Presented to the ISDP Members by online ballot on December 4, 2019
Amendments to the ISDP Constitution have been proposed and approved by the Board of Directors and are hereby submitted to all ISDP members for confirmation.
Please review the current constitution, and the proposed changes and vote by December 30, 2019. The proposed amendments will take effect upon approval of 67 percent of the total number of members voting.
Suggested by-law changes (highlighted in bold, blue text below). To view the current bylaws, please click here.
Article II. Membership
Sect. 1. There shall be four categories of membership in the Society: Member, Student Member, Early Career Member and Retired/Spouse Member.
Sect. 2. Members shall be persons who (a) hold a doctoral degree and (b) present satisfactory evidence of having made a substantial contribution to the academic literature in the field of human or animal behavior or biology. Established independent researchers in the field not meeting requirement (a & b) listed above, and desiring full member status must be accepted by unanimous vote of the Executive Committee.
Sect. 3. Student Member shall be persons who hold a baccalaureate degree and who are full-time workers in a research setting or who are registered as full-time candidates for a baccalaureate or higher degree who wish to participate in the activities of the Society. An application for Student membership shall be sponsored by a Member of the Society, or a faculty or professional member of the institution in which the applicant is situated. Student Member shall be voting members of the Society but may not stand for office in the Society, except for the office of Student Member Representative.
Sect. 3b: Early career members shall be persons who have received their doctoral degree within the past seven years (i.e. postgraduate students). This includes those in their first seven years after receiving their Ph.D. including those teaching as an adjunct, instructor, or assistant professor. Early career members also include any postgraduate student engaged at least half-time with a formal postdoctoral fellowship or traineeship, or who is in an intern or resident position in any discipline. Early career members may not have previously been a regular member in the Society. Early career membership is limited to seven years (regardless of career position), but maybe extended by 1 year due to parental leave.
Sect. 4. Retired/Spouse Member shall be former, Full or Student Members who have retired but who wish to maintain contact with the Society. Upon retirement, members may request Retired/Spouse Member status. They will be required to pay dues to the Society but will not be required to subscribe to the Journal.
Sect. 5. Membership shall become effective following submission of all required materials and upon the receipt of dues for current fiscal year and notification of acceptance by the Secretary who will review the submitted materials.
Article III. Officers
Sect. 1. The officers of this Society shall consist of a President, a President-elect, a Past-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Program Officer, a Conference Coordinator, three board Members, a Representative to the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, two student Member Representatives, a Historian, a representative of the International Perinatal Brain and Behavior Network and, in the years when they have been elected, a Secretary-elect, a Treasurer-elect, a Program Officer-elect, and a Conference Coordinator-elect. The voting members shall include all non-student officers.
Sect. 2. The term of the office of the President shall be two years, preceded by two years as President-elect; the term of the President-elect shall be two years; the term of the Past-President shall be two years preceded by two years as President; the term of the Secretary shall be three years preceded by one year as Secretary-elect; the term of the Secretary-elect shall be one year; the term of the Treasurer shall be three years preceded by one year as Treasurer-elect; the term of the Treasurer-elect shall be one year; the term of the Program Officer shall be three years preceded by one year as Program Officer-elect; the term of the Program Officer-elect shall be one year; the term of the Conference Coordinator shall be three years preceded by one year as Conference Coordinator-elect; the term of the Conference Coordinator-elect shall be one year: the term of Representative to the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences shall be three years; the terms of the board members not serving ex officio shall be three years each; except on the first election board member shall be assigned by lot to 1, 2, or 3 year terms, so that thereafter only one such board member be elected each year, and the term of the Student Member Representative(s) shall be two years. The terms of the historian and Representative of the International Perinatal Brain and Behavioral Network shall be three years. No officer of the Society may succeed himself/herself in the same office without one year intervening between terms, unless there are no other nominees or candidates for that position.
Sec 17. The three board members should each be the chair of one of the standing committees: sponsorship committee (1st year), science communications committee (2nd year) and awards committee (3rd year). Further, the historian will be the chair of the history committee and the program-director will be chair of the program committee and they will report to the board about the activities of those committees.