BY-LAWS for the
MFG/PRO SOUTHEASTERN USER GROUP INC
ORGANIZATION
Membership
Members shall be companies that license the MFG/PRO software produced by QAD, Inc. Consultants, vendors, and End Users are eligible to become members. Companies whose primary purpose is an employment agency or head hunter firm are not eligible to be members. Members shall be known as "Members" or "Member Companies".
Members from member companies that license the MFG/PRO software shall also be referred to as "End Users". Prospects can attend meetings with an invitation from a User Group Officer or a QAD Representative.
Calendar Year
The user group calendar year shall be January to December. Elections will be held at the first meeting of the calendar year.
Dues
Member Company and Associate Member Dues shall be $100 per facility, per the User Group calendar year. All dues and conference fees are non-reimbursable and due in January. All prospects are exempt from paying yearly dues. Prospect’s meeting fees will be paid by QAD.
User Group Meetings
The User Group will have meetings two times a year, with the dates determined by the board members. QAD’s yearly User Conference will be considered as a third meeting.
Board Meetings will be held at least once a year.
Officers
Co-Chairpersons shall promote and assure that the stated goals of the organization are being met in accordance with the precedence established in previous years and /or required under the bylaws of the organization.
There shall be two co-chairpersons elected. The Co-Chairpersons shall be responsible for meetings, tour logistics if any, meeting agendas, and registrations. Each co-chairpersons shall act in the absence of the other to carry out the work of the organization. It is mandatory that at least 1 co-chair be an MFG PRO "End User" member.
Secretary shall be responsible for taking user group meeting minutes as well as mailing the minutes, new member packets or any other required documents to the members. The Secretary will be responsible for maintaining the bylaws, making updates, and keeping the most current version published on the web page and to the board members.
Treasurer shall be responsible for collecting money for membership dues and user meetings, as well as oversee the proper distribution and maintenance of the organization’s funds. The Treasurer shall maintain a current balance of the money under the organizations control.
The Treasurer will provide the Secretary with a list of who has paid dues so that member packets can be mailed. The Treasurer will also provide a list to the Co-Chairs, of who needs to pay dues so that letters can be mailed. At the user meetings, the Treasurer needs to provide a statement of financial standing of the organization. The Treasurer will provide financial details of prior meetings to the board to help facilitate planning for future meetings
Editors shall be responsible for creating newsletters to be published at least twice a year. This newsletter will be distributed to Members. The newsletter shall contain articles relating to QAD, Progress, manufacturing and user group news.
Vendor Coordinator(s) shall be responsible for coordinating vendor fair participants. This position must be filled by an "End User" member.
Web Master shall be responsible for the publication of documents and maintenance of the user group web site.
QAD Liaison shall be a QAD employee that coordinates user group business with QAD and the other board
members.
QAD Administrative Liaison (optional) will provide administrative assistance and support to our group to include, but not limited to, conference registration and supply additional support to the QAD Liaison officer, as well as other officers of the group.
Terms of Office shall be effective for one (1) user group calendar year. It is the responsibility of each Board Member to build the membership base of this organization and to assure that members are involved and participating in activities of the organization.
The board must at all times consist of at least 51% of "End User" members.
Procedure of the Board
The Board shall consist of the Officers of the organization. The User Group business will be conducted by agenda, under the Robert’s Rules of Order. One of the officers shall be elected to participate as a member of the Americas User Group Executive Board.
Officers may be removed from office, while serving, upon written request of the exiting board member or by a majority percentage vote of the board members. An affirmative vote by the majority of the board members will remove the Officer. The Board will then find an interim Officer to take the previous Officer’s place.
An email message will be considered a written request. A vote of the board may be taken by email. All votes and removal of officers will be recorded in the user group minutes by the group secretary.
Nominations for Officers
Nominations will be taken by the Board from the Members in good standing. A majority vote of the Member Company’s attendees present shall determine the newly elected Officers. Committee members shall be nominated and chosen using the same elective process. Upon nomination, the Committee members shall choose among themselves a Chairperson to represent the Committee.
Committees
There will be no established committees at this time.
GUIDELINES FOR THE ORGANIZATION
All documents created by the User Group and distributed to its members are for internal use only and are not to be distributed for any marketing purposes.
The rules of operation as outlined above are meant to be useful, general guidelines that encourage the involvement and cooperation of fellow company members. By adhering to these simple rules we will foster a structure and improve the process of cooperation and understanding between the users of MFG/PRO and QAD as a group.
The rules outlined above can be changed by a majority vote of the board.
The user conference fees for all board members will be waived.
The user conference fees for one per speaker per company will be waived, this will not include the fee for a vendor booth.
If a company wishes to have a hospitality suite outside of the user group conference function, we will have no control over that. We will however prohibit them from coming into any room being used by the user group and passing out or leaving any information unless they pay either a user attendance fee or an additional vendor attendance fee (not booth fee) to gain access to the user group conference rooms.
Our membership list will not be published on the web page. The membership list is for user group members only.
We will come out from under the federal tax id of the Mfg/Pro International Board. We will incorporate ourselves as a for profit organization. At the end of each year we will either purchase hardware necessary for the success of the user group, or make a down payment on the next conference to pay out any money left in the checking account down to amount close to $1,000. This amount will be used to pay the user group taxes for the year.
Our Federal identification numbers are:
56-2176128 - Mfg/Pro Southeastern User Group Inc
- Irrevocable Trust account maintained by the user group.