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• Article 3.8 starts "If required by the Board, the Treasurer shall give a bond, at the expense of the Corporation, for faithful discharge of his or her duties in such sum and with such sureties as determined by the Board." I find this sentence a little confusing. Who is recipient of bond?
• Perhaps this sentence could be moved to a sub-item of a section defining the role and responsibilities for the Treasurer.

Things look very good, generally. Thanks everyone!

The only thing that stands out to me is that the word "Corporation" creeps into the document without really being clear what it is referring to. Before "Corporation" occurs the document uses the word "Association" in a similar context.

I wonder if there needs to be an item that explicitly says a corporation will be setup.

I think it would be helpful to organize Article 3 into separate sections that define the roles and responsibilities of members, board members, and officers.

In Article 7 of the 11th revision of the Bylaws, the sentence "These bylaws may be amended by a two thirds vote (of votes cast) by the voting members." should be changed to "These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote (of votes cast) by the voting members."

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests hyphenating simple fractions, and Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.) also hyphenates fractions when used as adjectives (specifically in phrases such as "two-thirds vote").

Basically, cite a handbook on parliamentary procedure so that in the bylaws, you don't have to define things like basic motions.

This can be a one-sentence article such as "The rules contained in the current edition of [insert standard manual on parliamentary practice here] shall govern this organication in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special rules of order this organization may adopt." (cribbed from Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, p. 580, ll. 9-14.

Robert's Rules is the most commonly used manual on parliamentary procedure, although there are others, like Sturgis' The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure.

I usually see brief leading descriptions (I'm not sure what these are called formally) for provisions. For instance, provisions 3.1, 3,2 and 3.3 could have leading descriptions similar to "Term Duration", "Unexpected Vacancies", "Eligibility" if they are put under a section that only includes provisions for "Board Members".

Specifically, state "the required fees and dues, the date(s) when payable (whether annually, semiannually, quarterly, etc.), the time and prescribed procedure for notifying members if they become delinquent in payment, and the date thereafter on which a member will be dropped for nonpayment of dues. Before a member in arrears has been finally dropped under such a provision, his voting rights cannot be suspended unless the bylaws so provide. Members cannot be assessed any additional payment aside from their dues unless it is provided for in the bylaws. If the necessary provisions relating to financial obligations are too complex to be included in this article, such provisions can be set out in a separate article immediately following." -- Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), p. 571, ll. 29-35, p. 572, ll. 1-7

I suspect from the 11th revision of the proposed bylaws that the intention is not to drop members who are in arrears, but to suspend their voting rights. It may also be prudent to include a section on reinstatement of voting rights of members who are in arrears. Must they pay the full balance of their financial obligation to the organization, or merely the current year's dues? Is there a fee for reinstatement?

Articles of Bylaws are typically denoted by Roman numerals, rather than Arabic numerals (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), p. 570, ll. 23-25).

Thanks very much,
Jay

I thought that would not be needed. :-)

I propose moving the bylaws to a Markdown file in the "code" section of this repository.

It is more expedient to make minor changes, or include suggested changes -- and properly credit the individual making those changes -- through a pull request mechanism. As it currently stands, such changes instead require posting an issue, followed by a separate change. Diffing GitHub wiki revisions is also clunky.

For instance, can someone be inactive? Are there honorary members? Do rights and responsibilities of members change in these circumstances (e.g., inactive members have reduced voting rights and dues)?

I have no strong opinion about these matters. I could see inactive membership being a useful category, if membership is essentially defined by whether someone is a current or former DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow.

Membership eligibility in the organization should be defined before officers are defined. The assumption in bylaws seems to be that officers must be members. Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), p. 521, l. 20 suggests defining members in Article 3 (in RONR, Article III).

Provisions in Article 5 should be set off into sections. Suggested edit:

"1. Membership in the association is open to anyone who previously received funding through the CSGF program and is not a current Fellow.

1. Voting members are members who have paid dues to the association during the current calendar year."

• Is the initial setup procedure typically included in bylaws? It feels like they shouldn't be necessary, but I don't have enough experience with bylaws to know.
• This question also applies to article 3.5

I don't have my copy of Robert's Rules with me at the moment, but an absolutely essential part of the bylaws is to include an article on amending the bylaws (amending will cover striking paragraphs out as well as additions). Without this article, I don't believe you can change the bylaws, and will have to draft new ones. The article should say something to the effect of "Amending the bylaws requires a two-thirds vote of members in good standing." Consult Robert's Rules for example wording. If I get more regular internet access while I'm on vacation, I'll add the wording in that text to this issue.

From the seven board members, how are the positions of president, secretary and treasurer filled? Are they appointed by the board members, elected by the voting members, etc?

"In unincorporated societies, the object of the society should be concisely expressed in a single sentence, the various aspects or phrases being written in sequence, set off by semicolons." -- Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), p. 571, ll. 1-5.

Suggested revision:

"The purpose of the association shall be to join former CSGF fellows together in organized efforts to benefit members of the association and current CSGF fellows; to advocate for the CSGF program; and to advocate for computational science generally." (Possibly omit "generally", if the intention is to advocate for computational science as a subject. If the intention is to advocate for the computational science community, that should be stated as well.)

The object of the deliberative assembly is important, since apparently, a two-thirds vote is required to allow the introduction of a motion that falls outside the society's object. ibid., p. 571, ll. 5-9.

Such as some sort of attendance or participation requirements? If there aren't, then I don't think anything else needs to be added.