Subscriptions are due from 1st November annually
Membership categories
Ordinary
& Foreign
Member R80 per annum
Distance
Member R45 per annum
Permanent address minimum 100 kms from Cape Town
Student
Member R45 per annum
Copy of Student ID required - age limit 27
Corporate
Member R400 per annum
All membership categories gain free entry to regular "lecture" meetings of the Society, 4 quarterly issues of the newsletter SHEMU, free access to the Society's Lending & Reference Library as well as bookshop, travel and other discounts..
Please send
an e-mail for an application form,
stating name and postal address.
scarab@telkomsa.net
CONSTITUTION of
THE EGYPTIAN SOCIETY OF
The Society shall be known as
The Egyptian Society OF SOUTH
AFRICA
hereinafter referred to as the Society.
2.
Aims
and Objectives
The aims and objectives of the Society shall be to foster an appreciation
of the
history and culture of
Ancient Egypt in particular, also
its neighbouring
societies and civilisations,
and modern
(a) to hold not less than ten
meetings of the Society annually which
may
include lectures, excursions, presentations or similar activities,
(b) to publish and distribute
for the benefit of its members a quarterly
newsletter,
(c) to promote and encourage the
work of the Iziko Museums of
with regard to the Egyptian Collection,
(d) to promote dialogue and
co-operation with and between other
societies
and institutions with similar aims and objectives,
(e) to pursue, for the
benefit of its members, appropriate assistance,
or
access to further the aims and objectives of the Society.
Membership shall be open to any person or group that supports the aims
and
objectives of the Society.
There shall be the following categories of membership:
(a)
Ordinary membership shall be available to individual persons
(i)
Distance membership shall be available at half the normal
subscription
rate to persons whose regular place of residence is more than 100
kilometres from
(b) Student
membership shall be available to bona fide
students to the age of
27 years.
(c) Corporate
or institutional membership shall be available to bona
fide
groups, societies, educational and cultural institutions, and commercial
businesses, upon payment of five times the current subscription fee.
(d) Honorary
membership shall be awarded by the Society, at the
Executive Committee's discretion, for fixed periods from time to time, to
any individual, or any person
representing a group, institution or
corporation, in recognition of assistance to the Society.
(e) The
Society, at the Executive
Committee's discretion, may appoint a
Patron, who shall be an
eminent person who subscribes to the
aims and
objectives of the Society, who shall be exempt from subscription fees and
shall have no voting power.
(f) Any
member, who in the opinion of the Executive Committee, acts against
the provisions of this constitution or against the interests of the
Society can
be suspended or expelled from the Society by the said Committee.
4.
Subscriptions
The Executive Committee and
Branch Committee(s) shall set the annual
subscription fees
which shall be used to administer the Society and which shall
entitle
all members in good standing to attend an Annual General Meeting, Special
Meetings,
ordinary
Society meetings and receive the quarterly newsletter of
the Society.
An ordinary Society meeting is
defined as a lecture, discussion or presentation,
at the Society's normal meeting place.
(a) Membership
shall be terminated if the member fails to pay his or her
renewal subscription by due date.
(b) A member whose
membership has been cancelled, or
who has resigned,
shall not be
entitled to recover any sums by reason of the termination of
his/her membership prior to the end of the membership year.
(c) A charge
shall be levied for visitors to the Society's meetings.
A corporate body may send two
persons to the Society's activities who
shall be regarded as ordinary members
The Society, or any branch of the Society,
shall be administered by a Committee
elected
at the Foundation Meeting, and thereafter at the Annual General Meeting.
5.1
The Executive Committee shall comprise:
(a) a Chairman,
who shall chair all meetings of the Society,
(b) a Secretary,
who shall properly record all decisions of the Committee,
(c) a Treasurer,
who shall receive and administer all monies for the Society
and produce annual audited statements for the year ending 31st October
for presentation to the Annual General Meeting,
(d) three other
persons, who shall carry out whatever duties are deemed
necessary to achieve the aims and objectives of the Society.
(e) The
office-bearers of the Society shall be elected by the Executive
Committee at the first Committee Meeting after the Foundation
Meeting and
after subsequent Annual General Meetings.
(f) Committee Meetings
can only be attended by members of the Committee
and by any
other person who has been co-opted to the Committee, or has
been
specially invited by the Committee.
(g)
The Chairman shall have a casting vote.
(h) Should any
member of the Committee be absent from two consecutive
Committee
meetings without giving an acceptable explanation, he/she
shall forfeit his/her position on the Committee.
(i) The
Committee shall meet once a month.
(j) A
quorum at a Committee meeting shall comprise four persons.
(a) choose or nominate
a Vice Chairman,
(b) co-opt persons to
assist in the administration of the Society,
(c) levy subscriptions,
enter into agreements and disburse funds.
5.3
The Committee members shall be
elected
(a) by members in good
standing at the Annual General Meeting,
(b) be eligible for
re-election by resolution of a majority of members at an Annual
General
Meeting or Special Meeting.
(a) A
minimum of six members in good standing may establish local branches, such
branches to be governed by the aims and provisions of this
constitution.
Such branches shall be known as “The Egyptian Society of South Africa
‘.............’
Branch”, identifying the district.
