IFSA - International Fuzzy Systems Association

1. Duties of Officers

1.1. The President chairsCouncil meetings and the General Business meetings to be held at least once every two years at an International Conference, submits a report on the activities of the Association when relinquishing office (this report will be published in Fuzzy Sets and Systems), represents the Association, and performs such other duties as usually pertain the office. The President may appoint additional members to the Executive Board with the concurrence of the Council; such concurrence shall be by direct vote, by mail or by email.

1.2. The President-elect chairs the Executive Board and is responsible for executing directives of the Council, advising the Council, and organizing the Executive Board.

1.3. The Treasurer is responsible for administration of the funds of the Association as directed by the Council.

He or she shall make a financial report to the Association at each Council and General Business meeting (or whenever requested by the president), and shall also present a budget proposal for the coming term to the Council; the Council may approve this proposal by simple majority.

The Treasurer is empowered in the name of the Association to accept and hold funds and property, and, under the authority and approval of the President, to employ staff and to make contracts subject to the following restrictions:

1. The Secretary and the Treasurer will undertake all major financial transactions jointly, after obtaining the approval of the President. The Council shall decide the nature and scope of such transactions as may be carried out by either of them separately.
2. The Treasurer shall cause proper books of accounts to be audited by an auditor appointed by the President.
3. If conditions are attached to funds granted or donated to the Association, the Treasurer must, before accepting such money, obtain the written approval of the President.

1.4. The Secretary attends to correspondence incident to the working of the Association, including the certification of actions taken and documents created by the Association. He or she makes arrangements for the taking of minutes of meeting of the Council and Executive Board and of the General Business Meeting.

2. Voting and Conduct of Business

Robert's rules of order will prevail at all meetings of the Council and the Executive Board and at General Business Meetings.

Motions will be carried out by simple majority of eligible voters in attendance (if not stated otherwise in the Constitution.) If the presiding officer deems the issue of sufficient importance to warrant a full vote of all members belonging to the Council or Board, the issue shall be presented to all eligible voters and an email or mail vote shall be conducted. Eligible voters for the Council meetings are the elected members of the Council and the appointed representatives of the institutional and corporate members.

(New addtion: Mail or Email Voting: Execution of Business voting, officer or member elections, or other special mail or email elections/ voting authorized by the Council, shall be conducted by the President, Secretary, Vice President of Elections (if one has been elected), or by any such person appointed by the President to be in charge of voting procedures. If mailed, the ballot shall be deemed to be delivered when deposited in the mail addressed to the member at his/her address as it appears on the records of IFSA, with postage thereon prepaid. If emailed, the ballot shall be deemed to be delivered the next day when emailed to the email address of the member as it appears on the records of IFSA unless the email is returned undeliverable. Ballots shall be returned within 30 days of that date. Furthermore, if emailed, a simple majority vote of those eligible to vote is required for any motion to pass or for any election to be carried out.)

3. Elections

Elections for the office of President-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, four Council members at large (Vice-Presidents), is to begin approximately six months prior to each International Conference in accordance with the guidelines given below.

If the office of the President becomes vacant, it shall be filled automatically by the President-elect.

The President shall appoint an Election Committee, which is charged with the implementation of procedures needed to conduct all ballots.

The Election Committee shall abide by the following guidelines:

1. A minimal slate of candidates shall be proposed by the Election Committee for each election. Written or email consent must be obtained by the Election Committee from each nominee. The list will be published in the next issue of Fuzzy Sets and System, preferably in January.(or February)
2. Additional nominations will be solicited by a general call in Fuzzy Sets andSystems as set by the President, preferably in January or February in odd-numbered years. Each nomination must be accompanied by a written or email consent of the nominee.
3. Ballots will be emailed or mailed by direction of the Election Committee to the Council who shall vote and elect the President-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and four Council members at large (Vice-Presidents). Election of officers shall require at least a majority of the votes cast. If nobody obtains more than half of the votes cast at the first round for a particular position, then a second vote is taken for the two candidates who received the largest number of votes in the first round. The candidate who then receives the largest number of votes shall then be elected to that position. In the case of the election of the four Council members at large, the top four candidates who receive the largest number of votes cast based on rank order shall be elected as long as each candidate receives at least a majority of the votes cast.
4. The Election Committee will accept ballots until the first day of the World Congress of that year or at such date set by the President (see 5.2 below).
5. The Election Committee will tabulate the results and announce them to the general membership at the subsequent General Business Meeting or at such place and time as directed by the President. In the event that members of the Election Committee become candidates for office, they will be replaced on the Committee by appointees designated by the remainder of the Election Committee with the consent of the Executive Board.

