THE CHILE CLUB (Founded In 1949)
(Incorporating all amendments at 31st October 1997)
1. PURPOSE
The purpose of the Chile Club is the betterment of social, cultural and commercial relations between Chileans who speak English and foreign residents in Chile whose native language is English. In general, the proceedings of the Club shall be conducted in English.
The Club will operate in accordance with these Statutes. Should any Member wish to propose a change to these Statutes, said change will be studied by the Committee and a proposal, if appropriate, will be submitted to the Members at the November meeting.
2. MEETINGS
The Chile Club shall meet for luncheon on the fourth Thursday of every month. No meeting will be held in the month of December, January and February.
3. OFFICERS
The Officers will be a Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. They will be elected at the November meeting of each year. Each year the officers will alternate between Chilean and non-Chilean Members for each position. When the Chairman is Chilean, the Vice-Chairman will always be non-Chilean and vice-versa. These officers will form “the Committee”.
Nominations to fill the post of the new Committee shall be submitted to the current Committee by the October meeting. Elections of officers shall be by secret ballot. Elections shall take place for one officer at a time. Only Honorary and Active Members present at the meeting shall vote. No officer shall be elected unless he receives a minimum vote of at least 51% of the Members present. If there is only one candidate for a given post, the election may be by acclamation.
4. ORDINARY MEMBERS
The Membership of the Club shall be limited to eighty Ordinary Members of which forty shall be Chilean and forty non-Chilean Members.
See 1997 changes at end of statutes.
In the case of dual nationality, persons not born in Chile shall be regarded as non-Chileans.
5. HONORARY MEMBERS
The Committee may, at its discretion, confer the category of Honorary Member to any Ordinary Member, due consideration being given to services rendered and/or length of Membership. The Honorary Members shall have all the rights of an Ordinary Member but are exempted from the obligation to attend meetings.
6. EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
The Ambassadors of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States will be “Ex-Officio” Members without voting rights.
7. NEW ORDINARY MEMBERS
The Chairman will receive nominations in writing at any time and the names will be put on a waiting list which will be circulated to all Members. Members may convey remarks about the candidates to the Committee which will deal with them confidentially.
When vacancies exist, the Committee shall submit to the Members of the Club a list with a number of candidates which must exceed by one or more the number of vacancies to be filled. The number of candidates and of vacancies referred to shall be fixed by the Committee at its sole discretion. In every case an election will be held at a future meeting and the list must contain the names of candidates who have not participated in any previous election in number at least equal to those that have already been candidates for nomination. The Committee may postpone, at its sole discretion, the submission for nomination of one or more of these latter candidates.
See 1997 changes at end of statutes
8. CONDITION OF MEMBERSHIP
A condition of Membership is regular attendance at the monthly luncheons. If for special reasons Members are unable to attend, they should notify the Secretary.
If any Member is absent from three consecutive meetings or six meetings in any year, the Committee may at its sole discretion declare his place vacant to enable the nomination of a new Ordinary Member. However, should circumstances arise which prevent a Member from attending meetings for a prolonged period, he/she may request that his/her name be removed from the list of active Members and be placed on a priority list for re-election when his or her situation normalises.
See 1997 changes at end of statutes
9. VISITORS
Visitors may be invited to the luncheons by any Member. Due notice of their names must be given to the Secretary as early as possible.
10. LUNCH CHARGE
The charge for lunch will be collected immediately before the meeting and will include a small sum to defray miscellaneous expenses.
11. OTHER
The Committee is empowered to decide upon anything not covered by these Statutes concerning the running of the Club.
Changes to the Statutes in 1997
In 1997 two minor changes to the Club’s statutes were proposed by the Committee and overwhelmingly approved in a postal/fax plebiscite to Members. These changes are:
i) The waiting list for new Members will be kept to a maximum of 25 candidates. Those candidates not elected at an election will automatically go onto the waiting list and will only be eliminated therefrom after three unsuccessful election attempts.
ii) New categories of Members who are infrequent attendants at lunches were established; they are the
– Sleeping Beauties (SBs): those Members who wish to remain Members, but who, for one or another reason, cannot attend lunches regularly. The typical case is that of a Member promoted to higher responsibilities in Latin America, which increase the travel requirements of the Member making it impossible for him/her to attend lunches regularly. Normally, Members wishing to take Sleeping Beauty status must ask the Committee in writing for admittance to this status.
– The Never in Chile Bunch (NICBs): this category is for those (thankfully few) Members who give no reason for their prolonged absence from lunches. This is a warning category from which a Member can only exit by:
a) attending two consecutive lunches, thereby revalidating his/her normal Membership;
b) asking in writing to the Committee to be assigned Sleeping Beauty status in view of responsibilities which make it difficult for them to attend regularly; c) being dropped from the Club automatically after missing 12 consecutive lunches without giving due cause.
The NICBs are to pay a 20% surcharge on each lunch they attend until they return to full status or are dropped from the Club automatically under c) above.
NOTES:
1. The two new categories above (Sleeping Beauties and Never in Chile Bunch) will not count in the computation of numbers of Ordinary Members used to establish the vacancies for new Members at each year’s election time.
2. If there are vacancies for more than four Ordinary Members in either the foreign-born category or the Chilean-born category, then an earlier election can be held prior to the normal October election.
