ONLINE SIGMA CHAPTER

STANDING RULES

Approved Sep/99
Amended Mar/00, Feb/Oct/Nov/02, Jan/Mar/04, Dec/05

1. ORDER OF BUSINESS VIA OLS MAILING LIST

A. All committee reports shall be e-mailed to the President after the Executive Board meeting agenda has been announced to the list and before the beginning of the Executive Board meeting.

For the Chapter meeting, the President shall e-mail a copy of the agenda of the meeting to the OLS List no later than the day before the meeting.

B. The Corresponding Secretary shall post the Opening Ritual to the list after the President has called the meeting to order.

C. All officers and committees shall post their reports on the first day of the meeting.

D. All motions and seconds shall be posted no later than 10:00pm EST on the second day immediately following the opening of the meeting.

E. During the course of the meeting, 8:00a.m EST of the third Wednesday through 10:00 pm EST of the fourth Wednesday, all members are asked to keep all posting limited to Chapter business.

F. All members shall use the link on our website to indicate their attendance prior to the closing of the meeting, by the time they have read all reports and postings concerning Chapter business or they may send their name to the Recording Secretary's personal email address(not the bspols mailing list) with the word "PRESENT" in the subject line.

G. Any change of the meeting date shall be announced by the President no later than a week prior to the regular meeting date.

H. In the event that the server is down, and the Chapter is unable to conduct business on the third Wednesday of the month or the first scheduled day of the meeting, the Executive Board shall postpone the meeting until the server is running and in good order. The Corresponding Secretary shall then submit the Opening Ritual, notifying all members that the meeting has begun.

I. The Recording Secretary shall post the minutes of the previous month's meeting following the posting of the Opening Ritual. A copy of the minutes shall be sent to International.

J. The Corresponding Secretary shall post the Closing Ritual at 10:00 pm EST on the Wednesday following the opening of the meeting.

K. All publicity for the month shall be submitted to the Executive Board by the Wednesday prior to the Chapter meeting and returned to the Publicity Chairman by the following Wednesday.

L. Reports from the Teller Committee shall be posted by the President as soon as possible after the close of the voting period. All ballots shall be kept for a minimum of thirty (30) days from the date the election closed before they are destroyed. All protests or questions regarding any vote must be brought to the Executive Board within twenty-one (21) days of the election closing. Information from ballots is to be stored with identifying information removed, so that the ballots remain secret.

M. Before the close of the meeting, the President shall invite all members to share in "Chapter Chatter" items to be posted after the Closing Ritual and to continue throughout the month.

2. ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR ON LINE CALLED MEETINGS

3. CHAPTER YEAR

A. The Chapter year shall consist of 12 meetings, May through April.

B. The Chapter birthday shall be on April 30th, (1999) and shall be acknowledged in some special way by the members.

4. MEMBERSHIP

A. Membership of this Chapter shall be limited to 30 active members.

Inactive members of the Chapter will be placed on a waiting list at the time they want to return to an active status if the Chapter's active membership has reached 30 members.

B. Membership shall be made up of members of Beta Sigma Phi listed with International as Active, Leave of Absence or Member at Large status. A member must have taken at least the Pledge Ritual in a regular chapter and stay current in her International dues.

C. All applications for membership shall be made through the Vice-President. A new member to the OLS roster should be approved for membership in the chapter by the OLS chapter members and the Executive board before she is admitted to membership. Present chapter members will have the opportunity to voice their comments re the proposed new member to the Executive Board who will make the final decision.

D. There shall be no "leave of absence," only active or inactive status. A member shall be placed on inactive status if she is considered "Unexcused" and does not respond "Present" to three consecutive meetings.

  1. A member in good standing may request a "Personal Leave" by which she is unsubscribed from the OLS list for a period of up to 3 months for such reasons as health, vacation, etc. If the time needs to be extended, the approval of the Executive Board will be needed. Such a member will also need to make arrangements where her Secret Sister obligations are concerned.
  2. Members may be excluded from membership and the OLS mailing list by unanimous vote of the Executive Board if they exhibit any behavior unbecoming a Beta Sigma Phi. To be excluded, there must be 5 requests sent via e-mail to the Executive Board requesting removal of the member with reasons explained. The Vice-President shall notify the member of the action taken and reasons for removal. The Mailing List Coordinator shall be notified by the Vice-President to have that member's name deleted from the OLS mailing list.

