By-laws

as accepted at the General Assembly in Lucerne, September 10, 1999
(the original text had to be put down, according to the Swiss law, in German. English version by J. Wendler)

I. Name and Site, General

Art. 1 Name and Site
Under the name of “Union of the European Phoniatricians (UEP)”
with the site in Basel, an association exists according to art. 60 of the Swiss Civil Code.

Art. 2 General
Phoniatrics is that specialty of medicine that deals with diseases and disorders of voice, speech, language, hearing and the swallowing apparatus.

The association is politically independent and non-profit oriented.

II. Objectives

Art.3 Objectives
The association has the following objectives:
It promotes scientific and professional cooperation and exchange of experiences and knowledge of respectively among phoniatricians within Europe.
It acts as the representative of the European phoniatricians in the public.
It periodically organizes congresses in European countries, at which most recent practical and theoretical knowledge shall be exchanged.
It establishes contacts with scientific and professional organizations in Europe and in other regions of the world and maintains them; it assists in the establishment of such organizations.
It strives for the recognition of phoniatrics as a separate medical specialty in Europe.

III. Members and Membership Fees

Art. 4 Types of Memberships
4.1. Individual members are physicians professionally trained in
phoniatrics, as long as they are active in that field.
4.2. Senior Members can be appointed from physicians trained in phoniatrics when they have retired from their professional activities
4.3. Corporative Members. National, regional and other associations
of phoniatricians may become Corporative Members:
Corporative Members Category A: National scientific or professional associations, but nor more than two per country
Other multinational, regional or local associations with comparable objectives receive Corporative Membership Category B without any rights of vote at the General Assembly.
Corresponding Members. Scientifically and/or professionally active personalities with outstanding contributions to the specialty of phoniatrics may become Corresponding Members These are proposed by the Board and elected by the General Assembly.
Honorary Members have to be proposed by the Board.
All members come from European countries

Art. 5 Conditions for Admission
For all admissions of new members, applications of the Board are necessary.
Individual members have to be recommended, additionally, by a corporative member of their own country or by two individual members.

Art. 6 Admission, Withdrawal, Exclusion
Members are admitted by the General assembly on application of the Board.
Any member can declare his withdrawal by writing to the Board at the latest by September 30 after December 31 of a year.
The Board may expel any member at any time without mentioning of reasons; before such a decision, the member concerned has to be requested to take a stand. Particularly, exclusion is possible when a member has not paid his fees for two years.

Art. 7 Membership
Fees 7.1. Individual Members pay an annual fee of Fr. 100,—
Corporative members pay an annual fee of Fr. 5.— per affiliated
member, at least Fr. 10,—
Senior members, Honorary Members, and Corresponding
members do not pay fees.
The membership fees come due on the first of April annually.
Fees paid cannot be reclaimed.

IV. Organization

Art. 8 Functional Components
The functional components of the association are:
The General Assembly
The Board
The Auditors

A General Assembly

Art. 9 Types of General Assembly
An ordinary General Assembly takes place, as a rule, every three years. Extraordinary General Assemblies may be called anytime; they have to be called on written request of a hundred of individual members.

Art. 10 Form of Invitation
The invitation in writing has to be sent out to the members not less than 30 days before the General Assembly and contain an agenda.

Art. 11 Participation and Rights of Vote
Individual Members and Corporative Members may participate in the General Assemblies; the latter ones have to appoint a delegate, who may be an individual Member himself.
Any Individual Member and any delegate of a Corporative Member of category A is entitled to one vote in the General Assembly.
Senior Members, Honorary Members and Corresponding Members have no right to vote.
Anybody, who has not paid his fee, is not entitled to vote.

Art. 12 Presidency and Minutes
The President presides the General Assembly, the General Secretary keeps the minutes.

Art. 13 Resolutions
The General Assembly is eligible to vote independently from the number of the voting members present.
The General Assembly adopts their resolutions by the absolute majority of the voting members present.
The following resolutions require a two-thirds majority:

Appointment of a Honorary Member
Dissolution of the association
Changing of the by-laws

Art. 14 Rights
The General Assembly has the following rights:
Changing of the by-laws
Election of the Board and of the Auditors
Acceptance of the reports of the President, the General Secretary, and the Secretary UEMS
Election of place and topics for the next congress

B The Board

Art. 15 Structure
The Board consists of:
The President
The President elect
The Past President
The General Secretary
The Secretary UEMS
The Treasurer
One or more Members at Large

The term of office is three years; the General Secretary and the Treasurer may be elected for three terms, the other members for one term only.

Art. 16 Duties of the President
The President has the following duties:
Representation of the association with individual signature
Chair of the General Assembly and the Board meetings
Control of the work of the other Board members, particularly the General Secretary and the Treasurer

Art. 17 Duties of the General Secretary
The General Secretary has the following duties:
Representation of the association with individual signature
Calling for the General Assembly and the Board meetings
Keeping the minutes at the General Assemblies and the Board meetings
Correspondence of the association.

Art. 18 Duties of The Secretary
UEMS Representation of the association at the Union Européenne des Médicins Spécialisés (UEMS) in Brussels

Art. 19 Duties of the Treasurer
'The Treasurer has the following duties
Book-keeping of the association
Management of the bank account of the association
Elaboration of the annual balance
Collection of the membership fees
Keeping of a membership list (directory)

Art. 20 Duties of the Board
The Board meets at least once a year.
It makes decisions on all matters, which are not delegated explicitly to another body of the association or to individual Board members by the by-laws in hand.

It can issue rules and regulations for special activities of the association.

C Committees

Art. 21 Committees
The Board may appoint Committees for special tasks (e.g. for the organization of congresses and the checking of applications for membership). It determines their competence in terms of rules and regulations.

D The Auditors

Art. 22 Election
The General Assembly elects two auditors for a term of three years.

Art. 23 Duties
The Auditors review the annual balance made up by the Treasurer and report thereon to the Board in writing.

Dissolution of the Association

Art. 24 Dissolution
The General Assembly may decide on the dissolution of the association by a two-thirds majority of the voting members present. For this purpose, the Board has to call for an extraordinary General Assembly, which decides on the utilization of the property of the association.
The liquidation is carried out by the Board as far as the General Assembly makes no other decision.

Lucerne, September 10, 1999

(Behrendt) (Giger) (Eysholdt)
President Past President General Secretary