Bylaws

ARTICLE I. NAME

The name of this special interest section of the American Association of Law Libraries (hereafter, the Association) shall be the Technical Services Special Interest Section (TS-SIS or hereafter, the Section).

ARTICLE II. OBJECT

  • Section 1. The Section seeks to promote the communication of ideas and research interests central to technical services in law libraries, including the acquisition and development of collections, metadata creation and management, and issues related to the preservation and conservation of both tangible and intangible resources.
  • Section 2. The Section shall conduct its affairs in conformity with the Bylaws of the Association.

ARTICLE III. MEMBERSHIP

Membership shall be open to any Association member requesting affiliation with the Section as provided in the Bylaws of the Association. Membership shall be renewable each year.

ARTICLE IV. OFFICERS

  • Section 1. Officers. The officers shall consist of a Chair, a Vice-chair/Chair-elect, a Past-chair, a Secretary/Treasurer and two (2) Members-at-Large.
  • Section 2. Duties of Officers. These officers shall perform the duties as specified in the current version of the Section’s Handbook.
  • Section 3. Terms of Office. The Vice-chair/Chair elect shall serve a three-year term, the first year as Vice-chair, the second year as chair, and the third year as Past-chair. A new Vice-chair/Chair-elect shall be elected each year. The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve a two-year term, and shall be elected every other year. The Members-at-Large shall serve two-year terms, with the terms staggered so that one new member-at-large assumes office each year. Officers shall serve from the adjournment of the annual meeting of the Association until the adjournment of the subsequent annual meeting of the Association.
  • Section 4. Nominations and Elections.
    • (a) The nominating committee shall nominate at least two candidates for each office from committee recommendations and nominations, including self-nominations, solicited from the entire membership of the Section.
    • (b) All candidates must be members of the Section.
    • (c) Names of candidates, together with their written acceptances, shall be presented by the nominating committee to the Chair in sufficient time to enable the Chair to inform members of the nominations by the deadline specified in the Handbook of the Section.
    • (d) The Secretary/Treasurer shall provide a copy of the official ballot to each member of the Section. All ballots must be returned to the Secretary/Treasurer by the deadline specified in the Handbook of the Section. The candidates receiving the largest number of votes shall be elected. All candidates shall be notified of the results of the election at the earliest possible time. Election results will be reported to the full membership no later than the annual business meeting.
    • (e) All of the above procedures must be scheduled and executed so that elections are completed at least two (2) months prior to the date of the annual meeting of the Association.
    • (f) In case of a tie vote, a run-off election shall be held by distribution of a special secret ballot at the earliest possible date. The candidate with the largest number of votes shall be declared elected.
    • (g) All vacancies in offices shall be filled by the Executive Board for an interim term until the next regular election of officers, at which time said vacancies shall be filled by election, except that the Vice-chair/Chair-elect shall automatically become Chair upon a vacancy in such office and shall continue in that office until the expiration of the term for which that person was originally elected to serve as Chair.

ARTICLE V. MEETINGS

  • Section 1. Annual Meeting. There shall be an annual business meeting of the Section held in person during the annual meeting of the Association, or through other means no more than six weeks prior to the annual meeting of the Association. Business meetings of the Section shall be open to all members of the Association, but no person who is not a member of the Section may vote in any meeting.
  • Section 2. Quorum. Unless otherwise provided, a quorum shall consist of thirty (30) members.

ARTICLE VI. EXECUTIVE BOARD

  • Section 1. Membership. There shall be an Executive Board consisting of the officers named above and the chairs of standing committees.
  • Section 2. Duties. The Executive Board shall conduct the business of the Section during the period between annual Section business meetings provided that none of its acts conflict with the Bylaws of the Association.
  • Section 3. Meetings. The Executive Board shall meet during the annual meeting of the Association.
  • Section 4. Quorum. A majority of the Executive Board members constitutes a quorum at any meeting of the Executive Board.

ARTICLE VII. COMMITTEES

  • Section 1. There shall be such standing committees, administrative committees, or special committees as the Executive Board shall create, or shall be created by a majority vote of the membership at any official meeting of the Section. Members of these committees must be members of the Section. Unless otherwise provided, committee chairs shall be appointed by the Vice-chair/Chair-elect and must be approved by the Executive Board of the Section.
  • Section 2. Nominating Committee. There shall be a nominating committee appointed by the Executive Board, to consist of three (3) members in good standing of the Section. None of these three (3) shall be a member of the Executive Board, and none of these three (3) shall be a candidate for office at the succeeding election. Each member of the committee shall serve for a term of one year. The chair of the committee shall be designated by the Executive Board.

ARTICLE VIII. AMENDMENTS

  • Section 1. Any proposed changes to the bylaws of the Section must be sent to the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee of the Association for preliminary review and approval. Upon approval, the proposed amendments will be filed with the Secretary/Treasurer of the Section, who will distribute them to the membership of the Section by electronic means at least 30 days prior to any vote on adoption.
  • Section 2. Proposed amendments will be submitted to a vote of the membership of the Section. The vote may be conducted at the annual business meeting of the Section or by a mail or electronic ballot conducted by the Secretary/Treasurer of the Section. If a majority of the votes cast favor the amendments, then the amendments shall stand adopted.
  • Section 3. If adopted, the Bylaws and Handbook Committee of the Section will submit the revised bylaws to the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee of the Association.

Revision notes

  • Bylaws revised, July 26, 2009, primarily to bring TS-SIS Bylaws into conformance with the AALL Model SIS Bylaws.
  • Article IV, Section 4 and Article VII, Section 1 revised June 2012.
  • Bylaws revised, July 18, 2016 to change procedures in event of tie vote (Article IV, Section 4 (f)), clarify the use of electronic balloting to vote on bylaw amendments (Article VIII), simplify references to the Section and Association, clarify that the terms of office begin and end at the adjournment of Association’s annual meeting, expand procedures for calls for nominations, move section on Nominating Committee from Article IV to Article VII, deleted Article VIII on Parliamentary Authority as redundant.
  • Bylaws revised June 19, 2018 to clarify language by removing possessive nouns and more consistently referring to TS-SIS as the Section and AALL as the Association; clarify that the majority referenced in Article VI, Section 4 pertains only to Executive Board meetings, not Section business meetings; and to allow for votes on changes to the Bylaws to occur at any official meeting of the TS-SIS membership instead of exclusively at the Annual Business Meeting (Article VII, Section 1).
  • Bylaws revised June 23, 2021 to update the Section’s object to incorporate the focus of the updated Standing Committees; clarify the version of the handbook that details officers’ responsibilities; allow for a TS-SIS Business Meeting format outside of the Association’s Annual Meeting; and clarify language about the process of updating the Bylaws.