Woodworkers' Guild of South Jersey

Orig.-4/9/07, rev. 2/28/08

WOODWORKERS GUILD OF SOUTH JERSEY

BY-LAWS

ARTICLE 1 NAME AND PURPOSE

The Woodworkers Guild of South Jersey (WGSJ) is established to promote communications among woodworkers, professional and amateur.  Specific objectives of WGSJ are:

To increase knowledge of woodworking principles

To increase knowledge of woodworking tools and equipment

To gather business acumen with respect to woodworking projects

To increase knowledge of materials, finishing, and handling

To provide recognition of members’ crafts and projects

To provide members with recommended learning possibilities

The objectives of the Woodworkers Guild of South Jersey will be facilitated by monthly meetings, organized seminars, newsletters, exchanges of working plans and procedures, visits to facilities and private workshops and exhibits of items created by members or outside groups.

ARTICLE 2

MEMBERSHIP:  Membership in the Guild is established by filling out an appropriate application, agreeing to the objectives of the Guild and paying the annual dues.  Membership is continued by paying annual dues by the third meeting of each year.  In addition, members agree to share the meeting cost on a meeting-by-meeting basis, when recommended by the Board of Directors.

NON-MEMBERS:  Prospective members may be invited to attend a meeting by any member in good standing and will attend as a guest of the Guild.  If the individual chooses to join the Guild, he/she may do so by completing the membership application.  He/she may pay the annual dues (1) at that time; (2) later by sending a check to the Guild office; or (3) by bringing a check to the next meeting and giving it to the Treasurer (or the Membership Chairman).

GUESTS:  A member may periodically invite a guest on a one-time basis; the member would be responsible for the meeting costs for the guest should there be any.

MEETINGS:  Meetings are held monthly on the 1st Thursday of each month at a designated location.  The November meeting is designated as the Annual Meeting.

DUES:  Dues are collected on an annual basis in an amount recommended by the Board of Directors and approved by Membership at the Annual Meeting.  Dues are collected to cover the operating costs for mailings, newsletters, meeting location stipends, and other administrated expenses.  Members joining after September 1 will pay the annual dues; in the following year, these members will pay 50% of the rate.

ARTICLE 3 OFFICERS

OFFICERS:  Elected officers of the Guild are President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.  The elected term is one year and officers may succeed themselves.  In the event, the President does not complete his/her term, the Vice President shall succeed him/her.  Other vacancies will be filled by appointment by the President.

EDITOR (WEBMASTER) AND LIBRARIAN:  These positions are filled by the President and serve at his/her pleasure.  The Librarian publishes an updated list of the items in the archives at least quarterly.

STANDING COMMITTEES:  There are (4) four standing committees: Program, Membership, Election, and Audit.  The Vice President is the Program chairperson; other Standing Committee chairpersons are appointed by the President.  The responsibilities of these committees are:

PROGRAM:  Working with the President and other members, plan and schedule the monthly programs of the Guild.  Arrange for appropriate meeting space, speaker arrangements, and other special needs, including expenses.

MEMBERSHIP:  Working with the President and other members, develop plans and actions to communicate the existence of the Guild to the public in the South Jersey area, contact perspective members, and be on hand to welcome new members at the monthly meeting.

ELECTION:  Plan and conduct the Annual Election of Officers at the Annual meeting.  Distribute proxy ballots to requesting members 5 days prior to the Annual meeting.  Count and report the results at the meeting to the President.

AUDIT:  Working with the President and the Treasurer, conduct a financial audit of the Guild accounts and financial activities at year end.  Report the results to the President by January 15th and to the membership by the January meeting.

ARTICLE 4 DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT:  The President speaks for and represents the Guild to the public.  He/she presides at all membership meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors.  He/she is responsible for seeing that purpose and procedures of the Guild are followed and for the overall planning and directing the activities of the Guild.

VICE PRESIDENT:  The Vice President shall act on behalf of the President when requested by the President.  In the event the President does not complete his term, the Vice President shall assume his duties and appoint a successor as Vice President.  The Vice President is the Program Committee chairperson.

SECRETARY:  The Secretary shall keep the minutes of all meetings, and maintain the archives of the Guild.  He/she will work closely with the editor and librarian to communicate with the membership and oversee maintenance of the files of books, drawings, video tapes, cd/dvds and other parts of the library.

TREASURER:  The Treasurer controls and accounts for the funds of the Guild.  He/she shall receive all dues, make disbursements, and maintain a checking account.  He/she shall work with the President in developing/maintaining a budget.  H/she shall report the financial position of the Guild to membership at least quarterly.