Each institutional or corporate member shall notify the President of IFSA who their elected or appointed representative is prior to or at the International Conference.

4. Establishing and Discharging Institutional Members

The Association recognizes two fundamental types of institutional members: (i) (regional or national) Institutional Members and (ii) Special Interests Groups (SIG), which may be established to facilitate intensive work and communication in sub-areas of fuzzy systems and related areas, as well as their applications, and in order to adapt the work of the Association to local conditions.

A regional or national institutional member should normally not extend over a territory larger than a country or an area (such as North America, Middle East, Far East, etc.). In one country or area there might be several institutional members, distinguished by either territory covered or topic of specialization.

A regional institutional member of IFSA may consist of several chapters if it so desires but this is up to the regional institutional member. Applications for the establishment of either a regional or a SIG institutional member must be signed by at least 10 individual members, one of whom will be the president, of the proposed geographical or SIG institutional members, and should be sent to the President of IFSA. The application should include a draft of the Constitution and/or By-Laws of the institutional members-in-formation and information on the founding members and on the boundaries of the proposed institutional member (by territory and/or topic).

New institutional members are chartered upon approval of the application by the Council. Each institutional member may adopt individual rules for voting and the conduct of its business, as long as those rules do not conflict with those of the Association. Institutional members may levy dues, over and above those of the Association. Any such additional dues will be collected directly by the institutional member. Such dues may not be imposed before an institutional member has been approved and thereby charteredby the Council. Members of each institutional member must be members of the Association.

(However, there is no direct membership of the Association. A member must first be a member of an IFSA Institutional Member. When an Institutional Member is granted a charter then its members become members of IFSA.)

Each institutional member of IFSA should prepare a short written report to be presented by its representative at the next meeting of the Council during the World Congress or as directed by the President. This report should indicate the number of members in the institutional member, and briefly describe its activities in the past two years.

The normal activity of an institutional member should be at least to organize or sponsor a scientific meeting within two years or to prepare joint scientific publications (the latter applies to topical chapters).

The scientific meeting of an institutional member can consist of special technical sessions at the IFSA Congress. If an IFSA institutional member has less than 10 members, has no activity in two years, or does not produce its report, it can be declared as closed by the Council. It then must apply again in order to be renewed. An institutional member can also decide to cease its activity on its own will. A letter written by the President of the Institutional Member to the IFSA President can do this.

5. Conference Guidelines

The Association shall follow the guidelines below for all conferences that are proposed to be affiliated with the Association. All questions regarding sponsorship of meetings in categories 5.2(b)-(d) as well questions concerning possible joint sponsorship of meetings should be resolved by the Executive Board. Details of sponsorship for World Congresses are set forth in Article 6, below.

5.1. Travel Expenses.

The Association may bear the travel expenses incurred by the President and/or President-elect for attendance at World Congresses (see 5.2 a below).

5.2. Types of Meetings.

The Association recognizes four broad categories of professional meetings, each of which is briefly described below.

1. World Congress. These are biennial international conferences held in odd-numbered years, preferably in July, and may be held jointly with other professional societies upon approval of the IFSA council. The Congresses are intended to facilitate communication between members of the Association. They require contributions of high quality and provide forum for members as well as for scientists and professionals outside the area of fuzzy systems.
2. International Conferences, Symposia and Colloquia. These are medium-scale scientific conferences sponsored, for example, by either a Special Interest Group or Society/Institutional Member. Research papers, survey and tutorial papers may be presented, as well as case studies and round-table discussions.
3. Advanced Research Workshops and Seminars. These are working meetings with limited attendance, which enable leading researchers, scientists, and engineers to review the state of the art in a special field. A further goal may be to formulate recommendations for future research.
4. Advanced Study Institutes. These are tutorial courses for scientists and research students. They are aimed at dissemination of advanced scientific knowledge. Attendance is by application to the Institute Director.

