總會章程











National Council of Associations of Chinese language Schools 

CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF ASSOCIATIONS OF CHINESE LANGUAGE SCHOOLS 


ARTICLE I: NAME The official name of this organization shall be the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools (hereafter referred to as the NCACLS). 


ARTICLE II: PURPOSES The purposes of the NCACLS are as follows:  To promote and cultivate the Chinese language and culture in the domestic and international academic mainstreams.  To serve as the primary contact for national and/or international institutions on Chinese language and culture related issues. However, it shall not preclude direct communications between a member organization and any institution for the issues local in nature.  To provide a forum for the member organizations to share and exchange their experience and information in teaching of Chinese language and culture and administrative affairs of the Chinese language schools. 

 

ARTICLE III: MEMBERSHIP Section 1: The NCACLS shall have three types of membership: Regular Members, Associate Members, and Observer Members. Only a Regular Member has the voting power at the Board of Directors (hereafter referred to as the Board) meetings. 

 

Section 2: Regular Member: Any regional association/council of Chinese schools, which has at least three member schools and has been chartered for at least two years and yet does not belong to any existing member organization of the NCACLS may apply. If an application is approved by at least half of the existing board members, the applicant shall become an observer once its membership due is paid. The observer is entitled to all rights and obligations set forth by the NCACLS board except for voting privilege. 

 

The observer membership starts on the first day of the month the applicant is approved and accepted by the NCACLS board and last for one full year. Its voting privilege shall be granted on the first day of the month at its one year anniversary. At such time, the observer shall become a regular member of NCACLS.  


The ten founding associations/councils have been rendered with Regular Membership as long as they pay their annual membership fees. These founding members are Association of Chinese Schools, Houston Chinese Schools Association, Association of Chinese Schools in Southeastern United States, Association of Northern California Chinese Schools, Colorado Association of Chinese Language Schools, Dallas Fort Worth Chinese School Association, Midwest Chinese Language School Association, Michigan Chinese Teachers Association, Northwestern Association of Chinese Language Schools, and Southern California Council of Chinese Schools. 

 

Section 3: Associate Member: An educator, a scholar, an administrator or an organization in U.S.A. that is affiliated with Chinese language and culture field may apply. Associate Membership will be in effect once the application is approved by a simple majority of the Board and its membership fee is paid. An Associate Member may participate the Board of Directors meetings but does not have the voting power. 

 

Section 4: Both Regular Members and Associate Members are obligated to pay an annual membership fee according to the fee schedule and the deadline schedule set forth by the Board in order to be in a good membership standing. 

 

ARTICLE IV: The NCACLS shall not set policy for any member organization nor impose any interference upon operations of any member organization. However, it may sponsor and/or coordinate the activities that facilitate teaching of Chinese language and culture but are more relevant and efficient to be done by the NCACLS than by its member organizations. 

 

ARTICLE V: The NCACLS shall be a non-political and non-religious organization. It shall maintain its financial status as a non-profit, educational organization with funds derived from dues, contributions, and grants. The NCACLS shall grant membership to any qualified association/council of Chinese language schools without prejudice to race, religion or national origin. 

 

ARTICLE VI: THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Section 1: The Board shall consist of (a) a representative from each Regular Member, (b) four officers (the President, the Vice President-Administration, the Vice President-Secretary, and the Vice PresidentTreasurer), and (c) two immediate past Presidents. Each Regular Member shall be represented by its incumbent President or designated representative. 

 

Section 2: The President and the Vice President-Administration shall also serve as the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson of the Board, respectively. The Board shall meet at least once annually, that shall be called by the Chairperson. However, a special meeting may also be called by petition in writing from at least half of the Regular Members. The Chairperson shall call the special meeting within 10 days. If the petition involves dismissal of the Chairperson, the Vice President-Administration shall have the right to call the special meeting on behalf of the Board. 

 

Section 3: The Board has the authority to amend the Constitution and the Bylaws, elect the officers, dismiss any Director, and set guidelines on membership dues and the general policy for the NCACLS. 

 

Section 4: The QUORUM necessary for the Board to conduct business shall consist of at least one half of the total Board members. The voting right can be represented with proxy.  

 

ARTICLE VII: The Board shall have the responsibility and authority to amend the Constitution and the Bylaws, and set guidelines on membership dues and general policy for the NCACLS. 