5. OFFICERS

A. Elected Officers

Officers of this Chapter shall assume the same duties as in a regular Chapter in addition to the following:

  1. President: The President shall direct meetings of the Executive Board held via ICQ or other method agreed upon by the members of the Executive Board.
  2. Vice President: Shall keep all members names and e-mail addresses current and accept applications for membership. She shall notify the membership of new members and members who become inactive in the Chapter.
  3. Recording Secretary: Shall e-mail minutes of the meetings to all members for review. She shall notify the Executive Board when a quorum has replied to the monthly reports of business. The Recording Secretary will act as the Teller Committee and record any voting for the chapter.
  4. Corresponding Secretary: Shall e-mail a copy of any correspondence to the membership when directed to do so by the Executive Board.

B. Qualifications, Nominations, Elections, and Installation of Officers

  1. Qualifications:
    a. All officers of the Chapter shall be in good standing with OLS and International and have access to a computer.
  2. Nominations:
    a. Nominations shall be made by the Nominating Committee.
    b. Nominations from the membership shall be accepted by the Nominating Committee until one week before voting begins.
    c. Nominees and their qualifications shall be submitted to the membership via the OLS mailing list .
    d. A candidate for office may post to the list her qualifications, BSP history, offices held, and a brief statement concerning her personal goals for the office and the Chapter for the coming year. No solicitations advocating the election of any nominee are to be distributed by any media.
    e. A final slate of nominees shall be submitted to the membership via the OLS mailing list for a vote at the Chapter meeting.
  3. Elections:
    a. The Teller Committee will count the votes and report the final results to the President, who will inform the membership.
    b. Any tie votes will be re-submitted to the membership as soon as possible with the same procedures of voting and notification
    c. Elections shall be held during the April meeting of the chapter.
  4. Installation:
    a. Officers shall be installed on April 30th or as close to that date as possible, for the sorority year May 1st to April 30th.
    b. The newly-elected officers shall be installed via e-mail by posting their response to the installation rituals.
    c. The out-going President shall conduct the installation or appoint someone to act in her place.

6. EXECUTIVE BOARD

The Executive Board of OLS shall consist of the following: President, Vice President, Recording Secretary,and Corresponding Secretary.

7. COMMITTEES

A. Committees shall be appointed by the Executive Board.

B. Members shall inform the newly-elected President of their interest in serving on a committee via e-mail immediately after elections.

C. Members may join committees at any time of the year with Board approval.

D. The committees shall assume the same duties as in a regular chapter committee unless otherwise specified. All business shall be reported by the chairman on the OLS mailing list.

E. Standing Committees:

  1. Program
    a. Shall choose program topic for the monthly program.
  2. Secret Sister
    a. Shall be responsible for selecting Secret Sisters.
    b. Shall provide on line reminders and ideas.
  3. Sunshine
    a. Shall be responsible for greetings sent to members via e-mail.
    b. Cyber cards shall be sent to a sister on the occasion of sickness, death of an immediate family member (including parents), engagement, wedding, and birth or adoption of a child.
    c. The committee shall report significant events in the lives of sisters to the membership as soon as possible.
    d. Members learning of significant events in the lives of sisters shall report them to the committee as soon as possible.
    e. The Sunshine Committee shall post a list every month of members who have birthdays and anniversaries during that month.
  4. Cyber Council
    a. Three members shall represent On Line Sigma at the Cyber Council. These members shall be elected at the February meeting, and hold office from April 30th to April 30th each year.
  5. Social
    a. Shall be responsible for socials, called bi-monthly or at discretion of chair.
  6. Teller
    a. Shall be responsible for counting all votes via e-mail and report the count to the President.

F. Other committees shall be appointed as needed by the President with the approval of the Executive Board.

G. The List Administrator shall be responsible for maintaining the OLS mailing list.

H. Web site administrator / webmaster shall be responsible for timely and accurate maintenance of the chapter website (currently at http://www.bspsisters.ca/ols ).

