Constitution
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Article I – NAME OF SOCIETY
The organization shall be called The International Society for Neutron Capture Therapy (ISNCT).
Article II – PURPOSE OF SOCIETY
The International Society for Neutron Capture Therapy is a multidisciplinary nonprofit professional and educational association founded in 1983 to facilitate the development of Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT) as a procedure for treatment of some of the most serious forms of cancer and possibly also as an aid in the management of certain non-malignant diseases. Scientific areas of interest to the ISNCT include research and supporting technology development in relevant fields of synthetic and analytical chemistry, neutron source technology, medical physics and biophysics, radiobiology, and clinical applications of NCT.
To promote its objectives, the ISNCT sponsors a biennial International Congress on Neutron Capture Therapy (ICNCT) in each even-numbered year as well as periodic smaller multinational conferences focused on the activities of early-career researchers and students, and strives to provide an environment that encourages communication and collaboration among all scientists and others involved in NCT worldwide. Furthermore, the ISNCT actively promotes the dissemination of accurate and useful scientific information about NCT to interested members of the public at large, publication of research in the refereed literature, support of students entering the field, interaction with other professional societies and other relevant international organizations, and any other such endeavors as deemed appropriate.
Article III – OFFICERS
The officers of ISNCT shall consist of a President, a Vice-President, and a Secretary-Treasurer. The President and Vice-President shall each hold office for four years and the Secretary-Treasurer shall hold office for six years. In the event that the President is unable to complete his or her term of office for any reason, the Vice-President shall become President until the next ICNCT, and the Executive Board (Article IV) shall appoint one of its non-officer members to serve as Vice-President in this period. During the next ICNCT, a new President and Vice-President will be elected as described in Article V. Similarly, if the Secretary-Treasurer is unable to complete his or her term of office the Executive Board shall appoint one of the non-officer members to serve out the remainder of the former Secretary-Treasurer’s term. No person should serve as President or Vice-President for more than one full elected term in each office. Officers must be eligible for membership on the Executive Board as described in the following section, and will not simultaneously serve as members of the BOC.
Article IV – EXECUTIVE BOARD
The Executive Board (“EB”) shall be the administrative body of ISNCT, consisting of eleven persons elected by the Board of Councilors (Article V). The President, the Immediate Past President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary-Treasurer shall be ex-officio members of the EB and the President shall serve as the Chair of the EB. Membership on the EB will be for four-year terms, with the exception of the Secretary-Treasurer, whose term extends for six years to provide enhanced continuity of routine administrative functions for the Society. Members of the EB must be ISNCT members in good standing, shall have completed the terminal educational degree that is typical of their professional field and shall be actively engaged in professional practice or in a recognized post-doctoral position. Student members of ISNCT may not serve on the EB.
The remainder of the EB shall consist of two International Congress Chairs, four Technical Committee Chairs, and one at-large member to help provide geographic and scientific balance on the EB. The two International Congress Chairs shall have staggered terms separated by two years in order to facilitate planning of the next two upcoming biennial International Congresses. No person, other than an ex-officio member, may serve on the EB for more than two consecutive terms at a time and the Congress Chairs will each serve only for one term of 4 years.
The EB shall meet, physically or electronically, as necessary to achieve the objectives of the Society. At a minimum the EB shall meet physically at each ICNCT. Interim vacancies in the non-officer positions on the EB may be filled at once with appointments made by the remaining EB members as needed. Interim EB appointees may be selected from the Board of Councilors or from the general Society membership as deemed appropriate by the EB and such appointees shall serve out the remainder the term of their predecessor.
Article V – BOARD OF COUNCILORS
The Board of Councilors (“BOC”) shall be the legislative and advisory body of ISNCT with such additional powers as described in this Constitution. The Board of Councilors shall consist of thirty members, selected as follows:
Councilors shall hold office in three groups of ten Councilors each, with the groups having staggered terms of six years, with a new group of eight members being elected at each biennial International Congress by the ICNCT General Membership. Bearing in mind the need for scientific balance, two Councilors in each new group of ten are to be elected in each of the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, for a total of eight. Then, after reviewing the results of the election, the EB shall appoint two additional Councilors so as to achieve a reasonable geographical or scientific balance, resulting in a total of ten new Councilors. Members of the BOC must be ISNCT members in good standing, shall have completed the terminal educational degree that is typical of their professional field and shall be actively engaged in professional practice or in a recognized post-doctoral position. Student members of ISNCT may not serve on the BOC.