 

ARTICLES VIII: Amendments to the Constitution shall be submitted in writing to the Chairperson of the Board at least sixty days prior to a Board meeting in order to be considered at that meeting. The proposed amendment shall then be read and voted upon at the meeting. An affirmative vote from two-thirds of the attending Directors shall be necessary for its adoption. Voting by proxy shall be permitted. 

 

ARTICLE IX: Upon the dissolution of the NCACLS, the Board shall, after payment of all liabilities, dispose all the remaining assets of the NCACLS to one or more organizations exclusively for charitable or educational purposes as shall, at the time, be qualified for tax-exemption under the internal Revenue Service Code. 


BY LAWS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF ASSOCIATIONS OF CHINESE LANGUAGE SCHOOLS  


ARTICLE I: FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 


Section 1: The Board shall receive, review and act upon new membership applications. 


Section 2: The Board shall elect a Nomination Committee for handling the nomination of candidates for the officers and conducting the annual election of the new officers. The Nomination Committee shall consist of up to five members, including two Ex officio members – two immediate past NCACLS Presidents. The remaining committee members shall be past Board members. However, any member of the Nomination Committee shall not be a candidate. The election for Vice President-Treasurer shall be held separately from the other three officers. The maximum number of candidates, which may be nominated for the first three officers (President, Vice President-Administration and Vice President Secretary) shall be eight while the maximum number of candidates for the Vice President-Treasurer is three. The election shall be completed by August 31 each year.  


 Section 3: The Board shall approve the annual budget and review the annual financial report in the annual Board meeting.  


ARTICLE II: OFFICERS OF THE BOARD

Section 1: The Board shall consist of four officers, the President, Vice President-Administration, Vice President-Secretary and Vice President-Treasurer.  


 Section 2: Four officers are elected by the Board annually to serve a one-year term, which starts on September 1. These officers are the President, the Vice President-Administration, the Vice PresidentSecretary, and the Vice President-Treasurer. The President shall not serve more than two consecutive terms and the incumbent President who fails to be re-elected remains on the Board as “Immediate Past President”. 


 Section 3: The President shall call and preside over the regular and special Board meeting and has the authority to represent the NCACLS for handling external interfaces.  


 Section 4: The Vice President-Administration shall assist the President in handling the NCACLS related operations and assume all the duties of the President in absence of or upon requested by the President.  


 Section 5: The Vice President-Secretary shall serve notices of meetings and appointments, keep the minutes and maintain the NCACLS correspondence. He/she shall preserve a permanent copy of the NCACLS’ Constitution and Bylaws. 


Section 6: The Vice President-Treasurer shall be the custodian of the funds of the NCACLS and prepare the annual financial report. 


 Section 7: A candidate for the officers must be a past President of a Regular member after the NCACLS was formed in April, 1994. No more than one candidate for the officers may be from the same member organization. 


 Section 8: The Board may appoint ad hoc committees to undertake specific projects beneficial to the member organizations. It shall also form an Educational Research and Developmental Committee to coordinate the development of Chinese language and culture teaching materials for member organizations.  


ARTICLE III: ADVISORY BOARD

Section 1: All living past Presidents shall be invited by the Board to serve as members of the Advisory Board.  


 Section 2: The Board may also invite outside educators and administrators as guest advisors. The list of guest advisors shall be reviewed and updated annually by the Board.  


 Section 3: The Advisory Board may provide consultation on or act upon any special tasks and/or issues identified by the Board.  


 Article IV: Committees and Workgroups 


Section 1: Definition

a. The establishment of any committee is for long term goals that NCACLS wish to achieve. The committees’ leadership and membership shall not change when new officers are elected each year so that committees can maintain their continuity and carry out long term projects. 

b. The formation of any workgroup is to achieve short term goals/tasks that the President sees necessary.  


 Section 2: Governing Body

a. In recognizing Board is the ultimately highest authorization body of NCACLS, both committees and workgroups are under the Board of NCACLS.  

b. Should committee fail to accomplish its goals or fail to comply with this constitution/by laws, either the committee members or NCACLS Board shall dissolve the committee. 


Section 3: Committees

a. Formation 

  i. Groups or individuals submit proposal indicating why such committee is needed. The proposal shall include, but not limited to, missions, relations to goals,     

major tasks and responsibilities of NCACLS. 

b. Organization

i. Organization of Nomination committee shall be governed by the committee’s Terms of Reference.

ii. Organization of Education Research and Development committee shall be governed by the committee’s Terms of Reference.

iii. Organization of committees other than Nomination committee and Education Research and Development committee. 


