The Rules and by-laws of the ACS
Article 1: The Name and Domicile
1.1. The name of this association is Association for
Cultural Studies.
1.2. The domicile of the Association is in Tampere, Finland.
Article 2: The Objectives and Forms of Activity
2.1. The Association aims at forming and promoting an effective
worldwide community of cultural studies.
2.1.1. By the term cultural studies we refer to the inter- and
trans-disciplinary study of and intervention into the relations between cultural
practices and the social relations and organization of power. Cultural studies
researches and theorizes cultural practices and forms, and their effects, by
placing them into the contexts of relations in which they emerge, through which
they circulate and into which they are appropriated. Cultural studies focuses on
the production and reproduction of such relations and on the agencies which
enable or resist them.
2.1.2. Because of its inter- and trans-disciplinarity, its wide geographical
dispersion, and its commitment to contextual specificity, it is becoming
increasingly difficult for people working in cultural studies to build the
strong connections necessary to meet the challenges facing cultural studies, in
the questions it asks, the institutional demands it faces, and the growing
number of attacks on its project. Therefore, a worldwide Association of people
working in cultural studies is needed.
2.1.3. The Association aims at being able to include the diversity of work by
committed scholars and workers in cultural studies around the world and to
become a meaningful meeting place to them. The Association recognizes that some
of those scholars and workers do not call their work cultural studies, and that
cultural studies is not the universal designation for its intellectual and
political practices. The Association is envisioned less as a fixed and finished
"scholarly congress" and more as an ongoing project that would contribute to
forming and promoting an effective worldwide community of cultural studies.
2.1.4. The Association will help establish knowledge of and links among the
diverse groups of cultural studies scholars and workers around the world. The
Association will help establish, strengthen and maintain contacts between
cultural studies scholars and workers across different disciplines and in the
different countries and regions of the world. It will in this way seek to enable
people to find out about work being done on particular topics around the world,
and to take advantage of and develop the possibilities of collaborative work.
The Association will encourage collective and collaborative projects among
cultural studies communities. The Association will encourage and facilitate, in
whatever ways possible, the creation of local, national and regional cultural
studies groups, and provide an opportunity for them to be linked in ways that
enable their cooperation.
2.1.5. Association will promote and represent cultural studies – by whatever
name its intellectual practice may be called and known in different regions of
the world – as a legitimate scholarly, academic and cultural pursuit aimed at a
practical transformation of existing social and political relations. By
providing a broad structure for a plurality of approaches constitutive of
cultural studies, the Association will promote public understanding of its goals,
agendas and traditions.
2.2. To achieve its objectives, the Association
- organizes international conferences, especially the
Crossroads in Cultural Studies conference, which is the official conference
of the association;
- aims to provide information about cultural studies
scholars and scholarship around the world
- speaks in defense of cultural studies, its programs or cultural studies
scholars by taking initiatives, giving statements and using other corresponding
means.
2.2.1. The official Conference of the Association for
Cultural Studies is the biannual international "Crossroads in Cultural
Studies" Conference, and the Association for Cultural Studies is the sole
owner of the right to organize it. The governing body of the Association
will examine the proposals presented by institutions interested in organizing
that Conference and decide which institution will organize it. A sum of
money to be agreed on by the Association and the institution organizing
its official Conference is due to the Association for Cultural Studies.
2.2.2 The Association aims at making its official Conference
accessible and productive to all its members, no matter where they live
or what languages they speak.
2.3. To support its activity the Association may receive donations and
inheritances, own real and movable property required for its activity and, after
been granted the proper permits, organize lotteries and fund-raising campaigns.
The Association may also practice such business or trade that is directly
related to the aims of the Association or that can be deemed as economically
insignificant.
Article 3: The Members
3.1. The Association has two categories of members, individual members and
associate members (see 3.3.).
3.2. All cultural studies scholars, who approve of the purpose and rules of
the Association, can become members of the Association. The Board of the
Association accepts members on application.
3.2.1. Those who are approved for membership as provided
in these rules are eligible to be members of the Association on payment
of the membership fee prescribed in, or fixed under, these rules.
