By-Laws of European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS)

Also available on-line: the statutes.

I. MEMBERSHIP

101. A person whose activities or interests are aligned with business and industrial statistics may sign up ENBIS as an ordinary member throughout the year.
102. A person who is or has been an ordinary member and whose contributions to statistics merit special honour may be elected an honorary member. An honorary member has the same rights as an ordinary member. National and international statistical agencies and such cultural, educational and scientific institutions, and commercial, industrial or business enterprises that may substantially contribute to the objective of ENBIS may be admitted as corporate members.

II. ORGANISATION

201. The General Assembly
     1. Decisions by the General Assembly may be taken through personal vote, or by electronic ballot via the ENBIS website.
     2. At each ordinary session the General Assembly will draw up a scheme for the time and place of future ordinary and special sessions. At the following ordinary session the General Assembly may, however, revise the scheme, so far as future sessions are concerned. However, the Council may alter the time and place of a session if an emergency makes such a change desirable.
     3. The General Assembly may, at any ordinary session, determine that representatives of specified interest groups will be entitled to membership in the Council without voting rights.
202. The Council
     1. The Council shall make decisions as to the meaning of any part of the Statutes and By-laws on which there is a conflict of opinion.
     2. The Council shall appoint not later than at the beginning of each second annual session of the ENBIS General Assembly a Nominations Committee to propose Officers of ENBIS and individual members of the Council. The Nominations Committee shall be composed of at least five persons: four members nominated by the council and chaired by the Past President.
     3. The Council should meet at least once per year and on such other occasions as convened by the President. A quorum shall be formed if at least 3 individual members and 3 Officers are present. Decisions shall be taken in the manner described in Clauses 503.3 and 503.4 of the Statutes. The Council may reach its decisions by correspondence whenever it deems this to be expedient.
203. The Executive Committee
     1. It is the duty of the Executive Committee to see that sufficient guidance is given to the Permanent Office so that actual operations reflect the general orientations given by the General Assembly and the Council.
     2. The Executive Committee shall appoint the Director of the Permanent Office.
     3. The Executive Committee shall make, in co-operation with an organizing committee in the host country, the arrangements for each session of ENBIS .
     4. The Executive Committee may invite persons who are not members of ENBIS to attend any specified session of ENBIS . Such persons shall have the privilege of participating in the scientific programme of the Session.
     5. The Executive Committee shall meet on call of the President or of three of its members. Three of its members shall be a quorum. Decisions shall be taken in the manner described in Clause 502.4 of the Statutes. The Executive Committee may reach its decisions by correspondence whenever it deems this to be expedient.
     6. The President, subject to the decisions of the General Assembly or of the Council, shall have general responsibility for the execution of the policies and decisions of these bodies. He shall preside over meetings of the General Assembly, the Council and the Executive Committee. The President shall have the authority to exercise any functions prescribed for the Executive Committee if unforeseen circumstances make such action necessary; but he shall promptly notify the Executive Committee of the action taken and the circumstances which necessitated it.
     7. The President may designate members of the Executive Committee to be in charge of the supervision of specific administrative or scientific activities of ENBIS.
     8. In the event that the Presidency is vacant or that the President is for any reason unable to fulfil his responsibilities, the President-Elect shall be Acting President until the President shall again be able to serve, or until the term of office of the President shall be completed. If for any reason the President-Elect is unable to fulfil these responsibilities, a Vice-President shall be Acting President in his place. Solely for this purpose, (i) the order of the Vice-Presidents shall be determined by the total length of time which each has served in the Executive Committee; and (ii) as between the Vice-Presidents having equal length of such service, the order shall be determined by the total length of time which each has been a member of ENBIS.
     9. The Executive Committee shall submit yearly to the General Assembly a report of ENBIS‘s activities and a proposed programme of work for the immediate future.
     10. The Executive Committee ensures that the minutes of the sessions of ENBIS and of meetings of the Council and of meetings of the Executive Committee are duly recorded.
204. The Permanent Office
     The Permanent Office shall be located at Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
205. Sections
     1. Sections are established by the General Assembly according to paragraph 801 of the statutes.
     2. Each Section can have its own officers and statutes. The objectives of each Section must be in harmony with those of ENBIS. Each Section’s statement of objectives, its rules of admission to membership, its statutes, and amendments to any of the foregoing shall be subject to approval by the Council, and the sectional officers shall be responsible to the said Council to whatever extent the Council regards as essential.
     3. In addition to having sectional programmes, the Sections shall co-operate in the scientific work of ENBIS.
206. The Ethics and Arbitration Committee
     1. The Ethics and Arbitration Committee is charged with i) investigating complaints raised in relation to the non-respect of ENBIS Statutes, By-laws, and ethical principles, ii) issuing decisions on disputes between ENBIS individual members or ENBIS organs.
     2. Any statement or decision of the Ethics and Arbitration Committee must be supported unanimously by all members of the committee. An unanimously supported statement or decision will be declared to the General Assembly in written form. In the case that an unanimously supported statement or decision cannot be achieved, each member of the committee has to declare her/his statement or decision publicly to the General Assembly in written form.
     3. Any individual member or organ of ENBIS can appeal to the Ethics and Arbitration Committee with complaints in relation to the non-respect of ENBIS Statutes, By-laws ethical principles, and internal disputes and conflicts. The Ethics and Arbitration Committee will identify all stakeholders in the dispute or conflict, and will prompt all identified stakeholders to declare their views in written form. The Ethics and Arbitration Committee will decide in the way described in Clause 206.2.

III. APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS AND COUNCIL MEMBERS

301. For purposes of nominating the Officers and Council members, candidates shall be proposed either (a) by action of a Nominations Committee to be appointed by the Council or (b) by petition signed by at least 5 individual members. The proposals of the Nominations Committee shall be announced to the members not later than 2 months before the next ordinary session; petitions shall be made available not later than 2 months before that session.
302. The binding nomination to the General Assembly of Officers and members of the Council shall be decided by the individual members by voting. Voting shall be by secret ballot. The ballots shall be returned in time to reach the Permanent Office within one month from the date of dispatch of the ballot to the individual members. For each office the duly proposed candidate or candidates having received the highest number of votes shall be declared nominated. In the event of a tie, the candidate having the greatest total seniority as ordinary or honorary member shall be declared nominated, or the elder candidate if two candidates have the same seniority. If the number of candidates for an office does not exceed the number of vacancies, the candidates in question shall be declared nominated without vote.
303. The term of office for each Officer shall run from the end of an ordinary session until the end of the second following ordinary. The term for individual membership in the Council shall run from the end of an ordinary session until the end of the fourth following ordinary session. However, no term of office shall be considered to have ended until an election for that office shall have been completed.
304. No person shall become or continue to be an Officer except while being an ordinary or honorary member of ENBIS. No person shall become or continue to be an individual member of the Council except while begin an individual member of ENBIS.
305. Vice-Presidents are eligible for re-appointment, except that no person shall occupy the office of Vice-President for more than two consecutive terms. Individual members of the Council are not eligible for immediate re-appointment.

IV. LANGUAGES

401. The languages of ENBIS shall be English and Dutch.

V. FINANCES

501. The Annual Dues
     1. The annual dues of the ordinary members are fixed. The General Assembly may alter at any ordinary session the annual dues to be paid by the members. The Council may make suitable provision for compounding dues by lump-sum payment. Honorary members shall not be required to pay dues. The Executive Committee may waive or reduce the dues for which an ordinary member is liable, for such a period as it designates, if it considers that the payment of such dues proves, for whatever reason, unduly burdensome to said member.
     2. The annual dues of corporate members shall not be less than 5 times individual membership. The determination of the annual dues is in the competence of the Council. The General Assembly may alter at any ordinary session the minimum annual dues to be paid by the corporate members. Official national statistical agencies in countries where the Government makes an annual subvention to ENBIS which is at least equal to the amount of the dues, shall be exempt from payment of the dues.
502. In accordance with the law under which ENBIS is incorporated, the Executive Committee shall submit to a meeting of the General Assembly, within one month of the end of each fiscal year unless the General Assembly extends this period, its report including a financial statement covering all income and expenditure over the preceding fiscal year and a statement of the assets and liabilities as of the last day of the preceding year.
503. In advance of each ordinary session, the financial statement to be presented to the General Assembly, must be audited by a suitably qualified person which is determined by the general assembly. As soon as the report has been presented to the General Assembly, this shall designate two members of ENBIS as auditors for further examination of the report. They shall present their findings to the General Assembly before its adjournment.
504. At least one month in advance of the beginning of each fiscal year, the Treasurer shall submit to the Executive Committee a budget covering all proposed expenditure and showing all estimated income for ENBIS for that year together with any recommendations concerning sources of additional income. No expenditure shall be incurred in excess of that authorized by the budget as approved or subsequently modified by the Executive Committee.
505. The Treasurer shall maintain such accounts as the Executive Committee may deem necessary to ensure compliance with any limitations on the use of any property of ENBIS which shall have been attached by the contributors or grantors thereof to ENBIS at the time of contribution.

VI. AWARDS

601. Each year, ENBIS awards three prizes: the Box Medal, the Young Statistician Award, and the Best Manager Award.
602. The Box Medal is named after George Box and recognises an extraordinary statistician who has remarkably contributed with his/her work to the development and the application of statistical methods in European business and industry. The Box Award committee shall be composed of at least five persons: four members nominated by the council and chaired by the President-Elect. Each individual member of ENBIS can make nominations to the Box Award committee by the deadline set by the Box Award Committee.
603. The Young Statistician Award is aimed to recognise the work of young people in introducing innovative methods, promoting the use of Statistics and/or successfully using it in the daily practice. The Young Statistician Award committee shall be composed of at least five persons: four members nominated by the council and chaired by the President-Elect. Each individual member of ENBIS can make nominations to the Young Statistician Award committee by the deadline set by the Young Statistician Award Committee. Nominees must be younger than 35 years by the deadline.
604. The Best Manager Award is meant to recognise managers who gave a significant contribution to the success of their companies by advancing the spread and the practice of Statistics in them. The Best Manager Award committee shall be composed of at least five persons: four members nominated by the council and chaired by the President-Elect. Each individual member of ENBIS can make nominations to the Best Manager committee by the deadline set by the Best Manager Committee.

VII. AMENDING OF STATUTES AND BY-LAWS

701. Any proposal for amending or revising the Statutes and/or By-laws shall be sent to the President. It shall include the precise terms of the proposed amendment or revision and an adequate explanation of its intent. It must be signed by at least 25 ordinary or honorary members. The President submits the proposal to the Council for deliberation and commenting. The President shall cause the Director of the Permanent Office to transmit to all ordinary and honorary members of ENBIS, a complete copy of the proposal, the names of the signatories, and the views of the Council. In the sequel, the proposal is balloted in a yes/no decision by all ordinary and honorary members in a period of at least four weeks and at most four months.
702. The proposed amendment or revision shall be accepted if at least two-thirds of the votes cast regarding it are favourable. However if the proposed amendment or revision concerns the dissolution of ENBIS, it shall be submitted for a decision by the General Assembly if votes favourable to it are cast by a simple majority of the total number of the ordinary and honorary members.