A member of the BOC who is elected or appointed to the EB before his or her BOC term has ended will nominate a suggested replacement from the General Membership of the Society, with such nominee to be from the same general scientific field but not necessarily from the same country or geographic region. The nominee shall assume membership on the BOC upon approval by the EB, and will serve out the remainder of the nominating Councilor’s term. The BOC will meet physically at each biennial International Congress of the Society. Its primary functions Elect:
- are the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary-Treasurer and the other members of the EB as needed to replace those officers and EB members whose terms have expired or whose position has become vacant for any other reason.
- Nominate and elect the Technical Committee Chairs as vacancies in those positions may arise due to expiration of terms or for any other reason.
- Review and vote on proposals for conducting the ICNCT that is to occur four years hence, with each proposal typically to be presented by the prospective Congress Chair, who will join the EB if his or her proposal is selected by the BOC.
- Vote on policy and on proposed amendments to this Constitution.
- Vote as needed on any other items that may be submitted by the EB to the BOC for its consideration or that may be independently proposed by members the BOC. Such items may include proposals for the Society to hold periodic scientific meetings (e.g. “Young Researcher” conferences) in addition to the regular biennial International Congress of the Society.
- Approve the budget and determine membership fees, if any.
- Dismiss any of the officers in very exceptional scenarios where this is warranted, with a 2/3 majority of the BOC members present required to dismiss an officer. Additionally, the BOC may similarly dismiss any inactive BOC member, defined as a BOC member who does not participate in any electronic or physical BOC meetings or respond to any electronic or other type of BOC communications for more than two consecutive years.
The Vice President of the Society shall serve as the presiding officer for BOC meetings, with the responsibility for writing the agenda, and will cast the deciding vote in the event that the BOC is equally divided on any issue under consideration except the election of the President. In the case of the election of the President, the BOC shall select a temporary presiding officer from its membership and will deliberate until a majority decision is reached.
Article VI – DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS and EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS
The President serves as the Chief Executive of the Society, actively representing the Society in its interaction with the external international scientific community, and presiding over the internal operations of the society in accordance with this Constitution. The President may appoint any ad-hoc committees as needed to carry out specific activities of ISNCT.
The Vice President serves as the presiding officer of the BOC and assists the President in his or her duties as requested. Furthermore, it is anticipated, but not required, that the Vice-President will stand for election to the office of President after completing his or her term as Vice-President, thereby providing additional continuity of administration, if elected.
The Secretary-Treasurer is the internal administrative officer of the Society, assisting the other officers and EB members with their duties. In consultation with the EB, the Secretary-Treasurer shall maintain the Society records, create minutes of meetings, maintain financial records, and shall make the records of the society available for inspection by any member of the Society upon request.
The Congress Chairs’ primary duty is to organize and conduct each ICNCT. Upon election by the BOC, each Congress Chair shall initiate both financial and scientific preparations for the ICNCT to be held about 4 years later, at which time he or she will serve as the presiding official for that Congress, with assistance from the Secretary-Treasurer, the Technical Committee Chairs, and such local ad-hoc scientific and administrative committees as he or she may wish to appoint.
The Technical Committee Chairs (TCC) shall assist the President with his or her duties as requested and, in consultation with the EB, organize and chair groups of appropriate specialists for this purpose at every ICNCT and at other times as may be needed. They will also assist the Congress Chairs with organization and conduct of the biennial Congresses. The TCCs shall be selected by the BOC such that the overall group of four TCCs, taken together, has a diverse base of expertise in relevant subfields of physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.
The Immediate Past President and the At-Large EB Member shall assist the President and the remainder of the EB members with their duties as may be requested.