EDITOR:  The Editor is responsible for publishing monthly news to the membership by E-mail.  The news should include recent membership meetings, a meeting notice for two months forward, outside and member advertisements, new member announcements, etc.  He/she maintains the Guild mailing list(s), working with the treasurer.

LIBRARIAN:  The Librarian is responsible for the lending library of the Guild.  The library consists of books, drawings, cd/dvds, video tapes, catalogs, etc.  He/she will disperse/collect the items at monthly membership meetings.  Members will make lending requests by E-mail or telephone to the Librarian.

ARTICLE 5 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MEMBERS:  The Board of Directors shall consist of the elected officers of the Guild plus two members elected by the Membership.

MEETINGS:  Meetings of the Board of Directors will be called by the President or, in his/her absence, at least three members of the Board.  At least two Board meetings are mandatory:  January, to review and accept the Audit report and to confirm the budget and program for the year, and October/early November, to review and accept the budget and program for the next year.

QUORUM: At least four members of the Board are required for a quorum.

DUTIES: The Board of Directors determines and guides the implementation of Guild policies, programs and practices to ensure the Guild operates for the purposes approved by the members. The Board of Directors shall see to the establishment of procedures designed to guide the operations of the Guild.

ARTICLE 6 ELECTIONS

COMMITTEE:  The President shall appoint a nominating committee consisting of at least three members of the Guild.  The names, addresses, phone numbers, and E-mail addresses of the Committee members will be announced by the Secretary via E-mail, along with a proxy form, and sent to the membership by November 1st.

NOMINATIONS:  Any member may submit a nominee for any elected position (offices and directors) by mail of E-mail to one of the members of the nominating committee.  Such submissions will be advisory to the Committee in making its list of nominees.  The preliminary list of nominations will be prepared by the Monday evening prior to the Election meeting and e-mailed to all members.

ELECTIONS:  At the time of the election of officers and directors, the election Chairperson shall request nominations from the floor, and when nominations are close, the election will proceed by written ballot.  The committee will count the ballots from the floor, open the proxy votes, and complete the count.  All proxy votes must be received by the Secretary no later than the taking of nominations from the floor.

ARTICLE 7 MEETINGS

The Annual Business Meeting (and elections) will be held on the 1st Thursday of November each year.  Regular meetings will be held on the 1st Thursday of each month, subject the schedule drawn and modified at the beginning of each year.

Special meeting of the membership may be called by the President upon request from the Board of Directors.  Such meetings would have a restricted agenda, confining the business to a specific topic.  Additionally, to meet the scheduling needs of invited presenters, regular meetings will be rescheduled well in advance.

Ordinary business requiring a vote for passage will require a majority of members in attendance.  Fiduciary matters such as the Annual Budget or expenditures requiring member contributions will require a 2/3 majority of members attending.

ARTICLE 8 LIBRARY

The Guild will establish collections of woodworking information including, but not limited to such items as project plans, drawings, material specifications, wood working publications, industrial and consumer information, training schedules and informational seminars and meetings and a catalog of Web sites containing these data.  Items will be lent for one month and an appropriate deposit will be collected.  Failure to return items in a prompt manner may result in forfeiture of part or all of the deposit.

The ownership of these items shall be WGSJ unless the contributor desires to retain ownership (lent).  In the event of the dissolution of the WGSJ, all information archives will be donated, free of charge, to an appropriate lending library.  The name of which will be decided by the custodian of the Library.  The custodian will return all “lent” items to their original owner, if reasonably possible.

ARTICLE 9 LIABILITY RELEASE

Within an appropriate time frame, the Board of Directors will seek assistance from appropriate advisers and write a Liability Release to be signed by all existing and future members and visitors, hold WGSJ, its directors and members harmless from any injury incurred during training classes or meeting demonstrations, etc.

Once completed, the current Liability Release Article of the By-Laws will be updated by appropriate vote of the Membership.

ARTICLE 10 DISSOLUTION

Upon dissolution of the Guild, the Board of Directors, or in the event of the Board of Directors, an elected committee may, after paying or making provisions for payments of all liabilities of the Guild, dispose of all assets of the Guild to such organizations operated for charitable, educational, or scientific purposes.

ARTICLE 11 AMENDMENTS

These by-laws may be revised at any regular meeting; notice of the pending change must be given at the previous meeting.  A copy of the proposed amendment/revision will be e-mailed to each member and included in the e-mail will the date of the scheduled vote.  Absentee ballots will be sent to the members upon their request.

Following discussion, a vote by members present will be taken; 2/3 majority of total members voting is required to adopt the amendment/revision.