3.3. The Board may grant an associate member status to other legally
institutionalized organizations that want to promote the activity of the
Association. Associate members receive the same benefits that are referred to
elsewhere in the rules when speaking about the members except voting rights and
Board positions.
3.3.1. The Board will consider applications for affiliation to the
Association by existing or to be constituted associations and networks of
cultural studies scholars and workers. Affiliation, once accepted, will entail
the payment of a fee to be agreed on between the Board and the affiliated
organization. The benefits and responsibilities of such affiliation will be
defined by the Board.
3.4. The fees for every category of membership are determined
by the Board.
3.4.1. The Association has a biannual fee, which entitles
to membership for two years.
3.4.2. Registration as founding members of the Association
for Cultural Studies, as well as the voluntary payment of the founding
fee of €50, was made possible for participants in the Tampere 2002
Conference. That fee entitles those who have paid or will pay it to membership
for the years 2002 and 2003.
3.4.3. Membership fees can be paid in Association with registration to the
official Conference. For person members, the fee is fully deductible from the
participation fee.
3.5. Members have the right to resign from the Association by sending a
written notice about it to the Board or its Chair, or by announcing about the
resignation in an Assembly of the Association to be recorded in the minutes.
3.5.1. A person ceases to be a member of the Association
if the person:
- dies
- fails to pay the membership fee within three months
of the expiration date of the last paid fee
- resigns that membership
- is expelled from the Association by the Board or by
a simple majority of votes cast at a General Assembly of the Association
convened for that purpose.
3.6. The Board can expel a member from the Association if the member has
failed to pay the overdue membership fee or otherwise failed to perform the
duties that they have subscribed to by becoming a member of the Association, or
if the member has in their activity within or outside the Association remarkably
harmed the Association, or does not any more fulfill the conditions of
membership listed in the law or in the Rules of the Association.
Article 4: Governing Bodies
4.1. The Association for Cultural Studies is steered by the Board composed of
the Chair and Vice-Chair and of at least 3 and at most 17 other members elected
in the General Election Assembly.
4.1.1. The Board has the responsibility and power to
make decisions pertinent to carrying out the work of the Association as
defined in this constitution.
4.1.2. Apart from the Chair and Vice-Chair, the Board is composed by regional
representatives of cultural studies constituencies, according to the following
distribution: Africa – 2 representatives (one of them from Southern Africa);
Asia – 3 representatives (one from Northeast Asia, one from Southeast Asia, and
one from South Asia); Australia and New Zealand – 1 representative; Europe – 3
representatives (one from Northern Europe, one from Central and Eastern Europe,
and one from Western and Southern Europe); Latin America and the
Spanish-speaking Caribbean – 3 representatives; North America and the English-
and French-speaking Caribbean – 3 representatives.
4.1.3. The regions that the Chair and the Vice-Chair represent will both lose
one seat from the quotas defined above. If they both represent a region that has
only one seat in the Board, the number of people elected to the Board will be
raised by one.
4.1.4. To register for voting according to the quotas defined above, members
have to select the region to which they want to belong in the vote for regular
Board members. The nominees from a region also have to have selected that region
when registering as members of the Association.
4.2. The Board will be elected for a term in office of
three years.
4.3. The Board selects from within or outside itself
the Treasurer and two secretaries, one administrative and the other organizational.
4.4. The Chair, the Vice-Chair, the Treasurer, and two Secretaries form the
Executive, which can implement the Board’s decisions.
4.5. The Board holds a meeting from the invitation of the Chair, or when the
Chair is excused, the Vice-Chair, when they regard it needed, or when at least
half of the Board members demand it.
4.6. The Board has a quorum when at least half of its members, including the
Chair or Vice-Chair, are present. Votes are decided by majority rule. If the
votes are divided evenly, the vote of the Chair is decisive. However, elections
shall be decided by lot.
4.6.1. The Board meetings are as a rule held virtually as email discussions.
In this instance being present in a meeting means that a member is not for
instance due to a trip disconnected from their email when a topic is being
discussed and decided.
4.7. The Board may appoint non-standing Committees and ad hoc groups
operating under its supervision.
Article 5: The Standing Rules
5.1. The Association may adopt Standing Rules to regulate all matters for
which further regulation is deemed desirable. Standing Rules may not contain any
provisions in conflict with the law or the rules of the Association.
