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CONSTITUTION FOR ECONOMETRICS ASSOCIATION OF KENYA

CONSTITUTION AND RULES

1. NAME

The name of the Society shall be known as ECONOMETRICS ASSOCIATION OF KENYA (In this constitution referred to as “the Association”).

2. OBJECTIVE

The objectives of the Association are as follows:

  1. To promote Econometrics as a discipline and as a profession and to provide a forum
    for exchange of ideas.
  2. To inspire quantitative research and research-based evidence on policy issues.
  3. To encourage publications of economics and econometrics research and related subjects.
  4. To encourage respectful and fruitful discussions on economics and policy issues.
  5. To promote econometric training and advancement of knowledge.

The Association shall take a nonpartisan position and shall not commit any of its members to any position on political issues.

The Association is non-profit.

3. MEMBERSHIP

(a) Any person engaged in economic discipline or economic inquiry may, on the nomination by member(s), be approved by the Executive Committee as a member in the Association as defined in 3(b) and 3(c) below.

(b) There shall be five classes of members:

(i) Graduate Fellows: Those individuals who hold at least Master’s degree in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics or Applied Economics from any recognized institutions of higher learning and who have written at least two (2) research documents and published at least one (1) article in reputable refereed journals.

(ii) Fellows: Those individuals who hold a Master’s degree in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics or Applied Economics from any recognized institutions of higher learning.

(iii) Regular members: Those individuals who hold a first degree in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics or Applied Economics from any recognized institutions of higher learning.

(iv) Associate Members: Those individuals who are enrolled in recognized institutions of higher learning for the first degree in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics or Applied Economics.

(iv) Honorary Members: The honorary memberships will be awarded to those individuals who have rendered valuable contribution to the Association or to the Economic profession. The individual may or may not be a member of the Association and can be nominated by any member(s) of the Association and may be appointed by the Executive Committee.

(c) There will be a registration fee of Ksh. 5000 for Graduate Fellows and an annual renewal fee of Ksh. 2000; a registration fee of Ksh. 3000 for Fellows and an annual renewal fee of Ksh. 1500; a registration fee of Ksh. 2000 for Regular members and an annual renewal fee of Ksh. 1000; and a registration fee of Ksh. 1000 for Associate members and an annual renewal fee of Ksh. 500. All fees paid to the Association are non-refundable.

(d) Upon payment of registration fee or annual renewal fee, the membership will be valid for one year from the date of payment.

(e) Members shall be given up to three (3) months to pay the annual renewal membership fee. Failure to do so leads to expiration of membership and benefits assiociated with it.

(f) A member shall be considered an active member if he/she has paid the registration fee, pays annual renewal membership fee on time, supports the activities of the Association and attends its meetings called by the Executive Committee.

(g) Any member desiring to resign from the Association shall submit his resignation to the secretary, which shall take effect from the date of receipt by the secretary of such notice.

(h) Any member as defined in 3 (f) has a voting right in the election of officers and deliberations of issues during the Annual General meeting or Special Meeting called by the executive committee.

(i) Every member is entitled to the electronic access to the Association’s academic resources including publications. Members may avail of the print issues of journal/working papers/discussion papers and other printed publications at a subsidized cost.

4. OFFICE BEARERS

(a) The Association shall have the following elected officers:

  1. The Chairperson
  2. The Vice-Chairperson
  3. The Secretary
  4. The Assistant Secretary
  5. The Treasurer
  6. Four (4) Heads of Special Committees

(b) The elected officers in offices of Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Assistant Secretary, and Treasurer should be at least Fellow members while the four elected Heads of Special Committees should be at least Regular members. All elected officers must be active members of the Association.

(c) The terms of office for the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Assistant Secretary, and Treasurer shall be 3-year renewable once.

(d) The terms of office for the elected four (4) Heads of Special Committees shall be two years renewable once.

(e) A year in office for the elected officers begin on the first day after the Annual General Meeting and end after the next Annual General Meeting. Election of officers will be held during the Annual General Meeting guided by the length of terms of office as indicated in the provisions in 4(c) and 4(d) above.

5. DUTIES OF OFFICE BEARERS

(a) The Chairman of the Association shall be responsible for the overall running of all its functions, programs and activities, who will be assisted by other elected officers performing specific duties assigned to each. The Chairman of the Association will also preside over all the Association and Executive Committee meetings, unless prevented by illness or other sufficient cause.

(b) The Vice Chairman shall perform any duties of the Chairman in his/her absence. In absence of both Chairman and Vice Chairman, the duties shall be delegated to the Secretary, and then to the Treasurer.

