Article One: Name and Purpose

     1. The society shall be known as the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences (NAAHoLS). 

     2. Its purpose shall be "to promote, encourage, and support the study of the history of the sciences concerned with language such as linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines, both theoretical and applied, from the earliest beginnings to the present, including non-European traditions.  In addition to the critical presentation of the origin and development of particular ideas, theoretical precepts, terms, schools of thought or particular trends, it is interested in the discussion of the methodological, philosophical, and epistemological foundations of a historiography of the language sciences. 
 
 

Article Two: Members

     1. There shall be two classes of members: regular members and associate members. 

     2. Any individual may become a regular member by notification of his name to the Secretary and payment of dues for the year in which membership is to begin. 

     3. Any group of individuals, incorporated or not, may apply for associate membership to the      Secretary; on acceptance, such groups shall pay the dues for the year in which the membership is to begin. 

     4. The admission fee and the dues of NAAHoLS shall be fixed by vote at the annual business meeting of NAAHoLS on recommendation of the Executive Committee. 

     5. The rights of membership are as follows:

     5. 1. All regular members in good standing will receive the Newsletter published at least once a year. 
     5.2. All regular members in good standing have the right to make recommendations to the Executive Committee and to vote at the annual business meetings of NAAHoLS. 

     5.3. All associate members, through duly appointed representatives, may make recommendations to the Executive Committee and may participate, without the right to vote, in the annual business meetings of NAAHoLS. 

     6. If a member does not pay her/his dues within the time prescribed, s/he shall forfeit the rights of membership while her/his default continues, but these rights shall be restored on the payment of all arrears.  A member in default for two years shall be dropped from membership after notification by the Secretary.  A member may pay dues in advance for one or more years, and such dues shall be considered as paid in full regardless of any change in the amount of dues voted by NAAHoLS after the date on which they were paid.
 
 

Article Three: Administration 

     1. The Officers of NAAHoLS shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. All Officers shall serve two-year terms; all officers shall be elected biennially at a business meeting of the NAAHoLS. Each of the officers shall be eligible for re-election to the same office.

     2. The Vice-President shall succeed to the post of President.

     3. The offices of Secretary and Treasurer may be entrusted to one person by vote of the annual business meeting of NAAHoLS. 

     4. Election shall take place at the annual business meeting. The Secretary will prepare the ballot according to the instructions of the Nominating Committee. 

     5. There shall be an Executive Committee, composed of the above Officers, the immediate past President, and one at-large member of the NAAHoLS elected biennially and eligible for re-election.  All Executive Committee members, ex officio and elected, shall serve two-year terms.  Between annual meeting of NAAHoLS, the Executive Committee shall have the power to take any action for which specific provision is not made in this Constitution; but all its acts must be reported to NAAHoLS at the next business meeting, and the business meeting shall have the right to acts of the Executive Committee. 
     The Secretary may on his own initiative, and shall at the request of any other member of the Committee, ask the Executive Committee to vote on specific questions by mail.  The Executive Committee shall hold regular meetings at the time and place of the annual meeting of NAAHoLS; the President and the Secretary acting jointly, or either of them, at the request of any two other members of the Committee, shall have the right to call special meetings of the Committee. All meetings of the Committee shall be chaired by the President or another officer appointed by her/him or the Committee as a whole; the President acting jointly with the Secretary, shall determine the order of business, but any member of the Committee shall have the right to bring up further questions for the consideration and action of the Committee. 
     All decisions of the Executive Committee shall be by simple majority vote; in case of a tie, the vote cast by the President shall be decisive. If any member of the Executive Committee does not attend a meeting of the Committee, s/he may, by written proxy, appoint a regular member of NAAHoLS to attend and vote in her/his stead.  No person shall by virtue of holding proxies or for any other reason have the right to cast more than one vote. All regular members in good standing shall have the right to attend meetings of the Executive Committee but they shall not have the right to vote. 

     6. There shall be a Nominating Committee consisting of three elected members and the NAAHoLS Secretary, serving as chair, ex officio and without vote. The term of office for elected members is two years, with re-election permitted.

     7. A vacancy on any of the preceding Committees shall be filled, at first temporarily, by a substitute appointed by the Executive Committee, and then for the remainder of the term of the original holder of the position, by a replacement elected in a by-election, at the time of the next following regular election. A substitute shall be eligible for election to the position he has been holding.

