Bylaws of The Annual Controlled Fusion Theory Conference Executive Committee
Revised October 2000
I. Name
The conference shall be known as "The Annual Controlled Fusion Theory Conference."
II. Objective
The Annual Conference is organized for educational and scientific purposes consistent with the meaning of section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Specifically, the objective of the Annual Conference shall be the communication of recent results in the physics of controlled thermonuclear fusion.
III. Executive Committee
Continuity in the organization and administration of this conference from year to year shall be provided by a thirteen member Executive Committee. Of these, five shall be DOE members: one from the office of the Division Director for Applied Plasma Physics (Office of Fusion Energy, Department of Energy); and one from each of the four DOE National Laboratories (viz., LANL, LLNL, ORNL, and PPPL). The four national laboratory members shall be chosen by their respective institutions. The remaining eight members shall be elected, according to the procedure described in Article V of these Bylaws, from those institutions, both academic and industrial, which have research programs in controlled fusion and in associated areas of plasma physics, to serve for a term of three years. In the event that a non-DOE member who has already served a term on the Executive Committee is elected Vice-Chairman or Secretary/Treasurer, his or her term on the Executive Committee shall automatically be extended by one year. No more than one member of the Executive Committee shall be from any one laboratory, university, or industrial facility.
The Executive Committee shall have a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, and a Secretary/ Treasurer. There shall be the following standing committees: Program Subcommittee (six members), Nominations Subcommittee (three members), Audit Subcommittee (two members), and Local Arrangements Subcommittee (six members, of whom four, including the subcommittee chairman, shall be from the host institution, while two shall be members of the Executive Committee).
IV. Executive Committee Meetings
The Executive Committee shall have at least two meetings each year, one during the annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (in the fall or winter) and another during the Annual Controlled Fusion Theory Conference (in the spring or summer).
During the fall Executive Committee meeting, the Vice-Chairman shall assume the Chairman's duties and a new Vice-Chairman and, in alternate years, a new Secretary/Treasurer shall be elected, from amongst the members, by majority vote, following nominations from the floor. The new Chairman shall appoint members of the standing subcommittees and a chairman for each. Nonmembers of the Executive Committee may be appointed to subcommittees, but without voting rights in the Executive Committee; they will be appointed by the Chairman in consultation with the subcommittee chairmen.
V. Election to Executive Committee
During the spring meeting of the Executive Committee, the Nominating Subcommittee shall present a slate of candidates for membership, from institutions other than the DOE office or the DOE national laboratories. Suggestions for this slate shall be widely solicited from attendees at the Annual Conference and from the members of the Executive Committee. The number of candidates shall be twice the number of openings for the available seats. The number of openings shall be such that following the election the total number of non-DOE members shall be eight. From this slate, the requisite number of new members shall be selected, by closed ballot, each Executive Committee member selecting the requisite number of different names; the requisite number of candidates receiving the largest number of votes (with run-off elections to be held in the event of ties) shall be considered elected, and shall become members at the following fall meeting of the Executive Committee. In the event of the resignation of a non-DOE member the Chairman shall make an interim appointment until the next meeting, at which an election shall be held.
VI. Duties of Officers
Chairman: Shall be responsible for calling and chairing meetings of this Committee: shall make all interim appointments to the Committee; shall appoint members of subcommittees; and shall notify the members at least one month in advance of any meeting.
Vice-Chairman: In the absence of the Chairman, shall assume the duties of the Chairman. At the request of two-thirds of the membership of the Executive Committee, may call a meeting to vote on early dismissal of a Chairman. A vote of two-thirds is required for early dismissal of any officer or member.
Secretary/Treasurer: Shall keep the Committee informed of activities and needs of the Committee and make known to them matters requiring decisions by the Committee. He shall record and distribute minutes of Committee meetings no later than four weeks after each meeting. He shall be responsible for all funds of the Committee and make sure that they are available to the Local Arrangements Subcommittee. At each meeting he will give a financial report. The funds shall be audited annually by an appointed Audit Subcommittee.
Records shall be kept by the Secretary/Treasurer for ten years. A duplicate copy shall be kept by the DOE representative for ten years.
