1. ORDER OF BUSINESS VIA OLS MAILING LIST
A. For the Chapter meeting, the President shall email 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. She shall also post the sign-in link for members to indicate their attendance to the meeting at the same time.
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 the end of the business meeting.
E. Members are asked to keep all postings during the meeting, 3rd Wednesdays to 4th Wednesdays, limited to Chapter business.
F. All members shall use the link posted with the Opening Ritual 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 President shall ask the Corresponding Secretary to post the Closing Ritual on the evening of the 4th Wednesday.
K. (Eliminated)
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.
5. OFFICERS
A. Elected Officers
Officers of this Chapter shall assume the same duties as in a regular Chapter in addition to the following:
B. Qualifications, Nominations, Elections, and Installation of Officers
6. EXECUTIVE BOARD
A. Executive Board meetings shall be held as necessary, at the discretion of Executive Board members.
B. Minutes of the meeting shall be kept by the Recording Secretary, and submitted to International along with the Chapter meeting minutes.
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 email 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:
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 sign in to the attendance link for each monthly meeting. She also commits to participating in the monthly program and social, 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:
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. Members must sign in to the meeting using the attendance link at some time during the week of the meeting. If a member can't attend a meeting for any of the excused reasons, she must notify a member of the E xecutive Board beforehand, or will be considered absent.
9. VOTING
A. The Teller Committee shall email 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 email 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 will be exchanged for the year. Revealing Day will be Christmas, at which time a new Special Sister year begins.
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. Eliminated
B. Special Recognition: Woman of the Year
13. Progression
A. Beta Sigma Phi International has now given online chapters "official" status. A member shall now progress to the next higher degree in an online chapter, depending upon years in her current degree and active participation in Online Sigma.
B. "Virtual" members (those currently in a "land" chapter) will progress according to membership in their respective land chapters.
14. AMENDMENTS