Eastern Section AAPG Best Practices

Best Practices Document – 2016

Constitution and By-Laws of The Eastern Section of The American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Incorporated

a) Voted on by the Council in Washington, D.C. on June 15, 1977
b) (Revised April 20, 2004)
c) (Revised September 17, 2007)
d) (Revised and Adopted May 19, 2019)
e) (Revised June 24, 2020)

ESAAPG Constitution

CONSTITUTION

Article I. Name

The name of this organization shall be the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists (AAPG), Incorporated.

Article II. Purpose

a) This Section is formed to unite the AAPG affiliated societies within the geographic region, as defined by the AAPG, for the purpose of sponsoring scientific meetings and publications, promoting the utility of petroleum and energy geology, and otherwise furthering the objectives of the AAPG.
b) No part of the activities of the Section or its officers shall be to disseminate propaganda or otherwise influence local, state, or federal legislation.

Article III. Disposition of Assets

a) The Section is a nonprofit corporation, incorporated in the State of Delaware on March 24, 1999. In the event of the dissolution of the Section, or should it for any reason terminate its activities, all of its funds and assets, after payment of its debts and liabilities shall be transferred and delivered to AAPG for its use and benefit, or if AAPG is not then in existence, to such other charitable or educational foundation, trust, or other institution exempt from federal income taxes as an organization described in Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law) as the Council shall designate at its discretion.

Article IV. Organization

a) The Section Council shall have no power to exercise any of the responsibilities, duties, or privileges imposed or reserved by the AAPG or its officers.
b) No action by the officers or members of the Section Council, or any committee thereof, shall be binding upon the AAPG or shall impose any liability or commitment upon AAPG unless expressly authorized or ratified by the Executive Committee of AAPG. No commitment, contract, or undertaking of the Section shall be made or done directly in the name of AAPG.

Article V. Membership

The Section shall consist of such AAPG affiliated geological societies within the regional boundaries as defined by AAPG, which shall from time to time be elected to membership at any regular or special meeting of the Council.

BY-LAWS

Article I. Section Council

a) The affairs of the Section shall be administered by a Section Council, all of whose members shall be Active members of AAPG.
b) The Section Council shall consist of the Society Delegates as defined in Article IV, Section 2, of the By- Laws of AAPG. Each affiliated local geological society shall be entitled to one Delegate for up to seventy (70) members of the Association, and to one (1) additional Delegate for each additional seventy (70) members, or major fraction thereof, being allocated to that society for voting purposes. In addition, any elected officer of the Section as defined in Article II.a of these By-Laws who is not a Society Delegate will be a voting member of the Council for the term of their office.
c) The Eastern Section Councilors to the DEG, EMD, and DPA Divisions of AAPG are not members of the Council by virtue of their positions. They may be invited to attend Council meetings at the discretion of the President and the Executive Committee of the Section.

Article II. Officers

a) The officers of this Section shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and representative to the Advisory Council of AAPG. Each officer shall be an Active AAPG member from one of the affiliated societies of the Eastern Section and be elected in accordance with Articles II.c and e. The Past President position is filled by the prior year’s President and is a non-voting position.
b) The duties of each officer shall be those customarily pertinent to each respective office and outlined in the Operations Manual. The President, or Vice-President in the President’s absence, shall preside at all meetings of the Council and Executive Committee.
c) To fill the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer roles, each year a new Treasurer will be elected by the membership for a one-year term and the prior year’s officers rotate up in rank for one-year terms in each office. The officers’ one-year terms commence at the end of the Annual Eastern Section Meeting and continue through the next year’s Annual Meeting.
d) The unfulfilled term of a Section officer, by reason of death or resignation, shall be filled through an appointment made by the remaining officers to fulfill the current term of office until the next Annual Business Meeting of the Section. The office will then be filled through the normal election process as described in Article II.e.
e) Candidates for election to the offices of the Section shall be nominated from among the Active AAPG members of the affiliated societies of the Eastern Section by a Nominating Committee chaired by the Past-President. Once a preferred two candidates for each open office (typically Treasurer) are nominated, an election will be held by electronic ballot to include all active voting members of the Eastern Section AAPG. The Candidates that receive the majority of votes shall be declared to be elected to their respective offices. In the event of a tie, the election shall be decided by a vote of the Executive Committee.
f) The Advisory Council representative shall be elected for a three-year term via an election process managed by AAPG headquarters in accordance with AAPG Bylaws. The term of the Advisory Council representative begins on July 1 of the year in which the representative is elected.
g) The position of Archivist will be retired and the duties to gather, store, and maintain the current and past records of the Section will be transferred to the Executive Committee with each officer position responsible for placing their respective documents throughout the year to a cloud-based storage system approved by the Executive Committee. Collecting and archiving documents associated with the National ACE and the Eastern Section Annual meeting will be the responsibility of the Secretary. The official address of the organization will be established by vote of the Executive Committee with consideration for consistency and accessibility.
h) The position of Website and Social Media Coordinator will be established with the person being appointed by the Executive Committee for a five (5) year term. The principle duties of the position will be to coordinate with the contracted Webmaster of the Eastern Section website to monitor and provide updated content for the website, and be active on social media, to include Linked In, Twitter and others as appropriate. Responsibilities will be further detailed in the Operations Manual.

