Constitution of the Singapore Microcomputer Society

1. NAME
This Society shall be known as the SINGAPORE MICROCOMPUTER SOCIETY.


2. PLACE OF BUSINESS
Its place of business shall be 80 Genting Lane #06-09, Singapore 349565, or
such other address as may subsequently be decided upon by the Committee
and approved by the Registrar of Societies.


3. OBJECTS
The objects of the Society are:
a) To develop and encourage by all appropriate means the wider understanding
and general use of microcomputers and related systems in new and productive
applications

b) To promote in the community the general dissemination of the technology
of microprocessors and the skills of personal computing through meetings,
demonstrations, seminars and publications

c) To organise such functions as will facilitate these OBJECTS


4. MEMBERS
Membership shall be open to all and any number of natural persons who are
interested in the OBJECTS of the Society and who being acceptable to the
Society, agree to abide by the Society's rules.

A person wishing to join the Society must submit his name to the
Secretariat together with those particulars listed on the application form
and the current subscription fees as provided for in (5) below.

Members shall be eligible to participate in all of the activities
of the Special Interest Groups as provided for in (8) below.


5. SUBSCRIPTIONS
The initial and annual subscriptions shall be at rates as recommended by the
Management Committee and ratified at an Annual General Meeting or at an
Extraordinary General Meeting called for that purpose.


6. MANAGEMENT, GENERAL MEETINGS\MEETINGS
Any issue pertaining to the management of the Society shall be voted on in
the Annual General Meeting or at an Extraordinary General Meeting called
for the purpose, and presided over by the President.  In the absence of the
President or Vice-President, members present shall elect a chairman among
themselves.

The quorum for such a meeting, including the Annual General Meeting, shall
be 100.  If within 15 minutes from the time appointed for the Meeting a
quorum of members is not present, then the members present shall
constitute the quorum for the meeting.

However, should there be an objection from the majority of the members then
present, the meeting shall be adjourned.

Annual General Meeting:
The Society shall hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) in April of each
year.  Notice of an AGM, together with the particulars of the agenda,
stating clearly the issue to be discussed at the meeting, shall be mailed to
all members at least two weeks prior to the date of the meeting.

The following items shall be included in the agenda of the AGM:-

-Confirmation of the Minutes of the previous AGM;

-Acceptance of the President's Report of the Society's activities since the
previous AGM;

-Acceptance of the Audited Accounts for the previous year.

-Election of Officers and other members of the Management Committee;

-Election of Auditors.

Any member who wishes to place an item on the agenda of a general meeting
may do so provided he gives notice to the Hon Secretary one week before the
meeting is due to be held.

Extraordinary General Meeting.
An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) may be called at any time by the
President, or in his absence the Vice-President or Hon Secretary or Hon
Treasurer, in that order, whenever the Management Committee shall deem it
necessary, or on the request in writing of 10 or more members.

Notice of an EGM, together with the particulars of the agenda, shall be
mailed to all members at least one week prior to the date of the meeting.

7. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
A Committee shall be elected by the members and shall consist of the
following officers and other individuals:

Officers: President, Vice-President, Hon.  Secretary, Hon.  Treasurer.

Other individuals: Chairmen of all User Groups and chairmen of all Standing
Committees

All individuals chosen to fill the above positions, whether Officers or
Chairmen of User Groups or Committees shall be residents of Singapore
whether by virtue of being citizens or Permanent Residents, or by holding a
valid work/employment or dependent's pass.

Names for the above offices shall be proposed and seconded at the annual
general meeting and election will follow on a simple majority vote of the
members.

All officers except the Hon. Treasurer may be re-elected year after year.
The Hon. Treasurer may be re-elected for only one additional term of office.
Furthermore, to be eligible to be elected as President, a member shall have
served on the Management Committee for a period of at least one year.

In addition to the abovementioned officers and other individuals, the
Committee may co-opt additional members in whatever number is deemed
necessary to support the operations of the Committee and of the Society;
and these members shall be full voting members of the Committee. The tenure
of such co-opted members is limited to the tenure of the Committee which
co-opted them.

A Committee meeting shall be held at least once every 2 months after 4 days
notice to committee members. The President may call a committee meeting at
any time by giving 4 days notice.  At least one half of the Committee
members must be present for its proceedings to be valid.

Other persons may be invited to attend Management Committee meetings as
observers, whether sporadically or on an on-going basis, at the discretion
of the committee, with the under-standing that such temporary representative
have no vote on Committee resolutions.

The duty of the Committee is to organise and supervise the daily activities
of the society and to make decisions on matters affecting its running when
the general meeting is not sitting.  It may not act contrary to the
expressed wishes of the general meeting without prior reference to it and
always remains subordinate to the general meeting.

The Committee has power to authorise the expenditure of monies from the
Society's funds to meet current operating expenses, in accordance with the
approved operating budget.  However expenditures on items of capital
equipment in excess of $3,000 must be submitted to the approval of the
membership at the General Meeting.

Should the Committee decide that any one of the above-mentioned Committee
members is guilty of conduct which makes it desirable that he no longer be a
member of the committee, the Committee has the right to remove the member in
question from office by simple majority vote, following which an alternate
individual shall be appointed by the Committee to fill the vacant post until
the next Annual General Meeting.

