the needs of the club demand it, the function of the President may be divided among elected officers:

A. The President, who calls and presides at the special meetings and signs the different documents of the club.

B. A Vice-President, who is assistant to the President and takes full control in the absence of the President. The Vice-President also deals with the finances of the club.

C. The Secretary, who carries most of the organizational and bureaucratic work of the club and who has the right to appoint provisory assistants for this office.

D. The Treasurer, who keeps an accurate account of all financial transactions, as well as good records.

4. The above officers are elected for up to one year. At the special meetings designated for electing officers, by simple majority. All elections of officers will be held by secret ballot.

5. No member of the club may ever be elected for any office against his will.

6. Any member of the club may be elected any number of times, consequently, for any office.

7. Any elected officer may be impeached by a simple petition signed by over half of the total membership of the club, and by over 50% vote of the total membership of the club.

8. Office vacancies that occur because of resignation, impeachment, etc. may be filled by a new election (this is absolutely necessary in the case of the President). The duties of the office may be partly or wholly covered by one or more of the remaining active officers, if they are willing to accept the additional responsibilities until the time of the new election.

By-law IV: Non-Elected Personnel

1. Depending on the particular time and case, there may be working for the club, certain non-elected personnel, such as, trainers, coaches, tournament directors and technical advisors.

2. Club membership for this type of personnel is not required.

3. The M.A.T.C. Chess Club advisors and officers have direct jurisdiction over this personnel.

By-law V: Rules of the Game

The rules of the International Chess Federation (F.I.D.E.) will be applied.

By-law VI: Amendability of M.A.T.C. Chess Club By-laws

The present constitution is to be honored as long as it satisfies the needs of most of the members of the M.A.T.C. Chess Club. In order to avoid the awkward situation of having a club governed by obsolete, inadequate or disliked laws:

1. Any part of the constitution is amendable if over half of the total membership demands it by petition or vote.

2. The whole M.A.T.C. Chess Club Constitution can be cancelled and replaced by another if three-fourths of the entire membership demands it by petition or vote.

By-law VII: Standing Committees

It is resolved that the Chess Club will establish and maintain a standing Membership committee that will hold primary responsibility for the following tasks:

- maintaining an up-to-date record of membership data for each scheduled club meeting
- maintaining files of past sign-in sheets and sign-up sheets
- providing supervision of recruitment in accordance with club rules
- recommending rule changes to improve the quality or quantity of the "active" membership

By-law VIII: Parliamentary Authority

It is resolved that the Chess Club will use the current version of "Roberts Rules of Order" as its parliamentary authority.