BY-LAWS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF DRUG
POLICY
NAME
1. The name of the Society will be "The International
Society for the Study of Drug Policy”, hereafter referred
to as the Society or ISSDP.
OBJECTIVES
2. The objectives of the Society will be to promote
research on the problems arising from the use, distribution
and control
of drugs, to strengthen relations among analysts concerned
with these matters and to foster a comparative understanding
of these matters. The Society will also promote the spirit
of international cooperation among and through its members.
ACTIVITIES
3. To fulfill these objectives the Society will
engage in the following activities:
a) It serves as a medium
for international comparative projects on drug policy.
b)
It sponsors international seminars on topics of theoretical,
methodological or substantive importance.
c) It organizes
regular general meetings for the presentation of research
papers and discussion of scientific issues
in drug policy research.
d) It engages in additional
activities approved by the Coordinating Committee with
the consent of the
membership.
MEMBERSHIP and CONDITIONS of MEMBERSHIP
4. The membership
of the Society shall consist of Regular Members and Affiliate
Members.
5. All applicants for regular membership must be
scholars or analysts working on problems related to the
regulation of psychoactive substances. More detail on the
domain of
the Society can be found in the appended Statement of Purpose.
They will be admitted into the Society by majority vote
of the Coordinating Committee.
6. The individual will become
a member with full voting rights and other privileges of
membership upon admittance
by the
Coordinating Committee and payment of annual dues. Nonpayment
of dues will lead to loss of membership six months after
the final period paid for, unless special arrangements
are made.
Dues are payable to the Secretary-Treasurer.
The amount is decided at the Membership Meeting.
7. Persons not eligible
for regular membership are eligible to become Affiliate
Members by a majority decision of the
Coordinating Committee. Affiliate Members will have no
voting rights. In all other respects they will have the
same rights
as regular members.
COORDINATING COMMITTEE 8. The property and business of the
Society shall be managed by a Coordinating Committee consisting
of a President and
a Vice-President and five other members. The members shall
represent a minimum of four different countries. The President
and Vice-President shall be from two different countries.
Each member of the Coordinating Committee shall be considered
to represent the country of his or her primary institutional
affiliation, regardless of country of birth or citizenship.
The Coordinating Committee will be elected from and by the
membership.
9. The President and Vice-President of the Society
shall serve for a two-year term, and may be re-elected only
once
to the office in which they have served; they may be re-elected
after a break in service. The term of office of each other
Member of the Coordinating Committee shall be four years.
No Member shall serve for more than eight years without a
break in service.
10. At least six months before the end
of the current term of office for officers elected directly
by the members, the
Nominations Committee will issue a call for nominations.
In addition to such nominations by members, the Nominations
Committee will make nominations, taking note of the requirement
for geographical representation of the officers, which shall
be distributed to all voting members. Nominations for officers
shall be organized into two lists, one for President and
Vice-President, and one for other Members of Coordinating
Committee.
Each voting member is entitled to vote for two
candidates on the President and Vice-President list, and
for as many
candidates on the Coordinating Committee list as there are
seats known to be open for election at the time the ballot
is prepared. The candidate receiving the highest number of
votes on the President and Vice-President list is elected
as President. The candidate receiving the highest number
of votes from the remaining candidates who are not from the
same country as the President is elected as Vice-President.
Candidates on the Members list are elected in order of the
number of votes received, except that candidates shall not
be elected if their election would violate the provision
that Coordinating Committee membership must be drawn from
at least four different countries. If positions with different
terms are open, candidates receiving higher vote-totals will
fill the longer-term positions. All Coordinating Committee
positions known to be open when the election is counted will
be filled at that time, including the position of a newly
elected President or Vice-President who would have held a
continuing Coordinating Committee seat.
At the Society's
initial election, three Coordinating Committee seats will
be filled for 4 years and two for 2 years. In
subsequent elections, the full term of each seat shall be
4 years, and those elected to fill a seat vacated in mid-term
shall serve only until the end of the original term.
Terms
of office of directly elected officers of the Society will
begin at the commencement of the next Membership Meeting
following their election. Incumbent officers will remain
in office until this time.
