Quad City Linux Users Group (herafter referred to as the QCLUG) Constitution

The QCLUG Organization shall have a membership of professionally and/or personally interested Iowa and Illinois residents promoting the practice of and education therein of Linux, Linux applications, and the open source movement.

A list of its members, and a means by which they may be contacted will be recorded and updated every fiscal quarter by the Secretary. Any membership information gathered, including but not limited to name, contact information, and any optional demographic information, will be treated as confidential information.

The membership of the QCLUG shall decide, upon popular membership vote, the following QCLUG Officer positions at the September General Meeting every year beginning in September 2010: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Web Master. The foregoing organization officer positions shall be filled by individuals residing either in the State of Illinois or the State of Iowa. (Term limits will be decided at a later date)

All members, including the Board of Directors have an equal vote in making decisions about future meetings and/or changes/amendments to the QCLUG Constitution. The one exception is the case of a tie vote in which the President is given an additional vote (or the Vice President in the absence of the President) for the purpose of breaking the tie.

Said organization is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purpose, including for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501©(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or the corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

When dues are expected from individual members, payable to and recorded by the QCLUG Treasurer, the following applies: When dues are in arrears for an individual member for more than sixty days, said member is deemed a non-paying member and loses his or her right to vote on any QCLUG matters until such time as his or her payment of dues is brought up to date. Dues are paid yearly during the September General Meeting. Any member joining after the September General Meeting will pay a prorated amount of 1/12th of the total amount of yearly dues for each month until the September General Meeting which will be paid in a lump sum at time of membership.

At the outset of every General Meeting, the Treasurer, shall give a very brief accounting (less than 10 minutes) of dues collected, year-to-date, funds dispensed and net monetary assets of the QCLUG, at a minimum. This information is to be shared with the membership prior to any votes on disbursements, expenditures, purchases, or changes in membership dues.

Votes on expenditures, disbursements, purchases, or changes in membership dues of the QCLUG must be made by a simple majority vote of the membership.

Officers are members of the QCLUG Board of Directors which may decide to meet at any time upon a majority vote of the Board of Directors.

An individual may be removed from office or from membership in the QCLUG at a general meeting if the motion to remove has been announced to the membership no more than sixty days nor less than ten days prior to the meeting at which the motion is to be considered, and two-thirds of those present at the meeting vote to remove the individual. Should a member of the Board of Directors vacate their office (by removal, relocation outside the states of Iowa or Illinois, resignation or death), the membership will nominate and then vote in a new officer to serve out the remainder of the term. Nominations must be proposed and voted on no more than sixty days nor less than ten days before the meeting at which voting will commence.

General meetings occur monthly unless a majority vote of the membership changes the frequency of General meetings. A meeting must occur in September to elect new officers. Proposed actions to the Board of Directors, including ad hoc delegation of authority consistent with these articles, must be confirmed at such meetings or via email if a general meeting is more than ten days from commencing by a simple majority vote. The President or Vice President presides at these meetings. The Board of Directors will designate one meeting per fiscal year as the “Annual Membership Meeting” at which a financial report and other business of importance to the membership will be presented. Each Annual Membership Meeting must occur within fifteen months of the previous Annual Membership Meeting.

Bylaws and other organizational rules are proposed to members no more than sixty days nor less than ten days before the meeting at which the vote on bylaws is announced and will be considered. A bylaw may be approved by a simple majority vote of members present.

An amendment to the articles may be proposed by the Board of Directors or by a minimum of four members when presented as a petition to the President. The declaration of an amendment must be made formally and filed with the President. The amendment is considered at a general meeting within thirty one days of its receipt by the President. The Secretary sends a notice that voting on an amendment will occur along with the text of the proposed amendment to every member no more than thirty-one days nor less than ten days before the meeting at which the amendment is considered. The amendment is adopted if a majority of the members present vote for adoption.

The President shall preside over all meetings or designate an alternate, attempt to achieve consensus in all decision-making, ensure the membership is informed of all relevant issues, and serve other duties of a President as required by law or custom.

The Vice President shall be primarily responsible for the information systems and communication processes of the corporation, coordinate the teams that manage and design those systems, draft policies and procedures for information system use, ensure effective communication and information exchange within the corporation, and serving all other duties of a Vice President as required by law or custom, including acting when the President is unable or unwilling to act.

The Secretary shall be responsible for membership records including membership and board meeting actions and petitions, sending out meeting announcements, posting and distributing copies of membership meeting minutes and relevant meeting agendas to the membership, assuring that corporate records are maintained, and serving all other duties of a Secretary as required by law or custom.

The Treasurer shall be custodian of corporate funds, collect dues, make a financial report for each quarter, assist in the preparation of the budget, develop fundraising plans, make financial information available to members and the public, sneer at members who do not pay dues in a timely fashion and serve all other duties of a Treasurer as required by law or custom.

The Web Master shall be the maintainer of the QCLUG website. This includes receiving the meeting minutes from the Secretary and post them to the website, modifying the website to update any events or meeting locations and maintaining the mailing list. The Web Master may also be called upon by any of the other Board Members to provide technical support to retrieve data from the web hosting account.

The lead PR officer will set marketing direction, be responsible for marketing inquiries, ensure advertising media is kept up-to-date, post meeting topic information to all forms of marketing media, ensure marketing of the QCLUG activities is a priority each month.

The PR assistant will work with the lead PR officer to help coordinate PR and marketing duties to supplement the marketing needs of the QCLUG.