By-Laws

By-Laws

Approved & Amended on 9/28/2011

Article I

Name

The name of this organization shall be the Jackson Area Alumnae Panhellenic Association

(hereafter referred to as JAAPA), affiliated with the National Panhellenic Conference

(hereafter referred to as NPC).

Article II

Objectives

The objectives of the JAAPA shall be:

To promote inter fraternity friendship and collaboration;

To promote educational projects by offering scholarships to needy and/or deserving

students;

To stimulate interest in and participation of alumnae members of NPC fraternities;

To cooperate with colleges and College Panhellenic in the study of and solution to

problems of common interest;

To further interest in social service, civic affairs, and in philanthropic fields;

To disseminate authentic information which will promote the Greek system and

demonstrate the high purposes of Panhellenic;

To compile files on prospective rushes for the reference of member groups;

To recognize outstanding sorority alumnae through the annual Athena Awards

program.

Article III

Membership

Section 1.

Alumnae of any NPC fraternity who live in the Jackson, Mississippi,

metropolitan area may become members of the JAAPA upon payment

of prescribed dues.

Section 2.

There shall be three (3) classes of members:

Active members shall be from those fraternities that have fully qualified

for membership as specified by NPC and that have been duly

admitted to membership in NPC.

Associate members shall be from those fraternities that have not fully

qualified for active membership in NPC but that have been

admitted to associate membership.

Affiliate members shall be those women’s fraternal organizations which

are included in a College Panhellenic or comparable governing

body.

Article IV

Finances

Section 1.

The annual dues shall be fifty dollars ($50) per fraternity with a local

Alumnae Association. Those independent representatives, who are not

backed by a local association, will have a dues fee of twenty-five

dollars ($25) per year.

Section 2.

Annual dues shall be due and payable on or before October 31 of each year.

Each fraternity shall be responsible for the collection of dues from its

own members and shall forward dues to the Treasurer of the JAAPA.

Section 3.

A fraternity shall be fined twenty dollars ($20) and become inactive if its

dues have not been paid by October 31st.

Section 4.

The fiscal year of the JAAPA shall be from August 1st to July 31st.

Section 5.

Annual dues of the JAAPA shall be paid to the NPC between January 1st

and March 1st of each year for that calendar year.

Section 6.

Annual dues of the JAAPA-related expenses should be approved in

advance of each purchase by the Treasurer. All checks of disbursement

on the JAAPA account should be signed by the Treasure.

Article V

Structure and Organization

Section 1.

The government of the JAAPA shall be vested in the voting membership.

Section 2.

The voting body of the JAAPA shall be composed of one (1) delegate from

each active member fraternity.

Section 3.

Each active member fraternity shall be entitled to send at least one (1)

alternate delegate to the JAAPA meetings. The alternates shall have the

right to voice but not vote. The first alternate shall serve as the delegate

in the absence of the delegate at JAAPA meetings, except that the Vice

President shall preside in the absence of the President. The delegates

and alternates shall be announced by each representative fraternity by

August 1st for each fiscal year.

Section 4.

Only delegates of fraternities with active memberships may hold office or

serve as chairman of standing committees, but delegates and alternates

of fraternities holding either active associate or affiliate memberships may

serve on committees.

Section 5.

If for any reason the JAAPA shall be dissolved, all assets not otherwise

disposed of to scholarships or grants, shall be divided equally and given

to the chapter operating budgets of each of the sororities represented on

the Millsaps College campus, located in Jackson, Mississippi.

Article VI

Officers and Their Duties

Section 1.

There shall be four (4) officers: President, Vice President,

Recording/Corresponding Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be

delegates of their respective fraternities, and who shall accede to office

by rotation, in order of the established roll of the Jackson Area

Alumnae Panhellenic Association.

Section 2.

The term of each office shall be for one (1) year and shall begin August 1st.

Each fraternity shall be prepared to hold office in turn, and it shall be

expected that the delegate who has progressed to the presidency shall

have had a year’s experience or more in the JAAPA.

However, if the delegate from the fraternity in order of rotation is not

prepared to serve as President, that fraternity shall relinquish its place to

the next fraternity in order of rotation. The fraternity so passed may

resume its place the following year and normal rotation shall be resumed.

Section 3.

The delegate’s alternate shall fill any vacancy in an office for the unexpired

term except in the case of the President.

Section 4.

