The NESFA By-Laws
with Historical Annotations

Article I: Membership

• 1.1 The classes of membership in this Corporation are:
  [Nearly all instances of the term "Corporation" in the current By-Laws correspond to "Association" in the 1967 Constitution and By-Laws, which were written before NESFA's incorporation (with a proviso that all references to a corporate form were inoperative until incorporation): see Articles of Organization.]

  • (a) Regular, which, except as otherwise provided, entitles its holders to all rights, privileges, and duties of active membership in the Corporation, and which constitutes the only class of voting membership.
    [The "except as otherwise provided" in (a), (d), and (e) was added in 1/87: cf. Section 1.10.]

  • (b) Inactive, which, except as otherwise provided, entitles its holders to all rights and privileges of membership in the Corporation except voting rights. Inactive Membership is reserved for former Regular Members in accordance with Section 1.8. [Added 9/75: cf. Section 1.8.]

  • (c) General, which, except as otherwise provided, entitles its holders to all rights and privileges of membership in the Corporation except voting rights.
    [Name originally "Associate"; changed 9/75. The 1967-71 By-Laws referred to "rights, privileges, and duties" here.]

  • (d) Subscribing, which, except as otherwise provided, entitles its holders to receive the generally distributed publications and notices of the Corporation, and to such other rights and privileges as may be specified by the Corporation.
    [Name originally "Corresponding"; changed 11/75. Under the 1967-71 By-Laws "persons residing within the metropolitan area of Boston" were not eligible for Corresponding Membership, local people then being admitted directly to Regular or Associate Membership. The entitlement was to "publications of the Corporation" in 1967-71, to "the newsletter and journal" (also in the next subsection) from 3/71 to 3/75, and to "the newsletter" in both subsections from then until 1/87. Until 8/82 this section included a cross-reference to Section 1.4 (q.v.).]

  • (e) Affiliate, which is limited to organizations and, except as otherwise provided, entitles its holders to receive the generally distributed publications and notices of the Corporation and to such other rights and privileges as may be specified by the Corporation.
    [The right to receive publications was added in 3/71.]

  • (f) Family-Dependency, which entitles its holders to the same rights and privileges as General Membership, except the right to receive, independently, the publications, notices, and other mailings sent to the sponsoring Member. Any Regular, Inactive, General, or Subscribing Member may sponsor their cohabitants and immediate relatives for Family-Dependency Membership.
    [Originally Family-Dependency Membership was reserved for the dependents of Regular Members; Inactive and General Members were added in 9/75, and Subscribing Members in 8/82. The reference to "cohabitants" was added in 3/71.]

  [The 1967-71 By-Laws also provided for "such other classes of non-voting membership as shall be specified by the Association."]

  [In the last sentence of (f) above, "their" was originally "his". This is the first of numerous such changes (mostly not noted separately), nearly all made by a global "sex change" amendment in 12/79.]

• • 1.2 (a) Eligibility to any class of membership depends on the payment of dues and the satisfaction of any other requirements that the Corporation may specify for that class of membership.
    [The 1967-71 By-Laws also referred to "the exercise of such other duties as may be specified for that class".]

  • (b) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whenever Members have failed to pay their dues, their memberships automatically expire at the end of the period when the dues are payable. [3/71]

  • (c) The Clerk shall notify all Members in writing at least one month before the deadline for payment of their dues. Whenever such notice is not given to any Member, the deadline for payment of dues by that Member is extended until one month after written notice is actually given. [3/71]

• 1.2A Admission to membership, or transfer from one class of membership to another, is accomplished by vote of the Membership, except as provided in Sections 1.8 and 1.9. One week's written notice of such a vote will be given.
  [First sentence added 9/75 (the "vote of the Membership" requirement was previously in an introductory clause to Section 1.3), revised 4/82 (passage of Section 1.9). A requirement of two weeks' written notice was added in 9/82, reduced to one week in 4/83.]

• • 1.3 (a) Application for membership or for a change of class can be made to the Membership Committee or by petition. A petition must be sponsored by no fewer than three Members of any class, must be signed by the person whose membership class it is proposed to change indicating their consent, and must be submitted to the Clerk.
    [Change of "less" to "fewer", 6/81. The signature requirement for petitions was added in 8/86. In the 1967-71 By-Laws the term "application" was used for both routes described here; a proviso exempted "charter members" from these procedures.]

  • (b) Upon receiving an application for membership or for a change of class, the Membership Committee shall review the eligibility and qualifications of the applicant within two months and may either report favorably on the application or return it to the applicant without prejudice against resubmission. Transfers to Regular and Inactive Membership which require a vote of the Membership shall be decided by secret ballot as questions separate from the remainder of the report of the Membership Committee.
    [Second sentence in its present form passed 12/82; previously it said that "Acceptance ... of the report ... constitutes acceptance of the applications contained therein," and some argued that this forbade dividing the question. The two-month time limit was added 3/71.]

