Rules & Procedures

BYLAWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NOISE CONTROL ENGINEERING (I-INCE)

RULES OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NOISE CONTROL ENGINEERING (I-INCE)

Part 1: I-INCE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Part 2: I-INCE TECHNICAL WORK

Part 3: I-INCE CONGRESS SELECTION COMMITTEE

Part 4: I-INCE NEXT CONGRESS PLANNING COMMITTEE

Part 5: I-INCE CONGRESS EVALUATION COMMITTEE

Part 6: I-INCE TECHNICAL DIVISIONS

Part 1: I-INCE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Article 1. COMPOSITION

The I-INCE General Assembly shall be composed of:

• 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 representative at meetings of the General Assembly. The period of appointment may be for an extended term or for a single meeting of the General Assembly. The representative assumes the responsibility for informing the Member Society's officers of actions taken by the General Assembly at meetings attended by the representative.

A Member Society shall notify the I-INCE Secretariat of such appointment by e-mail, fax or letter before the opening of each meeting of the General Assembly.

Article 4. 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 5. 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.

A society applying to become an I-INCE Member Society may select its category, subject to the approval of the General Assembly.

A Member Society may submit a petition to the I-INCE Secretariat to change its category if justified by relevant data. The petition shall be acted on at the next following meeting of the General Assembly.

Article 6. 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 7. 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 8. VOTING

Member Societies have an obligation to vote on issues that are brought to the General Assembly.

The appointed representative 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 representative of a Member Society 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 by mail to the official mailing addresses of 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 designated representative. 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 representative 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 require 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 approved by the General Assembly at its meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 1998 November 15.