The duties of the officers shall be those usually delegated to such officers,

and in addition:

It shall be the duty of the President to preside at all meetings; to

appoint all committees subject to approval of the Executive Board;

to serve as an Ex-Officio member of all committees; to establish a

job description for each officer; to maintain the official files of the

organization; to review the by-laws prior to the September meeting

each year; and to attend to all such administrative duties as come

within the bounds of the office.

The President shall be responsible for calling a meeting of the

Executive Board prior to the September meeting of the JAAPA.

She shall also be responsible for the return of all reports requested

by the Alumnae Panhellenic Committee shall including the forms

due to the NPC Central Office and the Area Advisor by June 15th.

The President shall be responsible to provide each JAAPA delegate

with a current copy of the by-laws and review those by-laws at the

September meeting.

It shall be the duty of the Vice-President to preside at all meeting and

perform the duties of the President in the event of the President’s

absence or inability to act. Serve as an ex-officio member of all

committees; shall serve in the absence of an officer; and shall also

serve as Program Chairperson if needed.

1.) Amended as of January 27, 2010 the Vice-President must

willing to serve as member of JAAPA for two years. The

first year being JAAPA Vice-President and the second year

as JAAPA President.

It shall be the duty of the Recording/Corresponding Secretary to keep

the roll, record the minutes of all meetings, present the minutes from

each meeting at the following meeting, and forward a copy of all

meeting minutes to the Area NPC Advisor within a month of each

meeting. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to conduct all

correspondence of the JAAPA.

It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to collect all dues and fines, pay

all bills, to have custody of all monies, and to keep a strict and

accurate account of same. The Treasurer shall be responsible for

presenting a verbal report at each meeting to account for monies

spent and collected, and will also present an annual written report,

to be included in the record, at the April meeting.

It shall be the duty of each officer and chairperson to keep a

notebook comprised of her description, annual reports and

suggestions for implementing her duties and a copy of the

Panhellenic bylaws. Each officer shall pass this information on to

her successor at the April meeting or before the September meeting

of the following academic year.

Article VII

Meetings

Section 1.

The JAAPA shall hold at least five (5) meetings a year. The regular

meetings shall be held the 4th Wednesday of the month in September,

October, January, February, March and April. Meetings may be

rescheduled or omitted according to the decision of the Executive

Board.

Section 2.

Two-thirds (2/3) of the voting members shall constitute a quorum at all

meetings of the JAAPA.

Section 3

Special meetings of the JAAPA are considered open meetings, and may be

attended by any alumnae members of NPC fraternities.

Section 4

All meetings of the JAAPA are considered open meetings, and may be

attended by any alumnae members of NPC fraternities.

Section 5.

Each fraternity shall be represented at all regularly scheduled meetings of the

JAAPA by the delegate, an alternate or another fraternity member. To

be considered “present” at a meeting, a representative should attend at

least thirty (30) minutes of a meeting, or have an alternate in attendance.

Failure to be represented shall result in a fine of five dollars ($5) to be

collected from the delegate - - with an exception made for those

delegates who do not have a local alumnae association or an alternate

delegate. These delegates will not be fined if they inform the President in

advance of the meeting that they will not be in attendance and perform

such duties as assigned to them.

Section 6.

The by-laws will be presented by the President to the delegates at the

September meeting of each year.

Article VIII

Executive Board

Section 1.

The Executive Board of the JAAPA shall consist of the President, Vice-

President, Recording/Corresponding Secretary, and Treasurer,

and the Immediate Past President.

Section 2.

The Executive Board shall arrange for all meetings, be responsible for the

administration of all business of the JAAPA, receive and consider

recommendations from the standing committees and present them to the

membership for approval and action, have general supervision of the

affairs of the organization and shall perform such other duties as defined

by the bylaws.

Section 3.

An annual meeting of the Executive Board shall be called after August 1st

and prior to the September meeting of the JAAPA. It shall be held at a

time and place designated by the President. Special meetings of the

Executive Board may be called by the President or upon the written

request of three (3) members of the Board.

Section 4.

Three (3) members shall constitute a quorum of the Executive Board.

Article IX

Standing Committees

Section1.

The standing committees of the Jackson Area Alumnae Panhellenic

in rotating order, shall be By-Laws, Scholarship, Recruitment

Information, Communication, Fund Raiser, Athena

Awards, Publicity, and Website Master.

The President shall appoint such other special committees as may be

necessary, subject to the approval of the Executive Board.

Section 2.

Each chairperson shall keep a notebook comprised of her job description,

annual reports and suggestions for implementing her duties. She shall

pass this information on to her successor at the April meeting or before

the September meeting of the following academic year.

