(Date)__________________________ CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS OF THE (Constituency) _________________________________________ (Party) ____________________________________ ASSOCIATION ARTICLE I - NAMES The name of the Association shall be: The __________________ ____________________________ Association, hereinafter called the Association. It is located in the _____________________ federal electoral constituency, hereinafter called the Constituency, and is a division of the _____________________ Party of Canada, hereinafter called the Party. ARTICLE II - OBJECTS The objects of the Association shall be: To promote the principles and policies of the Party. To promote, protect, and extend the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To recruit and maintain an efficient Party organization in the Constituency. To arrange a Nomination General Meeting to elect and nominate a Party candidate for each federal election or by-election in the Constituency, and to take all proper steps to elect the candidate as a Member of Parliament. To elect delegates and alternates to meetings and conventions of the Party. ARTICLE III - MEMBERSHIP Only persons qualified to vote in the Constituency in the federal election by virtue of the Canada Elections Act may become Members of the Association, and any such person may become a Member of the Association. A person applying for membership may be required to present reasonable proof of qualification, and must arrange payment of the required dues at or before the time of application. A person becomes a Member upon his membership application and dues being delivered to the office of the Association, or upon being registered by the Secretary. Any Member who, due to changing circumstances or to resigning in writing, ceases to qualify for Membership automatically ceases to be a Member at the moment of that change in circumstances or on presentation to the office or the Secretary of the resignation in writing, as the case may be. ARTICLE IV - VOTING PRIVILEGES Each Member present at any General Meeting shall be entitled to one vote and only one vote in respect of any matter requiring a vote by the Members. Notwithstanding any other Bylaw in this Constitution, in the election of delegates and alternates to Conventions of the Party, a Member is not entitled to vote for a delegate or alternate from the Association if the Member has previously voted, or intends to vote in future, for a delegate or alternate from another Party organization to attend the same Convention. ARTICLE V - THE EXECUTIVE The Executive shall consist of elected Officers, including Directors, and ex-officio Officers. These Members shall be elected Officers: President; First Vice-President; Second Vice-President; Third Vice-President (Finance); Secretary; Treasurer; Directors, not to exceed twenty-five (25) in number; These Members shall be ex-officio Officers: the Party Member of Parliament, or, if there is none, the immediate past Party candidate for Parliament; the immediate past President of the Association. An Officer who ceases to qualify as a Member, for any cause including cessation of residence in the Constituency, also ceases to be an Officer. ARTICLE VI - ELECTION OF THE EXECUTIVE The elected Officers shall normally be elected at the Annual General Meeting, and their term of office shall be until the elections for the Executive have been completed at the next following Annual General Meeting. Nominations for the elected Officers must be filed with the Secretary at least 240 hours before the date and time set for the Annual General Meeting. Notwithstanding that, nominations for Directors may be made from the floor. There shall be two or more Executive meetings within each calendar year. Any elected Officer who is absent without reasonable excuse from three consecutive Executive meetings may, by resolution passed by the Executive, be deemed to have resigned as a Member of the Executive. When an Executive position is vacant, the Executive may elect a person to fill such a vacancy. Persons so elected shall hold office until the normal end of the term of office. ARTICLE VII - DUTIES OF OFFICERS The President shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the Association, and shall supervise and have responsibility for the business and affairs of the Association between meetings of the Executive. The President shall preside at all General Meetings and meetings of the Executive, and shall be an ex-officio Member of all committees of the Association. The President shall be responsible for the vigorous promotion by the Association of the objects of this Constitution. The President shall call meetings of the Executive as required, and, at the request in writing of five or more Members of the Executive within ten calendar days of such a request in writing. The First and Second Vice-Presidents shall carry out duties assigned to them by the Executive or the President. Vice-Presidents, in order of seniority, shall preside as required at meetings in the absence of the President. The Third Vice-President (Finance) shall be responsible for ensuring that the Association maintains a sound financial base by developing, and, subject to prior approval by a vote of the Executive, for implementing fund-raising programs, with particular reference to the Party Fund. He shall maintain or cause to be maintained financial records which adequately record the financial affairs of the Association; arrange that Association funds be adequately protected by deposit in a bank or equivalent financial institution; and ensure that cheques and withdrawals require the signatures of two Officers or one Officer and one other person designated by motion of the Executive. Where the Association has no office, the Secretary shall, upon election, disignate the address which shall be used as the office of the Association for all purposes relevant to the duties of the Secretary, and shall ensure that the membership are made aware