1. Chairperson

(a). Chairperson shall be nominated and elected by the Board and his/her term ends when membership expires. The committee chairperson shall serve a one- 

   year term, and is eligible for re-nomination. The same person can serve up to two more consecutive terms.

(b). Chairperson has the responsibility to submit committee’s budget to NCACLS Board for approval and subsequent financial report to VP-treasurer.  


2. Membership

(a).Membership of committee shall consist of a minimum of five but no more than nine voting members_ including the chairperson. The President of NCACLS  

   shall be ex-officio (non-voting) members of the committee (in other words, the president of NCACLS is not counted as one of the 5-9 committee members).

(b)The term of each member is set to three years. Members shall serve staggered terms so that approximately one third are elected each year. The member  is eligible for re-nomination. 

(c) The chairperson or the Board members shall nominate the committee members for Board’s approval. 

(d)Candidate(s) for the committee shall be selected from current or past Board member(s) of NCACLS with the exceptions of the Nomination and Education 

  Research and Development Committees. The election shall be done before August 31st.

(e).The chairperson or the Board members shall nominate candidate(s) to fill any unanticipated vacancies for approval by the Board. The new member shall  

  serve on the remaining term for which the position is vacant

(f).The Board may form or disband the committee depending upon the needs.


c. Duties and Obligations

i. The committee shall perform its assigned functions and tasks according to the committee’s Terms of Reference and operational guidelines and work  

 concededly with NCACLS Board.

ii. The committee shall have its budget approved by the Board at the beginning of the physical year and submit subsequent financial report to VP-treasurer at

least once every quarter.  


d. Committee Terms of Reference

i. Nomination Committee. Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Nomination Committee. 

2. MISSION: To annually recommend to the Board of Directors a slate of potential nominees for elected officers.

3. ORGANIZATION:

(a). The committee is comprised of 5 members. The most recent two past presidents served as Board members of NCACLS shall be the members of this 

 committee. The other three members will be elected by the Board of NCACLS. Their terms are set to three years. 

b). The immediate past president shall serve as the chair of the committee. The other past president served as Board member of NCACLS shall serve as the  vice chair of the committee.

(c). The terms of chair and vice chair are based on the holding titles, i.e., the immediate past president is the chair and the other past president served as Board

member of NCACLS is the vice chair. The term of the three elected members is three years in a rotation basis, i.e., one member will be elected each year.  

The elected members cannot serve consecutive terms.  

(d). The nomination of the new committee member shall be done by the NCACLS Board.

(e). Except for the chair and vice chair of this committee, the remaining candidate(s) for this committee shall be past Board member(s) of NCACLS, not from  he same region.  Nomination of candidate(s) shall be done by the October Board meeting.

(f).  Should chair position becomes vacant, the vice chair will assume the chair, a past president (from the most recent past) will assume the vice chair position.

 The term of the new chair and new vice chair expire after August 31.

(g). Should vice chair position becomes vacant and chair position remains, a past president (from the most recent past) will assume the vice chair position. The term of the new vice chair expires after August 31. 

(h).  Should both chair and vice chair positions become vacant, a most recent past president will assume the chair position, a second most recent past president will assume the vice chair position. Both positions expire after August3

1.  (i). The committee shall form an election task force to handle all elections and prepare the operational guidelines annually.


4. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS:

(a). Responsible for nomination of NCACLS officers and all election matters, except its own. 

(b). Responsible for all election procedures (except its own), includes but not limited to: Dates of election process; deadline for accepting nominations; the ballots, one ballot per person, shall be delivered to voting Board members by the chair, and the ballots shall be received from the voting Board members   

by the vice-chair; place of the election ballot tallying; ballot counting process.

(c). Responsible for the election result announcement.

 the NCACLS officers election candidate. In order to be eligible for the NCACLS officer candidate, a Nominating committee member must resign from  his/her Nominating Committee position 30 days before the nomination deadline. 

(e). The committee shall accept nomination from the presidents of member associations.

(f). The committee shall examine all nominees’ qualifications and only those candidates who qualify can be nominated. 

(g). If there are not enough nominees, the committee shall either extend the nomination deadline or nominate qualified candidates after the nomination

 deadline. 

 ii. Education Research and Development committee. Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Education Research and Development Committee. 

