Article 1 – Membership

Section 1 – MEMBERS:

Active Member: The active membership of the Association shall be composed of persons associated with post-secondary educational institutions, government agencies, National Guard, or military service personnel whose organization is operating within the State of Florida and whose organization is approved and directly involved with the administration of Veterans educational programs. They shall pay annual dues and are entitled to all benefits, voting rights, and correspondence.

Associate Members: Courtesy memberships shall be issued to VA-related Professional and educational personnel such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the State Approving Agency. They shall pay no dues and are entitled to all correspondence but have no voting rights and cannot hold office.

Section 2 – TYPE OF MEMBERSHIP:

Membership shall be individual.

Article 2 – Officers and Executive Board

The administrative responsibility of the Association shall be vested in the President and the Executive Board.

Section 1 – OFFICERS:

The Officers of the Association shall be the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.

Section 2 – EXECUTIVE BOARD:

The officers, the Immediate Past-President, and one person from each of the following types of institutions:

a) One State University

b) One State College/Community College

c) Public NCD

d) Private NCD

e) Private four-year IHL

f) Private two-year IHL

g) Flight School

h) Six at large members

i) Lead Education Liaison Representative for Florida, ex officio

j) Bureau Chief of the Florida State Approving Agency, ex officio

Section 3 – QUALIFICATIONS, ELECTIONS, AND TERM OF OFFICE:

To be eligible for nomination, a person must have been a FAVES member for at least one year. The Board and Officers of the Association shall be elected at the annual meeting and shall serve as follows:

a) The President is chief executive officer of the Association and shall be an ex-officio member of all standing and appointed committees. The President shall assume this office after completion of one term as Vice President and shall serve for a one-year term beginning July 1 of the fiscal year.

b) The Vice President shall serve as principle assistant to the President as needed. Elected by a majority of the votes cast for this office. The Vice President shall serve a one-year term succeeding to the Presidency. If the Presidency should become vacant prior to the completion of the fiscal year, the Vice President shall succeed to the office and shall serve the remainder of that term followed by the full term for which elected.

c)The duties of the Treasurer shall include being responsible for the Association’s financial statements, revenues, expenditures and proposed budgets to the Board and to present appropriate reports at general meetings. Checks shall be generated by the Office upon the approval of the Board or the President. The books shall be audited by an outside agency conducting an end of fiscal year review. The outside agency shall be approved by the Board. Findings will be presented to the Board by the next Executive Board meeting.

The outgoing treasurer will serve in conjunction with the incoming treasurer until the fall board meeting to ensure a smooth transition.

d) The duties of Secretary shall include the responsibility of recording the minutes of each Board and general meeting. Copies of the minutes shall be emailed to the Board within ten (10) working days of each meeting. The Secretary shall also be responsible for the maintenance and preservation of all Association records.

The Secretary shall provide new Board members a copy of the Bylaws and Constitution within a week of their appointment. New Board members will sign-off that they received a copy of the Bylaws and Constitution.

e) If either the Vice-President, Treasurer or Secretary’s office should become vacant during the terms of office, the President shall, with board approval, appoint a successor from the current board to fill the vacancy until the next meeting, whereupon a special election would be held to fill the unexpired term.

f) Immediate Past President shall advise and assist the President and other Board members of FAVES.

g) Board members will serve for two years.

Two unexcused consecutive absences from meetings or conference calls of the board of directors shall constitute resignation as a director from the Board.  The vacancy will be filled according to provisions indicated in Article III, Section 3 h.

h) Other vacancies will be filled for the remainder of the year by the President with the approval of the Executive Board.

i) Officers and Executive Board members shall be elected by a simple majority of votes cast by those active members present at the Annual Conference. Voting shall be by ballot as stipulated in the constitution.

j) Termination of Membership: By a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the board of directors, a member may be expelled from membership of FAVES for conduct unbecoming a member or prejudicial to the aims or reputation of FAVES, after said member has been afforded the opportunity of a hearing before the board of directors. If the member is an officer or board of director, an investigation will be conducted by a committee of three (3) board members and presented to the board for review and decision.

Article 3 – Committees

There should be three Standing Committees within the Association:

the Executive, Election, and Membership/Marketing Committees. The President and the Executive Board shall have the power to appoint additional standing committees and such other committees (i.e., ad hoc task-force, etc.) as are appropriate for the Association.

a) The Executive Committee shall consist of the officers of the Association with the President serving as chairperson. This committee shall set dates for conferences, regular meetings, special meetings, and workshops, choose meeting places and set registration fees for all conferences.

b) Election Committee will be responsible for presenting a slate of nominees to the General membership at the Annual Conference. The Election Committee consists of the Vice-President, an Associate Member, and a non-Board member, to be appointed by the Vice-President. This committee will have the responsibility of counting ballots.

c) Membership/Marketing committee will be comprised of the Treasurer, the immediate Past President, and two Board members. Responsibilities include membership recruitment, advertising, sponsorships and appropriate activities necessary to support FAVES.

Article 4 – Meetings

Meeting of the Association shall be held as specified in Article VIII of the Constitution.

Article 5 – Dues

a) Annual dues will be $35.00 per member per year. The FAVES membership year is July 1 to June 30.

b) Annual membership dues can be adjusted by the recommendation of the Membership/Marketing committee with approval by the Executive Board to be presented during the annual meeting. Changes to dues shall be ratified by general membership present during the annual meeting.

Article 6 – Rules of Order

Rules of order to conduct meetings:

Association meetings are conducted according to Robert‘s Rules of Order.

Article 7 – Amendments

By-Law revisions shall be subject to the approval of a simple majority of the general membership present at the annual meeting.

Article 8 – Resolutions

Members of the Association desiring to present a resolution at a meeting shall present the resolution in writing to the Executive Board at least 30 days prior to the scheduled annual meeting

Article 9 – Budget

Executive Board responsibilities will include maintaining a viable budget for each membership year to include 75% of net revenues generated from annual conference not to include membership dues to support future conferences.

Approved by Board: February 17, 2017