(c) The Secretary shall deal with all the records and correspondence of the Association under the general supervision of the Executive Committee. He/she shall issue notices convening all meetings of the Executive Committee and the Annual General meetings of the Association. The Secretary shall also be responsible for keeping minutes of all such meetings and for the preservation of all proceedings of the Association’s conferences.

(d) The Assistant Secretary, in the absence of the Secretary, shall perform all the duties of the Secretary and such other duties as shall be assigned to him/her by the Secretary or the Executive Committee.

(e) The Treasurer shall receive all donations and payments to the Association and shall also disburse funds with the approval of the Chairman and under the general directions of the Executive Committee. He/she shall issue receipts for all moneys received by him/her and preserve vouchers for all moneys paid by him/her. The Treasurer is responsible to the Executive Committee and to the members that proper books of account of all moneys received and paid by the Association are written up, preserved and available for inspection.

(f) The duties of the four Heads of Special Committees are defined under Special Committees.

6. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

(a) The Executive Committee shall consist of all the office bearers of the Association namely: Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer and four Heads of Special Committee, elected at the Annual General Meeting depending on the provisions in 4(c) and 4(d). The elected Chairman of the Association shall be the head of the Executive Committee.

(b) The Executive Committee shall decide who among the four elected Heads of Special Committees will be assigned to each of the four Committees.

(c) The Executive Committee shall be responsible for the direction and implementation of all programs and activities of the Association. It will also be responsible for the control and management of all expenditures and finances of the Association.

(d) The Executive Committee shall meet regularly at such times and places as it shall be resolved but shall meet not less than once in any three months. The quorum of the meeting shalL be at least two-third of elected members.

(e) The Executive Committee shall be responsible for convening the Annual General Meeting and calling of a Special Meeting as may deem necessary.

(f) The Executive Committee shall be responsible for appointing three (3) advisor, who will advise in research, publication and program. An individual appointed as an advisor should be a member of the Association, be a PhD holder in Economics or Econometrics, and have published at least 5 research document, where at least 2 are published in reputable refereed journal.

(g) The advisor can attend the meetings of the Executive Committee but shall has no voting right in the Executive Committee.

(h) Any casual vacancies for members of the Executive Committee caused by death or resignation shall be filled by the said Committee until the next Annual General Meeting of the Association or in a Special Meeting called by the said Committee.

7. SPECIAL COMMITTEES

(a) The Association shall have four (4) Special Committees. These are the Program Committee, Membership Committee, Research Committee and Publication Committee. Each of these committees shall be headed by one of the four elected Heads of Committees.

(b) Under the general supervision of the Executive Committee, the Program Committee shall be responsible for preparing programs and activities for each calender year, that is 1 January to 31 December. The Head of the Program Committee shall make a written submission to the Executive Committee for review and to be approved by the Board of Directors.

(c) The Membership Committee shall be responsible for active campaign and recruitment of members of the Association. The Head of the membership Committee may nominate new members to the Executive Committee for approval. The Committee shall send notices to the members for annual renewal of membership.

(d) The Research Committee shall be responsible for coordinating all academic research activities of the Association. The Committee shall also monitor recent developments in the field of economics and econometrics research for purposes of informing members of the
Association.

(e) The Publication Committee shall be responsible for dissemination of research outputs of the Association and shall develop strategies for information dissemination.

8. GENERAL MEETINGS

(a) There shall be two classes of general meetings, namely the Annual General Meetings (AGM) and Special General Meetings (SGM).

(b) (i) The annual general meeting shall be held not later than 31st March in each year. Notice in writing of such annual general meetings, accompanied by the annual statement of account and the agenda for the meeting shall be sent to all members not less than 21 days before the date of the meetings.

(ii) The agenda for any annual general meeting shall consist of the following:

(a) Confirmation of the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting.

(b) Consideration of accounts

(c) Election of office bearers and the committee members (and trustees where
necessary in accordance with rule 9 (a))

(d) Appointment of editors in accordance with rule 10 (a).

(e) Such other matters as the committee may decide or as to which notice shall have been given in writing by a member to the secretary at least four weeks before the date of the meeting.

(f) Any other business with the approval of the Chairman.

(c) A Special Meeting may be called for any specific purpose by the committee. Notice in writing of such meeting shall be send to all members not less than 14 days before the date thereof and practicable by press advertisement not less than 7 days before the date of such meeting.

(d) A special general meeting may also be requisitioned for a specific purpose by order in writing to the secretary of not less than 1/3 of members and such a meeting shall be held within 21 days of the date of the requisition. The notice for such a meeting shall be as shown in rule 8 (c) and no matter shall be discussed other than stated in the requisition.

