Article 1. COMPOSITION

The I-INCE General Assembly shall be composed of:

• Corresponding members (representatives) of the Member Societies,
• Members of the Board of Directors, and
• Representatives of Sustaining Members, Institutional Members, Affiliated Organizations, and other organizations in liaison with I-INCE.

Article 2: MEETINGS

Meetings of the General Assembly shall be held in conjunction with the INTER-NOISE Congresses at the call of the I-INCE President. The President shall chair the meetings of the General Assembly.

Article 3: MEMBER SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES

In accordance with Article 12.1 of the Bylaws, a Member Society shall appoint one of its individual members to serve as its corresponding member and representative at meetings of the General Assembly. This individual shall be involved with the control of noise and shall represent the Member Society within I-INCE. The corresponding member shall be the primary contact of the Member Society with the I-INCE Secretariat and shall be responsible for submitting nominations for I-INCE positions and for responses on voting issues and other matters on which the position of the Member Society is requested. This individual shall participate in correspondence on elections and other matters before and after the annual meeting of the General Assembly. The representative assumes the responsibility for informing the Member Society's officers of actions taken at all meetings of the General Assembly. A Member Society shall notify the I-INCE Secretariat of such appointment by e-mail, fax, or letter.

Article 4: ELECTION OF BOARD MEMBERS

Every third year beginning in 2011 the General Assembly will elect three individuals who are members of I-INCE Member Societies to the I-INCE Board of Directors for three-year terms. The election of the three Board members will be conducted as follows:

• At least six months in advance of a meeting of the General Assembly, the Member Societies will be given the opportunity to nominate candidates who are involved with the control of noise.
• The corresponding member for each I-INCE Member Society will submit the names of candidates with a brief paragraph describing the background of each.
• Each candidate should preferably be selected from the roster of younger individual members of the Member Society.
• The compiled listing of candidates and background paragraphs will be circulated to the Member Societies at least two weeks in advance of the General Assembly meeting at which the election will take place.
• One member from each of three Member Societies from different geographical regions (Europe-Africa, Pan-America, and Asia-Pacific) will be elected to the Board.

Article 5: MEMBER SOCIETY ANNUAL PAYMENTS

Each Member Society shall make an annual payment in response to an invoice received from the I-INCE Secretariat. The invoice shall state a deadline for payment which shall not be more than six months after the date of the invoice. The amount of the annual payment shall equal the product of the index number of the Member Society's category and the unit annual payment.

Article 6: MEMBER SOCIETY CATEGORIES AND INDEX NUMBERS

A Member Society's category shall be based on the number of individual members of the Member Society professionally involved in the engineering control of noise and vibration. Categories correspond to a small, medium, or large number of individual members who are professionally involved in activities related to the Institute's field of interest (See Article 2 of the I-INCE Bylaws). The index numbers for the three categories are 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to small, medium, and large. The I-INCE Secretariat shall maintain a list of the index numbers assigned to the Member Societies.

Article 7: UNIT ANNUAL PAYMENT

The amount of the unit annual payment shall be fixed by formal vote of the General Assembly at its meeting in the year before the year in which payments are to be made.

As appropriate, the amount of the unit annual payment shall take into account the average rate of inflation in the countries of the Member Societies.

Article 8: DELINQUENCY IN ANNUAL PAYMENTS

A Member Society shall be considered delinquent if the annual payment is not received by the I-INCE Secretariat within 30 days of the deadline date specified on the I-INCE invoice. The Secretary General shall inform the General Assembly of any such delinquencies at its annual meeting.

The General Assembly shall take appropriate action to remove such delinquencies, including suspension or termination of the delinquent society's membership in the Institute. Suspension entails a removal of the privileges of voting in the General Assembly and participating in the technical work of the Institute. A Member Society whose annual payment for the previous year has not been received shall be temporarily suspended from voting in the General Assembly until the General Assembly takes appropriate action.

A delinquent Member Society that has been suspended may be reinstated to membership with the approval of the General Assembly for the calendar year following resumption of annual payments.

Article 9: VOTING

Member Societies have an obligation to vote on issues that are brought to the General Assembly. The corresponding member of a Member Society shall have the opportunity to participate in the oral discussion of issues considered at a meeting of the General Assembly. The number of votes that a corresponding member may cast on any issue being considered by the General Assembly shall be equal to, or less than, the index number of the Member Society's category. To limit the number of votes from a single country, the number of Member Societies in any one country shall be limited to two, in which case the maximum possible number of votes from any country is six.

A voting paper may be prepared for an issue to be considered at a meeting of the General Assembly. On substantive issues, the I-INCE Secretariat shall send voting papers to the Member Societies at least three months in advance of a meeting of the General Assembly. If a voting paper is returned by mail, fax, or electronically, it should be signed either by an officer of the Member Society or by the Member Society's corresponding member. If a voting paper is not returned in advance of a meeting of the General Assembly, the Member Society's representative may cast the Member Society's vote(s) during the meeting of the General Assembly. Reasons for a negative vote shall be indicated on the voting paper or stated by the corresponding member at the meeting of the General Assembly.

Approval of an issue by the General Assembly shall be by a simple majority or by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, depending upon the matter at hand.

Approval of a change in the unit annual payment and amendments to the Bylaws and Rules of the Institute requires an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all votes cast, with abstentions not counted.

Voting procedures for the I-INCE technical work are given in Part 2 of these Rules. All other actions by the General Assembly require a simple majority of the votes cast for approval, with abstentions not counted.

NOTE: Part 1 of the I-INCE Rules was originally approved by the General Assembly at its meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 1998 November 15 and revised on 2010 June 13.