11. Meetings of the Coordinating
Committee may be held at any time and place to be determined
by the Committee, provided
that 60 days' notice of such meetings shall be sent in writing
to each member of the Committee. No formal notice shall be
necessary if all members are present at the meeting or waive
notice thereof in writing. A meeting of the Coordinating
Committee will be held without further notice in conjunction
with each Membership Meeting. On the initiative of the President,
the Coordinating Committee may make decisions on any matter
of business by mail.
A quorum for any decision of the Coordinating
Committee will be one-half of the current members of the
Committee including
the President or Vice-President. All decisions of the Coordinating
Committee will be by majority vote of those voting.
12. The
Coordinating Committee shall take such steps as they may
deem requisite to enable the Society to receive donations
and benefits for the purpose of furthering the objectives
of the Society.
The Coordinating Committee may seek associations
with other organizations in order to further the objectives
of the Society.
Any such association requires majority approval of voting
on a mail ballot to the membership.
13. The Coordinating
Committee may appoint from the members of the Society a committee
or committees, including the Nominations
Committee and Meeting Organizing Committees.
14. The Nominations
Committee shall comprise three members. The members shall
be appointed by the Coordinating Committee.
This committee will be responsible for preparing the list
of nominations for the Coordinating Committee and for conducting
the election.
The members of the Nominations Committee will
be ineligible for nomination for any election that they conduct.
15. The Meeting Organizing Committees shall carry out the
organization of meetings in collaboration with local members.
Together with the Secretary-Treasurer, the Meeting Organizing
Committees shall organize the finances of the meetings.
OFFICERS
16. The President, as chief executive of the Society,
will preside at the meetings of the Society and its Coordinating
Committee.
The President will initiate and carry out policies
in conformity with the Society's purpose as specified by
the Coordinating
Committee.
17. The Vice-President will assume the duties
of the President if the incumbent President resigns or dies
and will perform
such duties until a new President is elected and assumes
office.
18. The Secretary-Treasurer shall be elected each
two years by a majority of Coordinating Committee members
voting.
The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for communicating
Society activities and plans to the members no less often
that once a year. These include the time and place, as well
as the organizers of seminars and workshops sponsored by
the Society.
As financial officer of the Society, the Secretary-Treasurer
receives the dues of the members and makes disbursements
under the supervision of the Coordinating Committee to which
he/she presents an annual report, available on request to
any member.
Any disbursements made by the Secretary-Treasurer
must be agreed by three other members of the Coordinating
Committee
including the President or the Vice-President.
The Secretary-Treasurer
shall prepare a membership list to be used for election purposes.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall announce to the membership
the time and place of the Membership Meeting.
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
19. A general meeting of members shall
be held at least once a year in conjunction with an international
meeting decided
upon by the preceding Membership Meeting. At the Membership
Meeting a discussion will be held of the future activities
of the Society.
Announcement of the Membership Meeting will
be made to the members at least three months in advance,
together with a
tentative agenda of business.
MAIL BALLOT
20. The Membership Meeting can, by majority
of those voting, institute a mail ballot [to be executed
by email] to the
membership on any issue.
Upon a written petition of twenty
members to the President within six months after the Membership
Meeting, concerning
any issue presented at the general meeting, the issue must
be submitted to the members by mail ballot.
The Coordinating
Committee, by majority, can also institute a mail ballot
to the membership at any time.
REVISION OF THE BY-LAWS
21. Upon written petition of twenty
members to the President or by a decision of the Coordinating
Committee, an article
or articles of these By-Laws can be submitted to the membership
for revision. Revision requires majority approval of those
voting on a mail ballot.
History of Amendments to By Laws
At the 2006 meeting of the
membership in Oslo, the members voted to strike the word “illegal” before
the word “drugs” in article 2. This change was
made to reflect the society’s interest in legal drugs
and the fact that the legality of the same drug may vary
across
the countries represented by society members.
At the 2007
meeting of the membership in Lisbon, the members voted to
change the word “six” to “four” in
article 10, to clarify the minimum number of countries that
must be represented on the board. This change was made for
increasing the feasibility of finding candidates and to rectify
a prior apparent contradiction with article 8, which seems
to imply a minimum membership standard of 4 countries.
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