(e) The quorum of the Annual general meeting shall be at least two-third of the registered members of the association.

9. TRUSTEES

(a) All land, buildings and other immovable property and all investments and securities which shall be acquired by the Association shall be vested in the names of not less than 3 trustees who shall be members of the Association and shall be appointed at an annual general meeting for a period of three years, renewable once. A general meeting shall have the power to remove any of the trustees and all vacancies occurring by removal, resignation or death, shall be filled at the same or next general meeting.

(b) The trustees shall pay all income received from property vested in the trustees to the Treasurer. Any expenditure in respect of such property which in the opinion of the trustees is necessary or desirable shall be reported by the trustees to the committee which shall authorise expenditure of such moneys as it thinks fit.

10. AUDITOR

(a) An auditor shall be appointed for the following year by the annual general meeting. A general annual meeting shall have the power to remove the auditor and all vacancies occurring by removal, resignation or death, shall be filled at the same or next general meeting. All the Association’s accounts, records and documents shall be opened to the inspection of the auditor at any time. The Treasurer shall produce an account of his/her receipts and payments and a statement of assets and liabilities made up to a date which shall not be less than six weeks and not more than three months before the date of the annual general meeting. The auditor shall examine such annual accounts and statements and either clarify that they are correct, duly vouched and in accordance with the law or report to the Association in what respect they are found to be incorrect, unvouched or not in accordance with the law.

(b) A copy of the auditor’s report on the accounts and statements together with such accounts and statements shall be furnished to all members at the same time as the notice convening the annual general meeting is sent out. An auditor may be paid such honorarium for his duties as may be resolved by the annual general meeting appointing him.

(c) No auditor shall be an office bearer or a member of the committee of the Association.

11. FUNDS

(a) The sources of funds for the Association includes;

(i) Membership fee.
(ii) Conference and publication fee.
(iii) Research grants

(b) The funds of the Association may only be used for the following purposes :

(i) To fund research programs, conferences and publication.
(ii) To fund office operations (Stationery, meetings etc)
(iii) To fund advertisiment and publicity.
(iv) To fund Training, workshop and seminars.

(c) All moneys and funds shall be received by and paid to the Treasurer and shall be deposited by him in the name of the Association in any bank or banks approved by the committee.

(d) No payments shall be made out of the bank account without a resolution of the committee authorizing such payment and all cheques on such bank account shall be signed by the Treasurer or the Assistant Treasurer and two other office bearers of the Association who shall be appointed by the committee.

(e) The Executive committee shall have power to suspend any office bearer who it has reasonable cause to believe is not properly accounting for any of the funds or property of the Association and shall have power to appoint another person in his place. Such suspension shall be reported to a general meeting to be convened on a date not later than two months from the date of such suspension and the general meeting shall have full power to decide what further action should be taken in the matter.

(f) The Association shall not distribute any money to the members.

(g) The financial year of the Association shall be from 1st January to 31st December.

12. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION

Amendments to the constitution of the Association must be approved by at least a two-thirds majority of members at a general meeting of the Association. They cannot, however, be implemented without the prior consent in writing of the Registrar, obtained upon application to him made in writing and signed by three of the office bearers.

13. DISSOLUTION

(a) The Association shall not be dissolved except by a resolution passed at a general meeting of members by a vote of two-thirds of the members present. The quorum at the meeting shall be as shown in rule 9 (e). If no quorum is obtained, the proposal to dissolve the Association shall be submitted to a further general meeting which shall be held one month later. Notice of this meeting shall be given to all members of the Association at lease 14 days before the date of the meeting. The quorum for this second meeting shall be the number of members present.

(b) Provided, however, that no dissolution shall be effected without prior permission in writing of the Registrar, obtained upon application to him made in writing and signed by three of the office bearers.

(c) When the dissolution of the Association has been approved by the Registrar, no further action shall be taken by the committee or any office bearer of the Association in connection with the aims of the Association other than to get in and liquidate for cash all the assets of the Association. Subject to the payment of all the debts of the Association, the balance thereof shall be distributed in such other manner as may be resolved by the meeting at which the resolution for dissolution is passed.

14. INSPECTION OF ACCOUNTS AND LIST OF MEMBERS

The books of account and all documents relating thereto and a list of members of the Association shall be available for inspection at the registered office of the Association by any officer or member of the Association on giving not less than seven days notice in writing to the Association.

SOC/GEN/2

DEPARTMENT OF THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL
P O Box 30031, Nairobi