  • (c) Upon receiving an application by petition, the Clerk shall report it to the Membership at the next meeting. The Membership may then accept, reject, or table the application.

  • (d) The Clerk shall return to the applicant, without prejudice against resubmission, any application by petition which has remained on the table for more than one month.

• 1.4 [Repealed 6/81: said that "Non-members (and Subscribing Members) may not attend more than half the meetings within any six-month period," with the Membership Committee charged with monitoring attendance. (In the 1967-71 By-Laws the Rules Committee was charged with enforcing this provision.) Prior to 2/72 the limit was three meetings in three months (there were then usually two meetings a month).]

• 1.5 The Membership Committee shall, from time to time, review the classification of Members in view of their attendance, interest, and activity, and may recommend the transfer of any Member to a more appropriate class of membership. Upon recommendation of the Membership Committee, the Membership may waive any or all of the membership or attendance requirements in any specific case.
  [The clause authorizing recommendation of transfers was added in 9/75. See Standing Rules, Sections 1.7(5) and (6), on the criteria for the various membership classes, and Section 1.7(7) on involuntary transfers. In the 1967-71 By-Laws the review of a Member's classification was "upon the request of the Executive Committee or of the particular individual."]

• 1.6 Dues for each class of membership shall be determined by vote of the Membership. Written notice of any proposal to change the amount of dues shall be given to all Members at least seven (7) days before any action is taken on the proposal.
  [Cf. Standing Rules, Sections 2.1(1) for the amounts of dues and 2.1(2) for the interpretation of the notice requirement. 1967-71 By-Laws: "by the Membership upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee"; the initial dues were specified in a proviso to the By-Laws.]

• 1.7 Except in cases of nonpayment of dues (in accordance with Section 1.2), a Member can be suspended or expelled from the Corporation only by vote of the Membership on recommendation of the Rules Committee, in accordance with Section 8.2. Changes in the class of any Member can only be made by vote of the Membership in accordance with the provisions of Sections 1.2A, 1.3, and 1.5, or in accordance with the provisions of Section 1.8.
  [3/71. References to Sections 1.2A and 1.8 added 9/75.]

• • 1.8 (a) Any Regular Member who so requests, or who, immediately prior to either the Annual Meeting or the first meeting in November, has attended meetings in fewer than two (2) of the last six (6) calendar months in which there were meetings, shall automatically be transferred to Inactive Membership. The Chairman of the Membership Committee shall notify each Member so transferred.
    [Subsections (a) through (c) were added in 9/75, as a solution to the long-standing problem of many "Regular Members" who seldom attended meetings (often having moved out of the area), making attainment of a quorum difficult. Originally inactivity could be invoked at any time, and some Members went back and forth between Regular and Inactive at frequent intervals; the restriction of the calculation to May and November was added in 5/78 to simplify matters (at the same time, the Membership Committee rather than the Clerk was made responsible for notification). In 9/90 a ruling by the President was upheld that "the last six calendar months in which there were meetings" meant that a month could be counted twice: e.g., if there was no meeting in August, then April would be counted in "the last six months" in both May and November.]

  • (b) Any Inactive Member who has been an Inactive Member for less than three (3) years and who has attended meetings in two (2) or more of the last three (3) calendar months in which there were meetings shall be retransferred to Regular Membership upon the Member's request to the Chairman of the Membership Committee.
    [Again, the Membership Chairman replaced the Clerk in 5/78. Limitation to 3 years added 8/2000.]

  • (c) In determining meeting attendance for purposes of this section, no meeting shall be counted until it has been adjourned.

  • (d) No adjustments of dues shall be made for transfers under this Section unless so requested by the Member. Each Regular and Inactive Member shall pay dues for the class of membership which the Member holds at the time the dues become due.
    [Added 5/78: previously transfer from Inactive to Regular could not take place until any dues increment was paid. It seems to have been the general impression that the above subsection applied to all transfers; this interpretation was regularized in 9/83 by Standing Rule 2.1(6).]

• 1.9 A non-member shall become a Subscribing or Family-Dependency Member upon payment of dues and receipt by the Membership Committee or its designee of written application for membership. A non-member may also become a Subscribing or Family-Dependency Member by vote of the Membership.
  [Added 4/82, for Subscribing Members; previously the Membership had to vote on all new Members. Family-Dependency Members added 4/83.]

• 1.10 All Members other than Family-Dependency Members shall receive the generally distributed publications and notices of the Corporation, except that certain groups of Members may elect to have such items sent to one member only of the group. This election shall be made in writing to the Membership Committee or its designee and must be signed by each member of the group. All Members so electing shall be reminded that any notice published in these items will nonetheless satisfy the requirements for giving notice to them. This election may be made by any group of Members residing at the same address.
  [1/87. Much the same effect could previously be achieved by the holding of joint memberships (Standing Rules 1.7(8) and (9)), but this method allows the publications to be combined while retaining separate memberships.]