of that address. The Secretary shall be responsible for the taking and keeping of full and complete minutes of all General Meetings and meetings of the Executive, and for providing the Executive with copies of the minutes of Executive meetings. The Secretary shall be responsible for serving notice to all Members of General Meetings, and to the Executive of Executive meetings, as required. He shall submit all minutes to the auditor as required. The Treasurer shall receive all monies which are property of the Association and shall keep an accurate record thereof. These monies shall include the amount of money raised in any election campaign for any official Party candidate for the constituency that exceeds the amount spent in or in connection with such campaign. He shall submit the Association's accounts annually, or more often if required by the Executive or a General Meeting, to the auditor. ARTICLE VIII - DUTIES OF EXECUTIVE The Executive shall, in the periods between General Meetings and subject both to this Constitution and to motions passed by General Meetings, have full control of the business and affairs of the Association. The quorum for Executive meetings is 5 Officers. The Executive shall appoint an auditor to audit the accounts of the Association at least once per calendar year. Such an auditor shall not be an Officer unless that is authorized by a motion which names the auditor and is passed by a General Meeting. The Executive shall make arrangements to have the most recent auditor's report reasonably available for inspection by any Member who requests it, and available as a written copy to any Member who requests it and pays a reasonable copying fee for it. ARTICLE IX - MEMBERSHIP FEES The amount of the annual membership fee shall be determined by vote of the Members, on a motion at a General Meeting. ARTICLE X - ANNUAL GENERAL AND GENERAL MEETINGS An Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held once in each calendar year. Other General Meetings may also be held as required. Each General Meeting shall be held at a date, time, and place, normally set by the Executive, after due notice as herein provided. The quorum for all General Meetings shall be 20 Members entitled to vote in the meeting or 10% of the membership, whichever is the smaller. 20 days notice by mail of any General Meeting shall be given to all Members of the Association. Notice shall be deemed to have been given upon the date the notice was mailed. Newspaper advertisements may be used to supplement the mailed notice, at the discretion of the Executive. All questions dealt with at General Meetings shall be decided by a majority vote of the Members present and entitled to vote. The Chairman shall not cast a vote, except in the case of a tied vote. General Meetings may be called by the Executive as needed. A request in writing, signed by ten or more Members, for a General Meeting placed in the hands of the President or Secretary, shall be honored and notice of a General Meeting shall be mailed within 14 days. The date of such a meeting shall be not more than 30 days after the date of mailing the notice. ARTICLE XI - NOMINATION GENERAL MEETINGS A Nomination General Meeting shall be held for the election of the Party candidate for any federal election or by-election in the constituency, at a date, time, and place normally to be set by the Executive. Notice requirements for General Meetings, as set forth in this Constitution, apply. Notwithstanding any other Bylaw in this Constitution, only Members whose memberships have been registered with the Secretary or his designee 90 or more days prior to the date and time set for the Nomination General Meeting to begin shall be entitled to vote in the Nomination General Meeting. A membership is deemed to have been registered when it is placed in the hands of the Secretary or his designee, or is received in the office. It is the responsibility of the Secretary to make himself or his designee reasonably available for such registration procedures. The Secretary shall prepare and deliver to the Chairman of the Nomination General Meeting a list, duly certified, showing the names and addresses of all Members registered and entitled to vote at such Nomination General Meeting, at least 48 hours prior to the date and time set for the Nomination General Meeting. Nominations for the position of Party candidate for the Constituency must be filed with the Secretary not less than 240 hours prior to the date and time of the Nomination General Meeting. Such a nomination must be signed by ten or more Members entitled to vote in the Nomination General Meeting, and must be signed by the candidate as accepting the nomination, or accompanied by a document signed by the candidate to that effect. It must also be accompanied by a pledge, signed by the candidate, in this form: ------------------------------------------------------------- I, the undersigned, having been nominated as a candidate to become the Party candidate for Member of Parliament for the Constituency, do hereby pledge that I will support the decision made by the Members at the Nomination General Meeting, and I will do everything in my power to assist in the election of the Party candidate elected by the Members at the Nomination General Meeting. ______________________ _________________________________ DATE SIGNATURE ------------------------------------------------------------- Nominees qualified under ARTICLE XI 4 of this Constitution shall have the right of access to the Association's membership lists, and to copies of said lists upon payment of reasonable costs of copying the lists. Qualified Nominees shall be supplied membership applications by the Secretary or his designee, as required by the Nominee. The Executive may require that all or none of the Nominees must place a deposit of not more than 20% of the face value of the membership fees represented by the membership applications so supplied in the hands of the Secretary or his designee on