    8. All elections shall be conducted as follows: 

    8.1. The Nominating Committee, having ascertained that each person considered for nomination 
will serve if elected, shall nominate at least one person for each position to be filled at the annual election, and the Secretary shall, at least two months before the date of the annual meeting, mail to the voting members notices of these nominations. Any voting member may nominate an eligible member of NAAHoLS as a candidate for a position to be filled. If the Secretary receives, not later than four weeks before the date of the annual meeting, six or more letters of nomination of the same person for the same position, he shall inquire of such person whether s/he will serve if elected. If this person agrees to do so, s/he shall have equal standing with the persons nominated by the Nominating Committee: but the names of the individual members who made this nomination shall not be published by the Secretary. The nominations by the Nominating Committee, as well as those made by qualified groups of individual members, shall be put before the business meeting by the Secretary. If a position on the slate is unfilled at the time of the business meeting, the presiding officer shall call for nominations from the floor. If there are two or more nominees for any one position, voting for that position shall be held by secret ballot. 

     8.2. If for any reasons whatsoever an annual meeting cannot be called, or is canceled by the Executive Committee, the election scheduled for this meeting shall be conducted by mail.  At the time when the nominations are closed, that is four weeks before the regular date of he meeting, the Secretary shall make sure that all positions on the slate are filled, and shall send out ballots to the voting members; and one month after the ballots have been sent out, he shall tabulate the votes received and notify all members of NAAHoLS of the results. 

     8.3. For election to any office in NAAHoLS, a simple majority of the votes cast and counted shall be sufficient. 
 
 

Article Four: Meetings 

     1. There shall be an annual meeting of NAAHoLS, at such time and place as shall be determined by the Executive Committee. The meeting shall be devoted to the presentation and discussion of scholarly papers and to the transaction of the business of NAAHoLS.  While the order of business shall be determined by the Executive Committee, any member of NAAHoLS shall have the right to bring up matters of general interest for inclusion in the agenda of a business meeting and discussion, and if s/he so desires, s/he may have such matters put to a vote. Unless determined differently in this Constitution, decisions of the business meeting shall be by simple majority vote. 

     2. All arrangements for the annual meeting shall be made by the Secretary as directed by the Executive Committee. 

     3. The annual meeting shall be chaired by the President, or in his/her stead, by the Vice-President of NAAHoLS; they may ask other members of NAAHoLS to take their place. The Secretary shall keep the records of the meeting. 

     4. The Executive Committee may call special meetings of NAAHoLS or of groups of its members.

     5. Titles and descriptions of papers to be read before a regular meting of NAAHoLS must be submitted to the Secretary not later than three months before the scheduled date of the meeting, and the Committee's disposition of the papers, including a possible limitation of the time devoted to them, shall be final. The selection of papers for special meetings may be delegated by the Executive Committee to ad-hoc committees of members of NAAHoLS. 
 
 

Article Five: Newsletter Editor

     1. The Secretary shall have charge of the publication of the NAAHoLS newsletter and may call on any member of the NAAHoLS for assistance.
 

Article Six: Dissolution

     1. NAAHoLS may be dissolved by a vote in favor of dissolution cast by nine-tenths of the voting members.  Such a vote shall take place by mail. 

     2. Upon dissolution of NAAHoLS, its assets shall be disposed of as determined by a simple majority of the voting members. 
 
 

Article Seven: Amendments 

     1. Any five members of NAAHoLS, acting jointly or separately, may propose amendments to the Constitution.  Such proposals shall be made in writing to the Secretary not later than 14 days prior to the business meeting.  The Secretary shall submit them to the next business meeting of NAAHoLS. The business meeting shall act on the proposals, and in the case of a favourable vote, the Secretary shall without delay submit the proposed amendments to the entire voting membership by mail.  An amendment shall be adopted by a favourable vote of two-thirds of the members whose reply is received by the Secretary within a period of three months from the date of the Secretary's letter to the members. 

     2. An amendment thus adopted shall become effective immediately, and the Secretary shall notify all members of NAAHoLS of the changes that have been introduced in the Constitution as a result of the amendment. 
 
 

Article Eight: Text of the Constitution 

     1. The Executive Committee shall have the right to ask the annual business meeting to adopt a translation into another language or parallel version of the Constitution; in case of dispute the English version shall be binding.