ARTICLE VII – HONORS AND AWARDS
The ISNCT promotes the recognition of Members whose contributions to the knowledge, application, and dissemination of BNCT are considered to be exceptional. Currently, the ISNCT bestows the biennial Hatanaka Award to one or more senior members whose scientific activity has promoted a major improvement of the state of the art in BNCT; one or more Fairchild Awards, which are scholarships dedicated to young researchers who present outstanding oral contributions at an ICNCT; and the Riley Award to the author of a selected outstanding presentation at each periodic Young Researchers BNCT Meeting. ISNCT, acting through the BOC, may also create additional awards in the future. The criteria for all Awards are published in the ISNCT website and other appropriate media and are available to all members.
The recipient(s) of the Hatanaka Award is (are) selected by the EB, after collection of nominations from all ISNCT Members. When assembled for this purpose, the EB is chaired by the Congress Chair of the next upcoming ICNCT, where the Hatanaka award will be presented to the selected candidate(s). Fairchild and Riley Award recipients are selected by the Scientific Committees of the next upcoming ICNCT and Young Researchers BNCT meeting respectively, in accordance with the published criteria.
##Article VIII – MEMBERSHIP
A previously-unaffiliated person becomes a Member of ISNCT by attending a biennial International Congress, registering as a non-member and paying the non-member registration fee. Thereafter, that person retains his or her membership status at any given time by having registered for at least one of the previous three Congresses and paying the applicable registration fee. This provision also includes students who register for an International Congress and pay the student fee, and those who receive gratis registration because they assisted in organizing and conducting a particular Congress, or because they provided some other in-kind service of comparable value. Maintenance of membership status shall also be contingent upon payment of any annual membership dues that may be assessed by the EB with the concurrence of the BOC.
Article IX – FINANCES
Notification to members and collection of membership dues, if any, shall be the duty of the Secretary-Treasurer, who shall submit an accounting of dues received and disbursed on a biennial basis to the EB. A separate budget for each biennial International Congress shall be the responsibility of the respective Congress Chair, reviewed by the EB, who will submit a financial report to the EB within 12 months after the Congress. The final report will be discussed during the next ICNCT. A 2-member auditing committee shall be elected by BOC at least every two years to periodically verify the records of the Secretary-Treasurer. EB members shall not serve on the auditing committee.
Article X – AMENDMENTS
Amendments to this Constitution may be proposed by the EB, and shall be circulated to the Board of Councilors in advance of the next biennial ICNCT. Ratification of Amendments requires a majority vote of the Councilors present at the BOC meeting held in concert with the said ICNCT.
Article XI – OPERATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
This 2018 Constitution shall become operational upon approval by the majority of the Board of Councilors. Specific details of its implementation shall be in accordance with an Annex that has been separately approved by the BOC.
Article XII –LEGAL STATUS OF THE SOCIETY
The Society has historically operated, and currently (2018) operates, as a voluntary, broad-based, highly-diverse, international association of scientists, engineers, physicians and other interested persons, without formal incorporation or registration under the laws of any particular country. For clarity of purpose, however, it has been generally understood that ISNCT is organized and operated exclusively for research and educational purposes. Furthermore, it is understood that ISNCT may in the future elect to formally incorporate as a legal entity under a recognized national or international jurisdiction of its choice if it is determined by the EB with BOC concurrence that such an action is in the interest of the membership and would usefully further the stated objectives of the Society.
Article XIII – DISSOLUTION
Upon the dissolution of this organization, after settling all accounts receivable and accounts payable, the BOC shall terminate all bank accounts and disburse any remaining funds in a manner that serves the purposes of the ISNCT listed in Article II.
Article XIV – ELECTRONIC MEETINGS
Between regular scheduled physical meetings, and as deemed necessary by the President, matters may be submitted to the EB or the BOC for consideration and action using any appropriate permanently-recorded electronic medium. The electronic files associated with such meetings shall become official records of the Society and shall be available for inspection by any Member of the Society upon request.
Last Amended: 21 November 2018