(b) Committees of such
branches shall be elected annually by the local branch
membership.
(c) Such local Branch
Committees shall comprise a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer
and
not more than three additional members. However, that said Committee
shall have the right to co-opt members for their
particular knowledge,
expertise, or to replace those members who are no longer available to
serve on
the Committee.
(d) The duties of the
Branch Committee shall be to manage the day-to-day business
of
the Branch, including its financial affairs, in accordance with the aims and
provisions
of this constitution.
(e)
Branches must submit bi-annual reports, detailing membership, activities
and
finance to the Executive
Committee.
The Executive Chairman, Treasurer, or any other person so mandated, shall,
at
any time, be permitted to examine all
records of any branch without notice.
(f)
Subscriptions can be paid to branches. Branches shall pay a distance member
subscription per member to the
Executive Committee Treasurer.
The total branch subscription
to be decided by the Branch Committee
subject
to approval by the Executive Committee.
Where subscriptions of branch members are paid to the Executive
Committee,
it shall retain the distance membership component and the
balance
remitted to the Branch Committee.
In the case of Branch Corporate Membership subscriptions,
calculated at 5 times the Ordinary Society subscription, branches shall
remit
to the Executive Committee Treasurer only the Distance Member
subscription,
retaining the bulk of the Corporate subscription.
(g) The Society
Chairman shall be ex-officio a member
of every Branch
Committee
and Branch Chairmen shall; be ex-officio members of the
Executive
Committee. ex
officio members shall not in that capacity be
required
to pay membership fees or comply with attendance requirements
applicable
to other committee members.
(h) In the event of any
dispute arising within a branch, the party or parties
aggrieved,
may lay the same before the Executive Committee, in writing,
stating
distinctly details of the dispute.
(i) Any
branch which fails or is unable to comply with the provisions of this
Constitution
shall be declared closed by the Executive Committee, who shall
take control of the assets of the branch and deal with them in the
best
interests
of the Society.
(j)
Should the majority of the members of a branch resign,
the branch shall
continue to exist with the remaining
members in control, provided that
those members can
and do comply with the provisions of this constitution.
The branch title, its funds, books, records and other assets shall be
retained
and controlled by the remaining
members.
6.
Annual General Meeting
An Annual General Meeting shall be held no later than November each year.
Members shall receive a published notice no fewer than 21 days before the
date of
the meeting.
Corporate members may send two persons to an Annual General Meeting or
a
Special
General Meeting, with the right to vote.
The business of the meeting
shall include inter alia,
(a) The
Chairman's annual report,
(b) The Treasurer's report
and the presentation of audited accounts,
(c) The consideration of any
properly proposed and seconded motion
submitted to the Secretary in writing no less than 15 days before the
date
of the Annual General Meeting.
7.
Special General
Meeting
A Special General Meeting may be called at the written request of
two-thirds of
the elected members of the Committee or one half of the membership
provided
that all members receive published notice of the meeting
and the purposes
thereof no fewer than 14 days before the date of the meeting.
The business of the Special General Meeting must include
(a) the reason for calling
the meeting,
(b) properly proposed and seconded motions.
8.
Quorum
A quorum at an Annual or Special General Meeting shall consist of ten per
cent of the membership, in good standing.
Should such a quorum not be present within 30 minutes after the
advertised
starting time, the meeting shall stand adjourned to the same day,
time and
place the following week, when those present shall constitute a quorum.
In the case of a Special General Meeting, if no quorum is present at the
first
advertised meeting, the meeting shall be abandoned and the proposals for
consideration be deemed defeated.
9.
Constitution
The Constitution shall be adopted at the Foundation Meeting of the
Society.
The Constitution may be changed by two-thirds of members present at an
Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting in accordance with
the procedures of 6 (c).
The Society may be dissolved by two-thirds of the members present at an
Annual General
Meeting or Special
Meeting. All assets in hand,
except for the Society Library and
bookcases, shall,
after all liabilities and obligations have been met, be disposed of in the
following manner:
(a)
the
Egypt Exploration Society in
(for use in respect of the Egyptian collection exclusively) in such
proportions
as the Committee shall in their sole discretion determine, whom failing
(b) any
organisation or organisations in
objectives as the Society,
(c)
the Society library in its
entirety together with the bookcases to
St. George’s
Every member of the Committee, or sub-committee, office member, agent or
servant of the Society, shall be indemnified out of its funds against all
costs,
charges, expenses, losses and liabilities incurred by that person in the
conduct
of the Society's business, or in the discharge of that person's duties,
and no
person shall be liable for the acts or omissions of any such person by
reason of
that person having joined in any receipt of money not received by him or
her
personally, or for any loss on account of defect of title to any property
acquired
by the Society, or on account of the insufficiency of any security in or
upon which
any moneys of the Society shall be invested, or for any loss incurred
upon any
ground whatsoever other than her or his own wilful acts or defaults.
Signed
at ......Cape Town.................... this ...4th........day
of.........November.............1996
Chairman
(Signed:
Treasurer
(Signed: Desmond Caywood)
Witness
Amended
- Special General Meeting - 22
August 2000
Amended
- Annual General Meeting - 25 November 2003
Amended
– Annual General Meeting – 28 November 2006
Michael
Beaumont, Vice Chairman & Treasurer