SSHA Constitution

I. Objectives

The purpose of the Social Science History Association is to improve the quality of historical explanation in every manner possible, particularly by encouraging the selective use and adaptation in historical teaching and research of relevant theories and methods from related disciplines, especially the social sciences. The Association will seek to achieve this purpose through various means. It will:

• Publish Social Science History in order to encourage and disseminate high quality social science history devoted to substantive research and methodological concerns.
• Organize conferences to bring together like-minded historians and other social scientists with interdisciplinary interests.
• Assist and support the work of organizations in activities such as the operation of training programs to enable historians and other social scientists to learn social science methodology, or methods for the retrieval and archiving of quantitative historical data.
• Work to achieve maximum freedom of access for scholars to data of particular interest to social science historians.
• Take any other appropriate action which the members of the Association believe necessary to achieve the above objectives.

II. Membership

Any person supporting the objectives of the Association will be enrolled, upon the payment of dues. The Executive Committee of the Association may designate various classes of membership, setting appropriate membership fees and rights of participation.

III. Officers

The Association shall have the following elective officers: President, Vice-President, Executive Director, and Treasurer. The terms of office of the President and Vice-President shall be one year. The Vice-President shall, upon completion of her/his term, serve as President in the following year. The terms of office of the Executive Director and the Treasurer shall be four years, the terms so set as to have one of them elected every second year.

The Executive Committee shall consist of the four officers; nine committee members, three to be elected each year for three-year terms; and the three most recent past presidents willing and able to serve. A majority of the voting members of the ExecutiveCommittee shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Action recommended at any meeting without a quorum will take permanent effect when confirmed subsequently, by a majority vote of the Committee, through email or another expeditious method. The Executive Committee may appoint editors of Association publications as non voting, ex officio members of the Executive Committee.

The President, with the advice of the Executive Committee, shall appoint a Nominating Committee, which shall present to the Executive Director nominations as required above.

The President shall be ineligible for re-election.

Voting shall be by secret ballot using appropriate electronic means and allowing members the opportunity to cast write-in votes. The results of the election shall be certified and announced by the Executive Director at the next annual meeting of the Association or by individual communication to members of the Association.

In the event that the office of the Executive Director or the Treasurer becomes vacant, the President, with the advice of the Executive Committee, shall appoint a temporary Executive Director or Treasurer. Such appointee shall serve until the next annual election.

IV. Duties of Officers

The President shall preside at all meetings of the Association and the Executive Committee. In case of her/his disability or absence, the duties shall devolve upon the Vice-President, or the Executive Director, or the Treasurer, in that order.

The Executive Director shall keep the records of the Association, have custody of its funds, and prepare an annual report. The Treasurer shall review annually the financial status of the Association and shall discuss the annual financial report at the meeting of the Executive Committee. The accounts shall be subject to periodic audit, at the discretion of the President. Upon succession of the Executive Directors, the accounts must be audited by a certified public accountant. The Executive Director and the Treasurer shall perform such other duties as the Executive Committee shall assign them.

The Executive Committee shall pursue the objectives of the Association and have control and management of the funds of the Association. The Executive Committee may adopt any rules and regulations for the conduct of its business not inconsistent with this constitution or with the rules adopted at any annual meeting of the Association. It shall act as a committee on time and place of meetings, and perform such other duties as the Association may delegate to it.

V. Other Committees

There shall be two standing committees: publications committee and program committee.

The President shall appoint the chair of the publications committee, and the Vice President shall appoint the program committee chair/cochair responsible for producing the program for the subsequent year. The networks will select representatives to serve on the program committee. The members of the Publications Committee other than the chair shall be elected by the members of the Association for staggered three-year terms.

Members of the Association may organize as networks around topics of interest, and those networks shall be represented on the Program Committee.

The President may appoint ad hoc committees as needed or as recommended by the Executive Committee. Nothing shall prevent committees from establishing subcommittees that extend beyond the membership with the approval of the President. Officers of the Association may sit as ex officio members of any committee.

VI. Meetings

The annual and other meetings of the Association shall be held at such time and place as determined by the Executive Committee. Adequate notice of such time and place shall be given to members in the print or electronic publications of the Association and also through electronic communications from the Executive Director or the Treasurer at least one month before such meetings.

Special meetings of the Association may be called by the Executive Committee.

Any nonprocedural motions introduced and passed at meetings of the Association will be referred to the membership of the Association by electronic ballot for final approval or rejection.

Meetings of the Executive Committee or the Officers of the Association shall be called by the President of the Association or at the request of four members of the Executive Committee; all announcements shall be made through the office of the Executive Director.

VII. Dissolution

This organization may be dissolved by a vote of the membership, providing that its assets are transferred to a non-profit scholarly organization.

VIII. Amendments

The Executive Committee may generate proposals to amend the constitution. Proposed amendments may also be generated by ten voting members of the Association and sent for consideration to the Executive Committee. The recommendation of the Executive Committee on any amendment shall be reported to the membership at the next annual business meeting of the Association, and such action shall be confirmed, amended, or rejected by a majority vote of the Association voting electronically.