OFFICE-BEARERS

The duties of the officers are as follows:-

a) The President shall act as chairman at all general and committee
meetings.  He shall also represent the Society in its dealings with outside
persons.

b) The Vice-President shall deputise for the President in the latter's
absence.

c)The Hon Secretary shall keep all records, except financial, of the Society
and shall be responsible for their correctness.  He will keep minutes of all
general and committee meetings.

d) The Hon Treasurer shall keep all funds and collect and disburse all
monies on behalf of the Society and shall keep an account of all monetary
transactions and shall be responsible for their correctness.  He is
authorised to expend up to $300 per month for petty expenses on behalf of
the Society.  He will not keep more than $300 in the form of cash, and money
in excess of this will be deposited in a bank to be named by the committee,
Cheques etc for withdrawals from the banks shall be signed by any two of the
four officers of the Society.

e) Any member of the Committee absenting himself from three meetings
consecutively without satisfactory explanation shall be deemed to have
withdrawn from the Committee, and a successor may be co-opted by the
Committee to serve until the next Annual General Meeting.

8. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
Special Interest Groups, also referred to as User Groups, shall be set up
within the Society as and when recommended by the Management Committee in
response to apparent need.  By the same token, such Groups can be disbanded
by the Committee when it becomes apparent that they are no longer serving a
significant need of the membership.

These groups shall in effect operate as sub-committees of the Management
Committee.  They will be authorized to conduct separate meetings as and
when they see fit, to meet the needs of those members of the Society who
share the specialised interest.  Such User Group meetings will be open to
the General Public, but a door fee will be levied of such fee to be
determined from time to time by the Management Committee.

Upon initial inauguration of a User Group, the Management Committee shall
designate an individual to be Chairman of that Group, This Chairman shall
take responsibility for forming a sub-committee to manage the affairs of
the User Group, and shall be responsible for keeping the Management
Committee informed of the activities of his Group.This Chairman shall also
become a member of the Management Committee.

At such time as the Chairman may resign from his post, the Management
Committee will designate an individual recommended by the user group to take
over the post, such assignment to be effective until the next Annual General
Meeting.  Also, as provided for in (7) above, the Committee has the
authority to replace a User Group Chairman with another individual if deemed
desirable by majority vote.

9. FINANCE
Proper Books of Accounts shall be kept in accordance with professionally
acceptable accounting practices.  The Management Committee shall arrange for
the preparation of a Balance Sheet showing the Society's financial position
as at the 31st December of each year, together with the Income and
Expenditure Account for the year ending on that date.  Two auditors shall be
elected at the AGM. The auditors shall certify as to the correctness of the
Society's accounts.  Certified audited copies of the Accounts shall be
circulated with the agenda and notice of the Annual General Meeting.

10. TRUSTEES
If the Society at any time acquires any immovable property, such property
shall be vested in Trustees subject to a declaration of trust.  Any Trustee
may at any time resign his trusteeship.  If a Trustee dies or becomes a
lunatic or of unsound mind or moves permanently or is absent from the
Republic of Singapore for a period of one year, he shall be deemed to have
resigned his trusteeship.  If a trustee is guilty of misconduct of such a
kind as to render it undesirable that he continue as a Trustee, a General
Meeting may remove him from his trusteeship.  Vacancies in the trusteeship
may be filled at a General Meeting, but the number shall not be greater than
five or less than two.  Notice of any proposal to remove a Trustee from his
trusteeship or to appoint a new Trustee to fill a vacancy must be given by
affixing in the premises of the Society a document containing such proposal
at least two weeks before the meeting at which the proposal is to be
discussed. The result of such meeting shall then be notified to the
Registrar of Societies.

11. VISITORS AND GUESTS
Residents of Singapore may be admitted into the premises of the Society but
they shall not be admitted to the privileges of the Society nor shall they
be admitted into the premises more than six times in any year.These visits
are to be confined to not more than once in 14 days.

A Visitor's Book shall be kept, in which shall be entered the names of all
visitors and guests, together with the signatures of the members nominating
them and the dates of their visits.  No person shall be a visitor or guest
until his name has been entered into this book.

12. PROHIBITIONS
a) Gambling of any kind such as the playing of paikow or mahjong, whether
for stakes or not, is forbidden on the Society's premises.  The introduction
of materials for gambling or opium smoking and of bad characters into the
premises is prohibited.

b) The funds of the Society shall not be used to pay the fines of members
who have been convicted in Court.

c) The Society shall not attempt to restrict or in any manner interfere with
trade or prices or engage in any Trade Union activity as defined in any
written law relating to trade unions for the time being in force in
Singapore.

d) The Society shall not hold any lottery, whether confined to its members
or not, in the name of the Society or its office-bearers, Committee or
members.

e) The Society shall not indulge in any political activity or allow its
funds and/or premises to be used for political purposes.

13.AMENDMENT TO RULES
No alterations or additions to these Rules shall be made except at a general
meeting, and they shall not come into force without the prior sanction of
the Registrar of Societies.

14. INTERPRETATION
In the event of any question or matter arising out of any point which is not
expressly provided for in the Rules, the Committee shall have power to use
their own discretion.

Where a general consensus on any point brought up for decision is not
immediately obvious, such issue shall be put to a vote and resolved by a
simple majority vote of the voting members of the Committee.  However, the
President reserves the right to override the vote of the Committee and put
the matter to a vote of the general membership at an Extraordinary General
Meeting called for the purpose if he disagrees with the majority vote of the
Committee members and feels that the issue is of sufficient importance to
solicit the view of the Society members at large.

15. DISSOLUTION
a) The Society shall not be dissolved, except with the consent of not less
than 3/5 of the members of the Society for the time being resident in
Singapore expressed, either in person or by proxy, at a general meeting
convened for the purpose.

b) In the event of the Society being dissolved as provided above, all debts
and liabilities legally incurred on behalf of the Society shall be fully
discharged, and the remaining funds will be divided and distributed equally
amongst the then financial members of the Society.

c) Notice of dissolution shall be given within 7 days of the dissolution to
the Registrar of Societies.