Constitution

Article I - Name of the Organization

The name of the organization shall be “Pakistan Students Association Bonn” abbrivated as PSA-Bonn.

Article II - Objectives

The objectives of PSA-Bonn are:

• To help new students in their admissions and initial settlement. The initial settlement include, receiving the new students, initial accommodation, city registration, enrolment, health insurance and opening the bank account.

• To promote and increase friendly and cordial relations between Pakistani, German, and other international students in Bonn. To communicate the difficulties and problems of Pakistani Students to the international office(s).

• To arrange events and excursions for Pakistani Students.

• To promote knowledge exchange between Pakistan and Germany through seminars, blogs, presentations and other activities in the two countries.

Article III – Membership

Membership of PSA-Bonn is divided into two categories:

Active Members:

Active membership is limited to all Pakistani nationals including:

• students who are enrolled at universities in Bonn/Cologne region.

• researchers from research institutes in the region including Fraunhofer, Max-Plank and DLR.

• Ex-students who are now working in Bonn/Cologne region.

All active members must have to fill the PSA membership form and have to pay any membership contribution as imposed by PSA-Bonn.

Foreign students cannot become active members and cannot hold any office.

Active members are expected to participate in the meetings and activities of the PSA and have the right to vote and hold offices.

Non Active Members:

The non-active membership shall include students’ families, pakistani exchange student who do not qualify to be active members, and pakistanis working in the region.

Non-active members are not allowed to vote or hold office and attend general body meetings, but have the right to attend events and other activities organized by PSA-Bonn.

Non-Active members and other foreigners can participate in PSA-Bonn activities by paying per head cost, as determined by PSA-Bonn, of each event in which they are participating.

Membership contribution can be decided/changed in General Body meeting.

Article IV – General Body

All active members constitute the General Body of PSA-Bonn.

Article V – Cabinet

The cabinet of the PSA-Bonn shall include a President, General Coordinator, General Secretary, and Finance Secretary.

The tenure of all cabinet members shall be one calendar year.

No cabinet member can hold the same office for more than one tenure.

Article VI – General Council

General Council of PSA-Bonn shall include the cabinet and all the coordinators for different activities.

Article VII – Responsibilities

Cabinet is responsible for any decision taken.

President

Act as chair at the PSA General Body meetings and Cabinet meetings.

Supervise activities of the organization.

Supervise the expenditure of all funds.

Be responsible for holding the annual PSA elections, events and excursions.

Appoint committee members when necessary.

Shall maintain the letter head of PSA-Bonn in his possession and could delegate it if needed.

Responsible for enforcing the constitution of PSA-Bonn.

Keep ownership of all PSA-Bonn web resources (mailing list, web site, docs).

President can not overrule majority decision of General Body or Cabinet.

In case of tie, president shall have the final decision.

General Coordinator

Acts as the President in the absence of president or in the interim period of his/her (president) resignation.

Responsible for planning and arrangement of activities.

Coordinates with PSA-Bonn members on behalf of the Cabinet and vice versa.

Coordinates with other coordinators.

General Secretary

Act as the President in the absence of President and General Coordinator or in the interim period of thier resignation/deactivation.

Keep minutes of each PSA-Bonn meeting.

Prepare the agenda for each PSA –Bonn meeting.

Keep the PSA-Bonn records including the Year Book, Members List, and Constitution.

Keep all the tangible assets of PSA-Bonn.

Shall maintain the active mailing list of PSA-Bonn.

Registers and eliminates members.

Finance Secretary

Prepare the budget for consideration of the Cabinet.

Be responsible for all funds received and disbursed by PSA-Bonn and for the accounting of all bills, receipts and vouchers.

Present in the General Body meeting all the financial details of the previous year before handing over charge to the newly elected Finance Secretary.

Will be responsible for all monetary related interactions with the international office in regards to all events.

Coordinators

After counceling with Cabinet and General Body, President will appoint coordinators for different activies such as New Students Support, Recrational Activities, Sports, Knowledge(Dars) etc.

The responsibilities of coordinators shall be determined by cabinet and be well-communicated to the candidates.

Members

To cooperate with Council Members in carrying out different activities.

To promote and increase friendly and cordial relations among Pakistani, German and other students in Bonn.

To abide by the Constitution of PSA-Bonn

Article VIII - Qualification of Cabinet

All cabinet members must be active members of PSA-Bonn and have no outstanding membership dues.

No member shall hold more than one cabinet position at any given time, except on acting basis (temporarily – in the absence of any regular cabinet member).

The President and General Coordinator must be active member for atleast one year.

General Secertary and Finance Secertary must be active member for at least half year.

Article IX - Elections of Cabinet

Elections for new term shall hold at the end of first quarter of every calendar year.

The date and location for the elections shall be announced and nominations for the Cabinet positions shall be requested by the General Secretary at least 2 weeks prior to the elections.