Article III. Committees 

Committees are not intended to duplicate activities normally carried on by member societies or by
AAPG. Ad Hoc Committees may be appointed as prescribed in the By-Laws.
a) Executive Committee. The control and management of the Section shall be the responsibility of the Executive Committee, which shall consist of the persons holding the offices named in (a) of Article II above. The Executive Committee shall be re-constituted immediately following each Annual Meeting of the Section Council. The Executive Committee shall determine its own rules of procedure and times of meeting. The members present at any scheduled meeting of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The Council at its discretion can vote to empower the Executive Committee to act on its behalf on specific issues before it.
b) Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee shall consist of a chairperson (typically, Past-President) and not more than four additional persons, each of whom shall be an AAPG member of an affiliated society, and shall be appointed annually by the President and approved by the Executive Committee.
c) Standing Committee on Section Meetings. A Standing Committee on Section Meetings will provide oversight and advice to local society hosts of annual Eastern Section technical meetings. The committee shall be reconstituted at the end of each annual technical meeting, and shall consist of the General Chairpersons of the three previous technical meetings, including the one just ended, and the General Chairpersons of the next two Eastern Section meetings. The committee shall be chaired by the most senior member, usually the General Chairperson of the earliest meeting so represented. The Eastern Section Vice-President shall serve as an Ex-officio member and shall function as a liaison between this committee and the Executive Committee.
d) Honors and Awards Committee. The Honors and Awards Committee is charged with identifying individuals worthy of the Eastern Section’s professional performance awards. The Honors and Awards Committee shall consist of three members, who will be appointed by the Eastern Section President and approved by the Executive Committee, for six-year terms, on a rotating basis. The most senior member of the committee shall serve as the committee chair. One new member will be appointed every two years. The Honors and Awards Committee shall solicit nominations for awards from the section officers, local society officers and delegates, and other key individuals within the Section. The Honors and Awards Committee shall also assist the Eastern Section Representative to the AAPG Advisory Council with identifying Eastern Section members who can be candidates for national awards. The Honors and Awards Committee shall present its recommendations to the Eastern Section Executive Committee for approval. Upon the Executive Committee’s approval, the Committee will notify the awardees and ask them to select a citationist. The Committee Chair will participate in the annual Honors and Awards ceremony at the annual section meeting, and prepare the Honors and Awards booklet for distribution at the ceremony. The Committee may also provide the booklet content for publication in scientific journals as well as for the section’s website.
e) Audit Committee. The Audit Committee is charged with reviewing the treasury records of the Section as needed, but at least once per year. The records shall consist of the Treasurer’s reports, check book, and other financial statements related to the financial holdings of the Section. The Audit Committee will present a written report to the Council at the annual meeting. The Audit Committee shall consist of a minimum of two members appointed by the President and approved by the Executive Committee.
f) Standing or Special Committee. Other committees as may be necessary from time to time may be appointed by the President, with the approval of the Executive Committee. Such committees may include persons who aren’t active members of AAPG, but are members of AAPG affiliated societies.

Article IV. Meetings

The Section Council shall meet at the Annual Meeting of the Section to conduct such business as the
Council considers necessary. The Section Council may meet at additional times as necessary.

Article V. Scientific Assembly

The section may conduct regional meetings to present technical programs for the benefit of the
member societies. The location and time of the annual meetings shall be selected by the Section Council after considering bids from member societies interested in sponsoring a meeting.

Article VI. Fiscal Year and Finances

a) The fiscal year of the Section shall begin on the first day of January and end on the last day of December of each year.
b) Expenditures required shall be recommended by the Treasurer to the Council. Following adequate prior notice to the Council, a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of Council Members present and voting are required for approval. Any funds required shall be assessed and shall be collected from individual AAPG members by the Eastern Section. A member society assumes no financial responsibility to the Eastern Section of AAPG.

Article VII. Adoption of By-Laws

These By-Laws shall be deemed to be adopted and shall become effective at such time as they are approved by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the members of the Council present and voting at any meeting of the Council.

Article VIII. Amendments to the By-Laws

These By-Laws may be amended, or new By-Laws added, at any meeting of the members of the Council by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the members present and voting, providing the amendment or amendments have been previously presented to the Executive Committee and a copy thereof sent to each Council member with notice of the meeting.