2. MISSION: The committee is responsible for long-term research and developing Chinese language and cultural education.


3. ORGANIZATION: 

(a). The committee is composed of a minimum of five but no more than nine voting members. Members shall serve staggered terms so that approximately one third are elected each year. The President of NCACLS and the immediate past president shall be ex-officio (non-voting) members of the committee (in other words, both president of NCACLS and the immediate past president are not counted as 5-9 committee members). 

(b). The committee consists of a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and a treasurer. The chairperson, vice chairperson, and the treasurer shall bea voting member.

(c). The chairperson shall be nominated and voted by the Board. The committee chairperson shall serve up to a three-year term, and is not eligible for re-nomination for the consecutive term. 

(d). The chairperson or the Board members shall nominate the committee members for Board’s approval.  (e). Candidate(s) for this committee shall be nominated from the field of professionals experienced in Chinese teaching or professors. The election shall be done before August 31st by the Nomination Committee.

(f). The committee may form its own Advisory Board contains 5 to 7 members who are experienced in teaching or researching Chinese education.

4. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS: 

(a). The committee is responsible for giving advice to the President and the Board on strategy issues and to recommend policies within the context of teaching and learning Chinese.

(b). The committee is responsible for preparing a long-term plan within the context of teaching and learning Chinese to provide continuity in the administrative directions. The proposed long-term plan shall be submitted to the Board for its review and approval.


iii. Long Term Committee.Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Long Term Committee 

2. MISSION: The committee is responsible for long-term strategic planning in promotion and advocacy of Chinese language education.

3. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS:  

(a). The committee is responsible for giving advice to the President and the Board on strategy issues and to recommend policies within the context of teaching and learning Chinese.

(b). The committee is responsible for preparing a long-term plan to provide continuity in the administrative directions. The proposed long-term plan shall be submitted to the Board for its review and approval.  

 iv. Conference Committee. Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Conference Committee

2. MISSION: The committee is responsible for long-term strategic planning of conferences for NCACLS.

3. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS: 

(a). The committee is responsible for giving advice to the President and the Board on strategy issues and to recommend policies within the context of conference planning for NCACLS.

(b). The committee is responsible for preparing a long-term plan within the context of conference planning.  The proposed long-term plan shall be submitted to the Board for its review and approval. 

 v. Public Relation Committee. Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Public Relation Committee

2. MISSION:  The committee is responsible for long-term Public Relation for NCACLS. 

3. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS:

(a)The committee is responsible for giving advice to the President and the Board on strategy issues and to recommend policies within the context of Public Relation for NCACLS.

(b)The committee is responsible for preparing a long-term plan within the context of Public Relation.  The proposed long-term plan shall be submitted to the Board for its review and approval. 

 vi. Fund Raising Committee. Terms of Reference

1. NAME: Fund Raising Committee.

2. MISSION: The committee is responsible for long-term fund raising for NCACLS. 

3. FUNCTIONS and OBLIGATIONS:

(a)The committee is responsible for giving advice to the President and the Board on strategy issues and to recommend policies within the context of fund raising for NCACLS. 

(b)The committee is responsible for preparing a long-term plan within the context of fund raising. The proposed long-term plan shall be submitted to the Board for its review and approval.


Section 5: Workgroups

a. Formation  

i. Based on the inputs from Board members, the president can form any workgroup under his discretion.

b. Organization 

i. Leader  Leader of the workgroup shall be appointed by the president. There is no term limitation.

ii. Membership  Member of the workgroup shall be appointed either by the president or workgroup leader. There is no limit how many members per each workgroup. 

c. Duties and Obligations

i. Work group is to assist president, officers, and Board members to achieve short term goals; therefore, each workgroup leader shall perform his/her duties as instructed by the president.

ii. Workgroup leaders have the responsibilities to submit budget for Board’s approval and file financial report to VP-treasurer monthly.  

 

ARTICLE V: AMENDMENTS  Amendments to the Bylaws may be proposed by a Board member at least 60 days prior to the annual Board meeting and approved by the Board in the following Board meeting by a simple majority vote. Voting by proxy shall be permitted.  

 

First version was approved on April 20, 1996 

Second version was approved on August 9, 1997 

Third version was approved on August 15, 1999 

Fourth version was approved on May 28, 2000 

Fifth version was approved on November 18, 2000 

Sixth version was approved on January 28, 2005 

Seventh revision was approved on April 2, 2010

Eighth version was approved on August 13, 2011

Ninth version was approved on August 30, 2014

Tenth version was approved on March 9, 2018

Eleventh version was approved on May 3, 2019