Section 3.

Each chairperson shall give an annual written report on her committee’s

responsibilities to the President at the April meeting.

Section 4.

As a condition of continued membership in the JAAPA each member

fraternity is expected to fulfill duties assigned annually.

Section 5.

Amended April, 2008 Website Master is to be a permanent/non-rotating

position.

Article X

Parliamentary Authority

Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised shall be the parliamentary authority in all cases not otherwise stated in these by-laws.

Article XI

Amendments

These by-laws may be amended at any regular meeting of the JAAPA by a two-thirds (2/3)

vote, provided notice of proposed amendment(s) has been given at the preceding meeting or

written notice has been sent to each member at least forty- eight (48) hours prior to the meeting and approval of the Area Advisor of the NPC has been secured.

Standing Rules

Standing Rules are not a part of the by-laws and may be suspended by a majority vote at any meeting; the suspension expires at the close of the meeting. Rules may be adopted, Amended or rescinded by a simple majority vote without previous notice.

By-Laws

The By-Laws Chairman shall be knowledgeable of the by-laws in case a reference is need at a JAAP meeting. The By-Laws Chairperson shall keep a record of any by-laws or standing rules that have been amended during the year. The By-Law Chairperson will present to the President and updated copy of the by-laws at the April meeting or no later than August.

Scholarship

The Scholarship Chairperson shall contact the Millsaps College Panhellenic Advisor at the

beginning of the spring semester to ascertain the name of the President of Millsaps College Panhellenic who will be awarded the scholarship. The JAAPA Scholarship Chairperson will contact the Treasurer and have her write and mail a check to Millsaps College, in the name of said scholarship recipient at Millsaps College. This scholarship is to be applied towards the recipient’s tuition and /or books for year.

The amount of the year’s scholarship will be $500 per year. It would be funded as follows:

$250 from the general fund and $250 from the fund raiser.

Recruitment Information Sheets

Recruitment Information sheets will be available to Jackson area high school senior girls through the JAAPA website and forward to JAAPA delegates through the internet.

Recruitment Chairman will place on the facebook page of each of the University's listed on the MS SORORITY page of this web site a comment that Senior girls planning on participating in recruitment in the fall should go to the JAAPA web site and fill out the Recruitment Form. The Recruitment Chariman should include in this comment the website address for JAAPA and any particular dates that may need to be noted. (amended on 9/28/2011)

Each delegate will then be responsible for forwarding these Information Sheets to her

Fraternity’s Recruitment Information Chairman or Committee for their use in providing

Recommendations to their fraternity’s college chapters.

English Awards

(no longer awarded as of 2005-06)

English Awards shall be presented in the spring to a senior girl at all Jackson metro area high

schools. The awards recipients shall be selected by the high schools, with selection based on more criteria than only senior-year English grades. Suggested criteria may also include SAT and/or ACT English scores; senior, junior, sophomore and freshman English grades; writing aptitude; and body of work by the student. This award as of the 2005-06 is not active.

Fundraiser

A fundraiser will be held annually by the JAAPA. Division of the proceed in reference to a JAAPA raffle will be as follows: all expenses incurred for the raffle will be paid in full, 250.00 to be paid to the raffle winner, 250.00 to be contributed to the JAAPA scholarship, 250.00 to JAAPA general fund to cover the web site expense, and the balance to be awarded to the Chairman's National Philanthropy.

Athena Awards

Section 1.

The Athena Awards will be presented on the even school years

(Ex: 2002-2003) at the Spring Luncheon. The selection process and

criteria for judging will be presented by the Athena Awards

Co-Chairpersons at the October or January meeting. Each fraternity

may then nominate a designee for the Athena Award for Service to Her

Sorority and the Athena Award for Service to the Community. A

Resume’ must be presented for each designee by the February meeting.

The Athena Award Winners will be selected by a panel made up of

the Executive Board of the JAAPA Officers.

Section 2.

At the Recommendation of a delegate of JAAPA, a delegate present or past

who has served in JAAPA for more than five (5) consecutive years and

does not have a local association can be nominated for the Athena

Award for Service to Her Sorority on any given year.

Section 3.

On the odd school year (ex: 2003-2004) the delegates of JAAPA will meet

for a spring Luncheon, no Athena Awards will be presented unless an

individual is nominated by a delegate of JAAPA, and voted on by

JAAPA delegates to receive the Athena Award for Service to Her

Sorority or the Athena Award for Service to the Community. Then this

individual will be eligible to receive the Athena Award for that year.