delivery of the applications to the Nominee. Such deposits shall be refunded in full upon payment in full of the total membership fees due less the fees that would have been required for any unsold membership applications returned to the Secretary. The Nomination General Meeting Chairman shall proceed thus: He shall call the meeting to order. He shall read the notice calling the meeting. He shall read the Nomination or Nominations. He shall declare Nominations closed. He shall appoint a Returning Officer, and, if required, a Credentials Officer. He shall request each candidate to appoint a scrutineer for each ballot box. He shall announce, control, and time the speeches of each candidate and his supporters. Each candidate shall be allotted speaking time to a maximum as set by the Executive, and may allot that time to himself or to his supporters in any way, but the total speaking time for each candidate shall not exceed the time allotted. The candidates shall speak, or be spoken for, in alphabetical order of their family names. He shall allow any candidate to withdraw as a candidate at any time. He shall announce the withdrawal of the candidate immediately, or immediately after the end of the time allotment of the candidate if a candidate's speaking time allotment is in progress. A candidate who withdraws shall be allotted two minutes to speak, at the first available opportunity, if he so requests. He shall arrange for issuing ballots to all Members present at the meeting and entitled to vote. If a Credentials Officer has been appointed by the Executive, the Credentials Officer shall control and supervise the issuing of ballots, and decide upon matters relating to entitlement to vote. If none has been appointed, these duties fall to the Chairman. In cases of dispute, the decision of the Chairman is final and binding. All ballots issued shall be clean and unmarked. Clear, unequivocal multi-preference ballots shall be used, with one space for marking next to each name on the ballot. He shall explain that each voter should place a number in each space for marking next to each name on the ballot, marking a figure "1" for his first choice, "2" for his second choice, "3" for his third choice, and so on next to each and every name on the ballot. Taking the vote shall be under control and supervision of the Returning Officer. Voting shall be by secret ballot. An absolute majority is required for election as Party candidate for the Constituency. If no candidate has an absolute majority of "1" votes after the first count, the candidate with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated, and any candidate who received less than five per cent of the votes cast shall be dropped, and those ballots shall be recounted as votes for the candidate with a "2" marked next to his name. If no candidate has an absolute majority after that second count, the candidate with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated, and his ballots shall be recounted as votes for the candidate marked with a "3" next to his name. That process shall continue until an absolute majority has been obtained by one candidate. After each count, the Chairman shall announce the results, and, after the fianl count, announce the election of the Party candidate for the Constituency. He shall invite the Party candidate to address the meeting. He may deal with other business as required, subject to the will of the meeting as expressed by motion and vote. At the end, he shall declare the meeting closed. ARTICLE XII - AMENDMENTS Amendments to this Constitution may be made at any General Meeting, but normally shall not be proposed at a Nomination General Meeting. Notice of any proposed amendment must be made in writing, state the precise amendment that is proposed, and be delivered to the Secretary or President not less than 120 hours prior to the date and time of the General Meeting. The Secretary shall promptly mail or deliver a copy of such a proposed amendment to each Officer. ARTICLE XIII - CONDUCT OF MEETINGS General Meetings and Executive meetings shall be conducted in accordance with the latest available edition of Roberts Rules of Order. ARTICLE XIV - COMMITTEES The Executive may, from time to time, strike such committees as may be necessary or useful, and may appoint or elect Members and Chairmen for such committees. The Executive may delegate to such committees both duties and authority, but the responsibility for the actions of such committees remains with the Executive. Notwithstanding the above, the spending of money is always subject to the authority of the Executive, which is subject to directions given by the membership through motions passed in General Meetings. ARTICLE XV - DEFINITIONS NOT INCLUDED IN ARTICLE I Constituency: means the federal Constituency as currently defined for purposes of current federal elections. Day: means a calendar day of 24 hours from midnight to midnight, or more than half of such a day which falls at the beginning of end of a term of several days used in these Bylaws. Member: means a person qualified under ARTICLE III. A Member who ceases to reside in the constituency ceases to be a Member. Nominee: means a person who has been nominated under ARTICLE XI, and has been qualified by complying with the provisions of ARTICLE XI 4. Office: means the office of the Association, or, if there is none, the address designated by the Secretary upon his election as the office of the Association for his purposes. Officer: means a Member as listed in ARTICLE V. Ex-officio Officers are non-voting Members of the Executive. Register: means delivering the new Member's dues and application into the hands of the Secretary or his designee, or into the office of the Association, as set forth in this Constitution. National Firearms Association (NFA) Headquarters Membership and publication Box 1779 Box 4384, Station C Edmonton AB T5J 2P1 Calgary AB T2T 5N2 ph.: (403) 439-1394 ph.: (403) 640-1110 fax: (403) 439-4091 fax: (403) 640-1144