THE UK SOCIETY FOR INTRAVENOUS ANAESTHESIA (SIVA UK)

CONSTITUTION – AMENDED MAY 2003  

1. The Society shall be called The UK Society for Intravenous Anaesthesia (SIVA UK).
2. The object of the Society is to promote education and facilitate research into the use of drugs administered intravenously in anaesthesia and science related thereto, and to disseminate and help implement the useful results of such research for the public benefit.
3. The Society shall consist of and be governed exclusively by Ordinary Members, who alone shall have power to elect Officers and change the rules.

Membership

4. The Society shall consist of Honorary and Ordinary Members. The acceptance of Membership shall be deemed to imply an agreement to be bound by all the regulations of the Society for the time being.
5. Persons of distinction who have contributed to the advancement of intravenous anaesthesia are eligible for election as Honorary Members on the nomination of the committee. Honorary Members shall have the rights of Ordinary Members excluding that of voting.
6. Each Ordinary Member shall, unless exempted there from by the Committee, pay an Annual Subscription the amount whereof shall be determined at the Annual General Meeting.
7. No Ordinary Member shall be admitted to the privileges of Membership until the Subscription has been paid.
8. Any Ordinary Member whose subscription is two years in arrears and who has been informed in writing by the Treasurer shall cease to be a Member but shall be eligible for re- election.
9. The committee shall be empowered to recommend to a Special General Meeting removal of any Member if, in their opinion, the interests of the Society require it. The individual Member concerned shall have the right to be heard by the Committee before a final decision is made to recommend the removal of such a Member. If two-thirds of the Members present at the Special General Meeting vote by ballot in support of the Committee, the Member in question shall cease to be a Member of the Society.

Organisation

10. The business of the Society shall be conducted by a Committee of Members of the Society consisting of President, Secretary, Treasurer and 6 Members of the Society.
11. A quorum at a committee shall consist of five Members two of whom shall be Officers.
12. 1. The Officers will be elected for a period of three years. Each Officer shall be nominated on the proposal of two Ordinary Members and submitted for election to the Annual General Meeting. All elections will be by ballot of paid up Members. An officer of the Society shall not remain in office for longer than six years consecutively.

2. Two Committee Members shall be elected annually from the Ordinary Members of the Society.

3. The Committee may co-opt the immediate past, present and two future meetings organisers. The committee may co-opt other Members of the Society who perform significant definable functions within the Society.

13. The funds of the Society shall be under the control of the Committee who shall have the power to expend such funds as they think fit. No member of the committee shall acquire any interest in property belonging to the Society (otherwise than as a trustee for the Society) or receive remuneration or be interested (otherwise than as a member of the committee) in any contract entered into by the committee.
14. Ordinary Members may make proposals to change the rules of the Society to the Committee. These proposals together with those of the Committee will be submitted to the Annual General Meeting or a Special General Meeting. The notice of the General Meeting must include notice of the resolution, setting out the terms of the alteration proposed. A change will require two-thirds of those voting to favour the change and will lead to that change in the rules. No amendment shall be made to the objects, these amendment provisions or to the dissolution provisions and no amendment shall be made to any of the remaining provisions which would cause the Society to cease to be a charity in law.
15. Upon dissolution or winding up of the Society any surplus assets remaining after payment of all outstanding debts and liabilities shall be distributable amongst the members but, unless otherwise decided by a majority of members, the surplus assets shall be passed to other charitable institutions having similar objects to the Society. Any decision to dissolve the society shall be made at a General Meeting.

Meeting of Members

16. An Annual General Meeting shall be held at which the annual business of the Society will be transacted. A Special General Meeting may be summoned at any time by the Committee or by the Secretary on the written request of ten Ordinary Members. At least one week's notice of the Annual General Meeting shall be given. At the Annual or Special General Meeting the President, or in his absence, a nominee of the Committee shall take the Chair.
17. The business to be transacted at the Annual General Meeting shall be to receive and consider the Reports and Accounts presented by the Committee, to confirm or otherwise deal with the Reports and Accounts, to confirm or deal with any proposal to change the Rules of the Society, to elect Officers and Members of the Committee for the ensuing year, and to determine the Annual Subscriptions.
18. A quorum of any General Meeting shall consist of at least 10 Ordinary Members of the society and two members of the Committee.
19. At any General Meeting, a resolution put to the meeting shall be decided by a show of hands unless a ballot is, before or on the show of hands, demanded by the Chairman or at least three Ordinary Members. The Chairman's declaration of the results of a show of hands that a resolution has been carried, or carried unanimously, or by a particular majority or lost shall be decisive.
20. A balance sheet and an income and expenditure account shall be made out once in each year and after being audited shall be presented to the Annual General Meeting.
21. At a Special General Meeting the only business to be discussed shall be that on the agenda circulated before the meeting.

Scientific meetings

22. At least one scientific meeting shall be held each year.
23. Members and Guests may attend the meetings. At certain meetings the number of guests may be restricted.
24. The dates and places of the Scientific meetings will be arranged by the committee and confirmed at the Annual General Meeting
25. The Secretary will inform all Members of the dates and places of the Scientific meetings and invite the submission of papers.