Any active member of PSA can nominate him/her self for any Cabinet position. In case of not enough nominations, President will form a committe for resolving this issue without voilating the constitution.

After the deadline for nominations, the General Secretary will announce the names of the potential candidates for each Cabinet position.

Any candidate could step down from his/her position at most one week before the commencement of elections for that position.

The current President shall be the presiding officer for the elections.

The voting process shall be held through secret ballot. The cabinet members shall be elected by a simple majority vote of the members in attendance. In case of a tie, the president shall cast the deciding vote.

The counting of ballots shall be done by the president in the presence of the respective candidates.

Each member shall be entitled to one vote only on all matters brought before the General Body of the PSA-Bonn.

Any member can run for only one cabinet position at any given time.

Article X - Vacancies in Cabinet Positions

When the office of the President becomes vacant, the General Coordinator shall become acting President.

If the office of the President and General Coordinator become vacant simultaneously, the General Secretary shall become the acting President.

The acting President shall undertake all duties and powers of the president until a new President is elected.

The acting President shall call a special or regular General Body meeting for election as soon as possible but within one month.

When the office of General Coordinator/General Secretary/Finance Secretary becomes vacant, the President shall call a meeting for the election of a new officer as soon as possible but within one month.

Article XI – Transfer of Responsibilities

Outgoing officers shall transfer power and any PSA-Bonn related material to newly elected PSA-Bonn Cabinet within two weeks.

President shall be owener of all resources of PSA-Bonn be it financial resources, web resources or any services.

President can grant/share these powers to any active member.

Article XII – Impeachment of Cabinet Members

Any active PSA member can initiate impeachment proceedings against a cabinet member by presenting the charges in writing to the cabinet.

The cabinet upon receipt of the charges should initiate a poll for a General Body meeting.

A simple majority in the poll would ensure the commencement of the General Body meeting.

Impeachment may be accomplished by a two-thirds vote of all active PSA-Bonn members present at the General Body meeting.

Article XIII – PSA-Bonn Year Book

The PSA Cabinet shall maintain an Year Book for PSA.

The contents of the year book shall include but are not limited to:

References/Contacts of Pakistani Families or any other useful person

Event Report

Description and Statistics

Budget

Sponsor(s), if any

Feedback

Track of all Tangible resources of PSA-Bonn

Necessary information and Logs of previous interactions with the International Office.

Information about previous year’s budget

Article XIV - General Body Meetings

The General Secretary will announce the date, time and place of the general meeting by an email or any other means.

The agenda must be formulated and announced.

The agenda and announcement of the meeting must be done at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting.

At least one General Body meeting must be held during a quarter.

Article XV – Committees

A Committee can be formed at any time to meet specific objectives defined by the Cabinet.

The head of the committee will be appointed by the President.

The committee head will be presented with concrete objectives to fulfill or undertake.

The committee head is only responsible for presenting any actions the committee may take and the results of those actions to the president; whereas the members of the committee would be answerable only to the head of the committee.

The head of the committee in consultation with the cabinet will ask the PSA-Bonn members to volunteer for membership in the committee.

In case there are not enough volunteers for the committee the President can appoint members to fill in positions in the committee.

A committee shall be in session until its objectives have been completed, or suspended by the cabinet.

Article XVI - Events and Excursions

PSA-Bonn will organize at least one event per quarter other than those funded by International Office.

The event may comprise an excursion, sightseeing, BBQ or other such get together parties.

The date and time of the event would be announced at least 2 weeks prior to the event by the respective Coordinator for the event.

The respective Coordinator should try his best to ensure maximum participation of the members in the event.

After every event, the General Secretary will ask for feedback from the PSA-Bonn members.

The purpose of feedback would be to get suggestions for improvement.

The feedback would be incorporated into the PSA-Bonn Year Book.

A simple majority of active member can cancel any proposed event. In such cases President may be requested to allow a poll.

Article XVII – Finances

The PSA-Bonn may engage in fund raising activities and seek outside sponsors whenever necessary to support its activities.

The Cabinet has the power to receive and disburse funds to achieve the objectives of PSA-Bonn.

In the event that the organization ceases to exist, any funds remaining in the organizations account shall be donated to some organization by the permission of 2/3 majority of the PSA-Bonn members.

President can approve any low-budget financial transaction.

High-budget events/transactions must be wellcommunicated to the general body which can disallow it through simple majority.

The threshold between high and low budget shall be determined and published by Cabinet.

Article XVIII - Amendments in Constitution

The PSA-Bonn constitution may be amended at any General Body meeting, provided that the amendment lies within the agenda of the General Body meeting.

The proposed amendment must be approved by at least two third majority of the active members present in the General Body meeting to become a part of the constitution.

Article XVIV – Mailing List

No moderation or filteration of messages shell be applied to PSA-Bonn mailing group.

GLOSSARY:

Region: Bonn and Cologne

Universities: all universities in the region

Assets: Money, Documents, Rights, Web Resources, services