5.3. Reports.

The organizers of every meeting shall submit a written or email report to the President not later than six months after the event. The report should include:

1. a breakdown of attendance by country;
2. the method and statistics of paper selections;
3. a brief summary of the program and discussions;
4. a global budget;
5. comments on new features, problems, format, etc.
6. An adapted version of this report will appear in the Bulletin section of Fuzzy Sets and Systems.

6. World Congresses

6.1. Application Procedure.

A written or emailed proposal following a format specified by the Council should reach the President at least three years prior to the suggested Congress date, in order that site selection can be announced two years in advance.

The President will transmit an executive opinion on each proposal to the Meeting Committee, which will subsequently relay its recommendation to the Executive Board.

The proposal should contain a signed statement that states that these guidelines and instructions will be followed (unless requested exceptions are granted by the Association).

Upon approval of each proposal by the Meeting Committee it will be transmitted to the Executive Board, which will summarize the sites proposed at the next Council meeting.

The Council at or before the preceding World Congress will make the final approval and site selection for a World Congress.

6.2. Organization.

The following committees should be established:

1. An Organizing Committee (OC), which will carry out all organizational details of the Congress.
2. An International Program Committee (IPC), whose responsibility is to develop the technical program of the Congress.

6.3. Timetable.

The OC and IPC chairpersons should establish a timetable, including at least the following items, with dates:

1. Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers,
2. Deadline for the submissions of abstracts/papers.
3. Meeting of the IPC for final paper selection.
4. Mailing date of the Second Announcement/Advance Program.
5. Preparation of preprints/proceedings.

6.4. Budgets.

The OC is responsible for all financial aspects of the Congress. Profit and loss-sharing arrangements must be included in each proposal and approved by the Council. The OC must provide a ledger of revenues and expenses in the Congress report. Authorization to cover losses rests with the Executive Board.

6.5. Publications.

Selections of high-quality refereed papers presented at the Congress may be published in special issues of Fuzzy Sets and Systems and other well-known journals or in books. The name(s) of the proposed editor(s) and journal(s) should appear in the application. The form and substance of any proceedings associated with a Congress must also be included in the application.

Authors should be invited to submit papers on substantial, original, and previously unreported research in any aspect of the theory and applications of fuzzy systems, including reports on theoretical as well as industrial applications.

The IPC shall always have the privilege of broadening the subject area of acceptable conference papers (e.g., adding soft computing as a topic) as well as inviting speakers and selecting papers on the basis of abstracts or by other suitable methods.

7. Applications for Sponsored Meetings

7.1. Requirements.

Each application to host a sponsored meeting shall include the following information:

1. Name and mailing address of the institutional member, organization, or individual submitting the application, and, in case of individual, his title or position.
2. The type of proposed meeting.
3. Proposed location, dates, title, and expected attendance.
4. Proposed scopes and language(s) besides English.
5. Estimated registration fee schedule (late fees, fees for members, etc.) in local currency (with the equivalent in $US at the date of application).
6. Proposed publications with an indication of formats, refereeing procedures, editors, publishers, advances etc.
7. Estimated global budget, including a profit/loss-sharing statement.
8. Proposed chairpersons of the OR and IPC (names, title, position, mailing address).
9. Other committee chairpersons, and national or international co-sponsors (if applicable).
10. General additional information or special requests, including pre-conference financial aid.
11. Outline of meeting report for the Association Bulletin.

7.2. Special Statement.

Each application should be accompanied by the following statements: I (or we) agree to abide by the appropriate Association guidelines concerning all aspects of the proposed meeting and to conduct the meeting in a way as close to the proposed form and substance as possible.

Each application should be submitted as follows:

Submitted to : President, IFSA

Submitted by : Institutional Member President

Submitted on : Date

Signature(s) : Organizing Committee Chair (financial responsibility)

8. Application for the Institutional Membership

If a scientific society outside IFSA desires to become an institutional member of IFSA, an official letter must be sent by that society to the current IFSA President, expressing the wish of that society to become a member of IFSA. The letter must be accompanied by information about the society, including the constitution, history, publications, activities, and contact address. The IFSA Council will then examine the application. Approval must be obtained by a unanimous vote by the Council Members.

Each IFSA Institutional Member should pay annual dues to IFSA as set by the Council. Dues, at the discretion of the Council, may be based on the size or type of each Institutional Member.