VII. Character of the Annual Conference
The general procedures for the Conference shall be established each year during the fall Executive Committee meeting immediately preceding each Annual Meeting. The Conference shall be invitational in character, as regards both attendance and presentation of papers, so as to maximize the effective communication of information. Abstracts of all of the papers accepted for the conference shall be published and made available to attendees at the beginning of (or, to the extent possible, before) the meeting. A subset of these papers shall be selected, by the Program Committee, for oral presentation during the meeting, together with such papers of a review nature (e.g., covering some topic of interest or the highlights from a single institution) as the Program Committee shall determine.
The choice of site for each Conference shall be made at the spring Executive Committee meeting two years in advance. The Program Subcommittee shall have the responsibility of finding at least one institution willing to host the Conference; in the event that more than one volunteers, the Executive Committee shall select one, with due regard for geographic equity.
VIII. Program Subcommittee (6)
This subcommittee shall have overall responsibility, subject to Executive Committee guidance, for the program of the Annual Conference, including:
(1) Soliciting invited papers;
(2) Accepting or rejecting contributed papers and selecting, from those accepted, the ones to be presented orally;
(3) Finding a host institution;
(4) Recruiting session chairmen; and
(5) Arranging the program.
The Chairman of the Local Arrangements Subcommittee shall be a member of the Program Subcommittee (although not necessarily a member of the Executive Committee), in order to facilitate close cooperation between these two committees.
IX. Local Arrangements Subcommittee (6)
This subcommittee has responsibility for the following aspects of the Annual Conference:
(1) Selection of meeting place, hotel, etc;
(2) Issuing invitations to the conference;
(3) Printing and distribution of the program;
(4) Physical arrangements (audio-visual, etc.); and
(5) Food and banquet arrangements.
The Chairman of this subcommittee shall be appointed as a member of the Program Subcommittee at the fall meeting preceding the Annual Conference. He and three other members of the Local Arrangements Subcommittee shall be from the host institution, while the other two members shall be members of the Executive Committee.
X. Initiation and Adoption
The following persons have agreed to serve on the Executive Committee during the period from November 1, 1974, to the Fall 1977 Annual Conference:
D. Baldwin, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
R. Davidson, University of Maryland
D. Dobrott, General Atomic
H. Lewis, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
B. Fried, University of California at Los Angeles
E. Frieman, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
H. Grad, New York University
G. Guest, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
N. Krall, Science Applications, Inc.
B. Miller, ERDA (Department of Energy)
M. Rosenbluth, Institute for Advance Study
D. Ross, University of Texas
R. Sudan, Cornell University/NRL
Of the initial eight members from academic and industrial institutions, four shall leave office at the Fall, 1977, meeting and four at the Fall, 1978, meeting, with replacements to be elected, starting with the Spring, 1977, meeting, according to the procedures of Article V of these Bylaws. Of the five initial DOE members, three shall leave office at the Fall, 1977, meeting and two at the Fall, 1978, meeting. The choice of resignation dates for the initial members shall be on a voluntary basis, or, if that does not suffice, shall be determined by drawing lots or such other procedure as the Executive Committee shall adopt at its Spring, 1976, meeting.
During 1975, Marshall Rosenbluth (Institute for Advanced Study), Ed Frieman (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory), and David Ross (University of Texas) have agreed to serve as Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary/Treasurer, respectively. New officers shall be elected, following the procedures in Article IV of these Bylaws, at the Fall, 1975, meeting.
These Bylaws shall be considered as adopted when approved by a majority of the initial members listed above.
XI. Amendments
Amendments may be posed by any member of the Executive Committee for consideration at a regular meeting of the Committee. The text of a proposed amendment shall be furnished to the Secretary/Treasurer in time for him to send copies to all members of the Executive Committee two weeks prior to the Committee meeting at which the amendment is to be proposed. The amendment shall be adopted and become effective immediately if approved by majority vote of the Executive Committee.
XII. Dedication of Assets upon Dissolution
Upon dissolution of the Annual Conference and its Executive Committee, the assets remaining after payment of liabilities will be distributed for one or more exempt purposes consistent with the meaning of section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.