8. ATTENDANCE

A. A member commits to read all Chapter reports and e-mail the Recording Secretary "Present" for each monthly meeting. She commits to participating in the monthly programs as well as voting during elections and on motions brought before the Chapter.

B. A member shall be excused from meetings or the deadline to post "Present" for the following reasons:

  1. Out of town.
    a. Out of town members knowing in advance that they will be out of town shall notify the Recording Secretary prior to the meeting date with their explanation to be excused.
  2. Illness
  3. Hardware problems
  4. Server problems

C. Server and/or hardware problems shall be reported to the Recording Secretary as soon as possible and will be counted as an excused absence.

D. If a member does not have daily access to a computer and is unable to meet the deadline to reply "Present," she shall inform the Recording Secretary of this fact and request an extension of up to four days to reply "Present." This request must be made for each month it is needed.

E. Reporting of "Present" to the Recording Secretary shall be accepted for five days after the Closing Ritual is posted with acceptable excuse of tardiness.

9. VOTING

A. The Teller Committee shall e-mail a ballot to the membership at the close of the monthly meeting. The ballot shall contain all necessary information for voting.

B. The choice of a vote of "YES" to approve, "NO" to disapprove, or "ABS" to abstain from the motion shall be placed on the ballot next to each item.

C. The voting period shall be six days from the posting of the Closing Ritual.

D. If there is not a majority reporting their votes to the Teller Committee, the President may resubmit the motion for a vote at the next meeting, requesting the membership to reply. If a majority again does not reply, the motion shall be ruled defeated by the President.

10. OLS AND BETA SIGMA PHI INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

A. The Executive Board must approve all information that is placed on the Internet concerning the Chapter. The webmaster shall notify the chapter of changes/additions to the web site, and the executive will communicate with the webmaster if changes/corrections are needed.

B. A member must give permission before her e-mail address or other personal information can be posted on the Internet. The executive board and committee chair email links will be on the Officers' page on the web site. The other members' email addresses will only be placed on the private "members only" area of the website, along with their location (city and/or country), and "scrapbook information".

C. No homepages shall contain information about the Chapter without Executive Board approval. Homepages may contain indication that the member is a member of OLS, and a link to the OLS website.

D. No member shall use the Beta Sigma Phi name or any emblems or information related to International without the approval of the International Executive Board.

E. Any OLS internet site approved by International and the OLS Executive Board shall be submitted to link to The Beta Journal.

11. SPECIAL SISTERS

A. Special Sisters will be revealed and new Special Sisters assigned at the December meeting. Participation is optional; however, a sister must notify the Special Sister Committee before the end of November if she wishes to participate. If the committee is NOT notified, it will be assumed that a sister does NOT wish to participate and NO Special sister will be assigned.

B. By participating, a sister commits to taking part in Special Sister exchanges for the entire year. If circumstances require withdrawal from Special Sister participation, a sister will give the committee one month's notice.

C. New members choosing to participate will be assigned Special Sisters as they join OLS.

D. We will exchange cyber greeting cards with our Special Sisters for all holidays and other special occasions. One actual gift, valued $10-$15 will be exchanged for the year. The date will be announced by the committee.

E. For those of our Sisters who are not married, their anniversary will be 6 months after their birthday.

F. Virtual gifts or cards shall be sent for other significant days of the year.

12. TRADITIONS

A. Members shall acknowledge each other on line with the following:

  1. I am thy sister
  2. Mizpah
  3. Beta hugs
  4. Sisterly

B. Special Recognition: Woman of the Year

  1. A Woman of the Year will be recognized by our chapter in accordance with the Guidelines and Point System as set forth in Attachment A to these Standing Rules.
  2. A Woman of the Year committee will serve to calculate all points earned for each chapter member during the year. The committee will consist of the immediate past Woman of the Year and another chapter member as appointed by the President.
  3. All point sheets shall be kept on file for 30 days.

13. AMENDMENTS

  1. Amendments to the Standing Rules of On Line Sigma shall require 2/3 of the members counted as present to pass a vote.

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SC Alder - Dec/05