STATUTES AND STANDING VOTES

STATUTES

Adopted November 8, 1911: amended May 8, 1912, January 8, and May 14, 1913

CHAPTER I

THE CORPORATE SEAL

ARTICLE 1. The Corporate Seal of the Academy shall be as here

ARTICLE 2. The Recording Secretary shall have the custody of the

Corporate Seal.

See Chap. v. art. 3; chap. vi. art. 2.

CHAPTER II

FELLOWS AND FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS AND DUES

ARTICLE 1. The Academy consists of Fellows, who are either citizens or residents of the United States of America, and Foreign Honorary Members. They are arranged in three Classes, according to the Arts and Sciences in which they are severally proficient, and each Class is divided into four Sections, namely:

CLASS I. The Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Section 1. Mathematics and Astronomy

Section 4. Technology and Engineering

CLASS II. The Natural and Physiological Sciences

Section 1. Geology, Mineralogy, and Physics of the Globe

ARTICLE 2. The number of Fellows shall not exceed Six hundred, of whom not more than Four hundred shall be residents of Massachusetts, nor shall there be more than Two hundred in any one Class.

ARTICLE 3. The number of Foreign Honorary Members shall not exceed Seventy-five. They shall be chosen from among citizens of foreign countries most eminent for their discoveries and attainments in any of the Classes above enumerated. There shall not be more than Twenty-five in any one Class.

ARTICLE 4. If any person, after being notified of his election as Fellow, shall neglect for two months to accept in writing and to pay his Admission Fee (unless he be at that time absent from the Commonwealth) his election shall be void; and if any Fellow resident within fifty miles of Boston shall neglect to pay his Annual Dues for twelve months after they are due, provided his attention shall have been

called to this Article of the Statutes in the meantime, he shall cease to be a Fellow; but the Council may suspend the provisions of this Article for a reasonable time.

With the previous consent of the Council, the Treasurer may dispense (sub silentio) with the payment of the Admission Fee or of the Annual Dues or both whenever he shall deem it advisable. In the case of officers of the Army or Navy who are out of the Commonwealth on duty, payment of the Annual Dues may be waived during such absence if continued during the whole financial year and if notification of such expected absence be sent to the Treasurer. Upon similar notification to the Treasurer, similar exemption may be accorded to Fellows subject to Annual Dues, who may temporarily remove their residence for at least two years to a place more than fifty miles from Boston.

If any person elected a Foreign Honorary Member shall neglect for six months after being notified of his election to accept in writing, his election shall be void.

See Chap. vii art. 2.

ARTICLE 5. Every Fellow hereafter elected shall pay an Admission Fee of Ten dollars.

Every Fellow resident within fifty miles of Boston shall, and others may, pay such Annual Dues, not exceeding Fifteen dollars, as shall be voted by the Academy at each Annual Meeting, when they shall become due; but any Fellow shall be exempt from the annual payment if, at any time after his admission, he shall pay into the treasury Two hundred dollars in addition to his previous payments.

All Commutations of the Annual Dues shall be and remain permanently funded, the interest only to be used for current expenses.

Any Fellow not previously subject to Annual Dues who takes up his residence within fifty miles of Boston, shall pay to the Treasurer within three months thereafter Annual Dues for the current year, failing which his Fellowship shall cease; but the Council may suspend the provisions of this Article for a reasonable time.

Only Fellows who pay Annual Dues or have commuted them may hold office in the Academy or serve on the Standing Committees or vote at meetings.

ARTICLE 6. Fellows who pay or have commuted the Annual Dues and Foreign Honorary Members shall be entitled to receive gratis one copy of all Publications of the Academy issued after their election.

See Chap. x. art. 2.

ARTICLE 7. Diplomas signed by the President and the VicePresident of the Class to which the member belongs, and countersigned by the Secretaries, shall be given to all the Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members.

ARTICLE 8. If, in the opinion of a majority of the entire Council, any Fellow or Foreign Honorary Member shall have rendered himself unworthy of a place in the Academy, the Council shall recommend to the Academy the termination of his membership; and if three fourths of the Fellows present, out of a total attendance of not less than fifty, at a Stated Meeting, or at a Special Meeting called for the purpose, shall adopt this recommendation, his name shall be stricken from the Roll.

See Chap. iii.; chap. vi. art. 1; chap. ix. art. 1, 7; chap. x. art. 2.

CHAPTER III

ELECTION OF FELLOWS AND FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS

ARTICLE 1. Elections of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members shall be by ballot, and only at the Stated Meetings in January and May. Three fourths of the ballots cast, and not less than twenty, must be affirmative to effect an election.

ARTICLE 2. Candidates must be proposed in writing by two Fellows of the Section for which the proposal is made. These signed nominations shall be sent to the Corresponding Secretary and shall be retained by him until the fifteenth of the following October or February, as the case may be, when all nominations then in his hands shall be immediately sent in printed form to every Fellow having the right to vote, with the names of the proposers in each case, and with a request to send to the Corresponding Secretary written comments on these names not later than the fifth of November or the fifth of March respectively.

All the signed nominations, with the comments thereon, received up to the fifth of November or the fifth of March shall be sent at once to the appropriate Class Committees, which shall report their decisions to the Council at a special meeting to be called to consider nominations, not later than two days before the meeting of the Academy in December and April respectively.

ARTICLE 3. All nominations approved by the Council shall be read to the Academy at a meeting in December or in April, or be sent to the

Fellows in print with the official notice of the meeting, and shall then be posted in the Hall of the Academy until the balloting.

Not later than two weeks after any nomination is reported to the Academy, the Corresponding Secretary shall send to every Fellow having the right to vote a brief printed account of the nominee.

See Chap. ii.; chap. vi. art. 1; chap. ix. art. 1.

CHAPTER IV

OFFICERS

ARTICLE 1. The Officers of the Academy shall be a President (who shall be Chairman of the Council), three Vice-Presidents (one from each Class), a Corresponding Secretary (who shall be Secretary of the Council), a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Librarian, all of whom shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Meeting, and shall hold their respective offices for one year, and until others are duly chosen and installed.

There shall be also twelve Councillors, one from each Section of each Class. At the Annual Meeting in 1912 three Councillors, one from each Class, shall be elected by ballot to serve for one year, three for two years, three for three years, and three for four years. At each subsequent Annual Meeting three Councillors, one from each Class, shall be elected by ballot to serve for the full term of four years and until others are duly chosen and installed. The same Fellow shall not be eligible for two successive terms.

The Councillors, with the other officers previously named, and the Chairman of the House Committee, ex officio, shall constitute the Council.

See Chap. x. art. 1.

ARTICLE 2. If any office shall become vacant during the year, the vacancy may be filled by the Council in its discretion for the unexpired

term.

ARTICLE 3. At the Stated Meeting in March, the President shall appoint a Nominating Committee of three Fellows having the right to vote, one from each Class. This Committee shall prepare a list of nominees for the several offices to be filled, and for the Standing Committees, and cause it to be sent to the Recording Secretary not later than four weeks before the Annual Meeting.