5.2. Standing Rules shall be adopted and amended by the General Assembly.
Their verbatim text must be made available for inspection by the members five
days before the Assembly until the Assembly has been held.
5.2.1. The appropriate location referred to above is, in addition to printed
copies of the text, the Association’s web page and email list.
Article 6: The Signatories of the Association
6.1. The signatories of the Association are the Chair, Vice-Chair and the
Treasurer, with a minimum of two of the three signatories. The Board may grant a
person the right to act as a signatory of the Association by making a separate
decision about it.
Article 7: The Financial Year and Audit
7.1. The financial period of the Association is one
calendar year.
7.2. The accounts with the needed documents and the Board’s annual reports
must be given to the auditors at least two months before the General Financial
Assembly. The auditors must give their written report to the Board at least two
weeks before the General Financial Assembly.
7.2.1. In the auditors’ report, and in certifying to the accounts, the
auditors shall state, whether they have obtained the information required by
them; whether, in their opinion, the accounts are properly drawn up so as to
exhibit a true and correct view of the financial position of the Association
according to the information at their disposal and the explanations given to
them and as shown by the books of the Association; whether, in their opinion,
the accounts are properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and correct view of
the financial position of the Association according to the information at his or
her disposal and the explanations given to him or her and as shown by the books
of the Association; and whether the rules relating to the administration of the
funds of the Association have been observed.
Article 8: The Assemblies
8.1. The Association has two types of regularly held General Assemblies, the
General Financial Assembly and the General Election Assembly. The General
Financial Assembly is held every two years, and the General Election Assembly is
held every three years between May and August on a certain date defined by the
Board. When possible, these Assemblies will be held in association with the
Crossroads conference. When in addition to the General Financial Assembly the
General Election Assembly is held during the same year, they are held between
May and August as a single Assembly and called the General Assembly.
8.2. A Special General Assembly of the Association will be held when an
Assembly of the Association so decides or when the Board considers there is need
for it or when at least one tenth (1/10) of the Association’s members entitled
to vote requires it from the Board in writing for a specially announced matter.
The Assembly must be held within 60 days from the date when the petition has
been submitted to the Board.
8.3. In the Association’s Assemblies, each member, except for associate
members, has one vote. The use of proxy is allowed.
8.3.1. Sending one’s vote by e-mail or when that is not possible by air mail
is considered as proxy. In order to allow all members an equal possibility to
take part in decision-making, regardless of their ability to attend the Assembly,
all members must send their votes to the Board beforehand, so they can all be
counted prior to the General Assembly, where the results are publicized.
8.4. Unless otherwise prescribed by the Rules of the Association, the opinion
supported by more than a half of the given votes will become the decision of the
Association’s Assembly. In voting the majority of the votes decides. If the
votes are evenly divided, the Chair's vote will be decisive; however, the
elections shall be decided by lot.
8.5. he Board has to send the call for the Association’s Assembly at least
six weeks before the Assembly to the members by e-mail or when that is not
possible, by air mail.
8.6. The General Financial Assembly of the Association shall deal with the
following matters:
1. Opening of the Assembly
2. The election of the Chair of the Assembly, the recording secretary, two
scrutinizers of the minutes and, if needed, two counters of votes
3. Notification that the Assembly is valid and constitutes a quorum
4. Accepting the agenda of the Assembly
5. The Assembly is presented the accounts, the Board’s annual report and the
auditors’ report
6. The Assembly decides about confirming the account and giving discharge from
liability to the Board and to others in charge.
8.7. In addition to the above mentioned points 1-4, the following matters are
dealt at the General Election Assembly of the Association:
1. The election of the Chair, Vice-Chair and other members of the Board
2. The election of one or two auditors and their vice persons.
Article 9: Changing the Rules and Dissolution of the
Association.
9.1. The decision to change the rules and about the dissolution of the
Association must be done in a General Assembly of the Association by the
majority of three thirds (3/4) of the given votes. The call for the Assembly
must mention changing rules or dissolution.
9.2. In the case of dissolution, the funds of the Association shall be used
to advance the purpose of the Association in the way that the Assembly sees fit.
In the case the Association will become abolished its funds shall be used for an
equal purpose.
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