The NESFA By-Laws
with Historical Annotations

Preface

The current NESFA By-Laws were originally adopted at a special meeting on 31 March 1971. They replaced the original Constitution and By-Laws (adopted in October 1967) by a single document. While there was considerable difference in the arrangement of material (the old Constitution and By-Laws were often described as hopelessly confusing), there was little difference in substance.

Annotations in square brackets and italics [like this] give the dates of amendments to the By-Laws and other pertinent historical information. These annotations are of course not themselves part of the By-Laws. (The annotations up to 5/94 are written by George Flynn, who takes sole responsibility for their content. Thereafter they are written by the Rules Committee.) Sections with no annotations may be assumed to be part of the original 1971 text, and to derive in substance from the previous Constitution or By-Laws (in general no attempt will be made to distinguish which provisions were in each); sections dated "3/71" were introduced with the 1971 By-Laws.

As appendices to the By-Laws are included the following additional important documents: the NESFA Articles of Organization (July 1968), with all amendments thereto; the IRS letter approving NESFA's tax-exempt status (October 1971); and the Somerville letter recognizing the tax exemption of the NESFA Clubhouse (September 1991). [It is hoped to later include excerpts from some laws affecting NESFA; after all, some benighted Members have never even read Section 501(c)(3).]

The last printed edition of the By-Laws was dated July 1991, and was followed by five printed updates which brought it current to May 1994. In December 1998 a very slightly updated (to about August 1994) version was added to the NESFA website and declared to be the official version. In November 2002 the web version was brought fully up-to-date.

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[In addition to those provisions noted elsewhere, the 1967 Constitution included articles defining the name and purpose of NESFA, which were incorporated essentially verbatim into the Articles of Organization (q.v.). There was also an Article whose complete text read: "The Association is to have perpetual existence." The 1967 By-Laws began with "The informal name of the Association shall be 'The Eddoreans'"; this term soon fell into disuse, and was quietly forgotten.]