The Arabian Horse Association of New York, Inc

BY-LAWS
As of May 15, 2001

Section 1 Name and Purpose

1. the name of this organization shall be : The Arabian Horse Association of new York, Inc.

Section 2 Membership

2.  JUNIOR/YOUTH AHAYA/AHANY MEMBERSHIP:  Open to individuals under 18 years of age as of December 1.  Entitled to all AHA and AHANY benefits except voting, but may vote on separate youth issues.
3.  NON-VOTING (ASSOCIATE) AHANY MEMBERSHIP:  Receive AHANY clube newsletter and may participate in AHANY sponsored events.

1. Individual – one year AHANY membership for one adult.

Honorary memberships may be awarded by a vote of the general membership.  This special membership holds no voting privileges.

HONORARY AND NON-VOTING ASSOCIATES ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH AHA.

C.  Any member may be expelled at any time by a 2/3 vote of the full board without cause signed.

Section 3 DUES

A.  The dues to AHANY are separate fromany and all surcharges asses the club by AHA and the region.  Dues must be made payable to AHANY in U.S. funds and sent directly to the AHANY membership chairperson.

Adult Affiliate                           $10.00             $45.00                                     $55.00
3 year Adult Affiliate                 $30.00             $130.00                                   $160.00
Junior/Youth                             $00.00             $20.00                                     $20.00
Non-Voting Individual  $20.00             $00.00                                     $00.00
Honorary                                  $00.00             $00.00                                     $00.00

B.  Membership year starts January 1st.

C. All dues are payable by October 1st.  Dues paid after December 1st will be charged a $10.00 AHA late fee.

D.  Membership will automatically be dropped when dues are not paid by December 31st.

E.  New members joining in the 4th quarter pay full dues which are applied to the following year, unless requested otherwise.

F. All dues are nonrefundable.

Section 4. VOTING

A.  To be eligible to vote, you must first be a member in good standing.  Voting privileges start with payment of annual dues.

B.  To be eligible to vote for the election of officers, it shall also be necessary to have attended three meetings prior to and exclusive of the election meeting.  Meetings attended prior to the payment of annual dues will not count toward voting eligibility.

C.  The slate of nominations for the election of officers will be published in the newsletter preceding the election meeting.

D.  Proxies shall NOT be allowed.  In order to vote in the election for officers, the eligible member must be either be present or use a mail-in ballot.  A mail-in vote must follow an exact procedure:

1. Ballots must be sent to the secretary, postmarked at least 7 days prior to the election date.
2. To preserve the secrecy of the vote, the ballots must be in a plain, sealed envelope bearing the name of the voting member, which is then placed into a second envelope for mailing purposes.  The Secretary will record that the members vote has been received, and turn over the unopened plain envelope to the elections committee for tabulation.
3. Mail-in ballots will be opened and counted at the election meeting by the tellers.

E.  If, the opinion of the presiding officer at any meeting, a matter of sufficient importance to warrant the vote of the entire body arises, he/she may designate a ballot to be sent to each member for a return by a certain date.

Section 5  OFFICERS

A.  To be eligible to run or hold any elected office, you must first be a member in good standing for at least one year and you must be eligible to vote.  (see section 4, part b)

B.  The officersshall be President, Vice President, Secretary and Tresurer.

C.  Term of office shall be two years.

D.  No office shall be held for more than three (3) consecutive terms.

E.  The Board of Directors shall consist of the elected officers, the outgoing president, if any, and six additional directors, three elected each year for two year terms.

6. Term of office starts at the November meeting or by November 30th, whichever comes first.

G.  Any Board vacancy shall be appointed by the Board of Directors until the next election.

H.  Officer vacancies will be filled by a special election to compete a term.

I.  Officers and Board members are required to keep memership dues current.  Any elected or appointed official whose dues are in arrears as of December 1 will be given 30 days written notice.  Failure to comply will result in automatic resignation from your position.

J.  Duties of Office:

1. President – Shall preside at all meetings, be Chairman of the Board of Directors, and be a member of all committees.
2. Vice President- Shall preside at all meetings in the absence of the President and shall become President for any expired term.  Shall be responsible for meetings and activities.
3. Secretary – Shall keep minutes of all meetings, preside at meetings in the absence of the President and Vice President, handle all correspondence and mail-in ballots and keep records of attendance for voting eligibility verification.
4. Treasurer – Shall keep the books of the association, shall keep association funds in banks or credit unions designated by the Board of directors and make ordinary expenditures to expedite the conducting of business.
5. Board of Directors – Shall act as advisory board to President and membership and make recommendations and proposals to membership.

Section 6 CONVENTION DELEGATES

AHA allows one delegate per 50 adult voting members to represent their club at the National Convention.

1. QUALIFICATIONS:  Each voting delegate and each alternate voting delegate shall be an Adult Affiliate member of AHANY whole dues have been paid to AHA.
2. SELECTION:  Delegates are to be elected for a term of two years.  One half of the total delegates will be elected each year.  Two alternates shall be elected, one each year, for a two year term.

Section 7 MEETINGS

1. The annual Election shall be held at the October meeting.
2. Business meetings shall be monthly except June and August.  During the months of September through April, the meetings will be held on the third Saturday of the month, unless otherwise specified.  During May and July, the meetings will be held on the third Tuesday of that month unless otherwise specified.
3. Board of Directors shall meet at least four times a year or at the request of the President or three Board Members.

SECTION 8 QUORUM

1. The quorum of a regular meeting shall be 10% of the members in good standing and two officers.
2. The quorum of a special Board of Director’s meeting shall be a majority of the Board.

SECTION 9  COMMITTEES

1. committees shall be appointed by the President and shall be;
1. Rules
2. Membership
3. Horse Shows
4. Newsletter
5. High Score
6. Auditing
7. Nominating
8. AHANY Open Futurity
9. AHANY Breeders Yearling Sweepstakes
10. Health and Welfare
11. AHANY Youth/AHA
12. Promotional Representative

SECTION 10 ORDER OF BUSINESS

1. Meetings shall be held as follows:

1. Call to Order
2. Introduction of new members and guests
3. Minutes of the last meeting
4. Tresurers report
5. Coorespondence
6. Standing Committees
7. Special Committes
8. Announcements
9. Old Business
10. Election (if any)
11. New Business
12. Speaker or Entertainment
13. Set date and place of next meeting.

SECTION 11.  ASSESMENTS

A.  A special assessment may be levied by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, the total amount assessed against a member in any one year shall not exceed the amount of said member’s due for that year

B.  Members shall be notified in writing four (4) weeks prior to the meeting that a vote on an assessment will be taken.

C. The penalty for non payment of such assessment shall be forfeiture of membership.

D.  No action may be taken for collection of such assessment.

E. Junior and Honorary members shall not be assessed.

SECTION 12.  AMENDMENTS

A.  Except for sections 6 and 8, these by-lays may be amended or altered by a 2/3 vote of members present at a regular meeting after written notice of proposed changes have been given to all voting members at least two (2) weeks prior to the meeting.

B.  Sections 6 and 8 of these by-laws may be amended or altered for a meeting by 2/3 vote of the members present at a meeting.

SECTION 13.  RULES OF ORDER

A.  Robert’s Rule of Order shall prevail on all question not specifically set down by these by-laws.

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