CONSTITUTION OF THE MCHC

Objectives:
The mandate of the Media and Communication History Committee (MCHC) is to promote media and communication history in Canada.  Operating in both official languages, it welcomes scholars from any discipline who are interested in studying any aspect of Canadian media and communication history as well as those based in Canada who are working on the media and communication history of other parts of the world.  The committee also welcomes those interested in how history is represented in the media.

Article 1:    Name
The name of the organization is the Media and Communication History Committee (MCHC)

Article 2:  Associations
The MCHC is a sub-committee of the Canadian Historical Association (CHA).  It also maintains a relationship with the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) through one member of the executive, who shall be a member of the CCA and shall maintain direct and regular contact with the president of the CCA.

Article 3:  Non-profit status
The organization shall be carried on without purpose of gain for its members, and any profits or other accretions to the Committee shall be used to promote its objectives.

Article 4:  Membership
The organization is open upon payment of the stipulated dues to anyone interested in furthering the purposes of the Committee.  There will be two categories of members: general and student.  The category of general member will include any person with an interest in the goals of the Committee, whether connected with an academic institution or not.  Student members will pay dues of one-half those of general members.

Article 5:  Annual General Meeting
Final authority resides in the membership of the MCHC as exercised in the Annual General Meeting (AGM).  An AGM will normally be held once every calendar year, in conjunction with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Under no circumstances can there be more than 18 months between meetings of the AGM.  If circumstances warrant, the AGM can be conducted via conference call or teleconference to meet the requirements of this article.

The purpose of the AGM is:
– to elect officers for vacant positions on the Executive Committee, by simple majority.
– to set membership dues to cover projects the membership decides to pursue
– to report on the activities of the Executive Committee

Article 6:  Executive Committee
The Executive Committee consists of the following officers: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and CCA liaison.  The Executive Committee conducts the affairs of the MCHC between annual meetings. At least one member of the Executive Committee should be a francophone.

Chair: The Chair calls and presides over the AGM, supervises and reports on all activities of the MCHC, and serves as liaison between the Committee and the CHA.
Secretary:  The Secretary is responsible for maintaining the minutes of the Committee.  The secretary will perform the duties of the Chair in his/her absence.  The Secretary will be responsible for the maintenance and periodic upgrading of the MCHC website and for maintaining an archive of MCHC business.

Treasurer:  The Treasurer is responsible for the finances of the Committee, the collection of membership fees, and shall report income and expenditures to the AGM.  All dues are to be safely deposited in a chartered bank or credit union approved by the Executive Committee.

CCA Liaison:  The CCA Liaison will be a person who is a member of the CCA, responsible for maintaining regular contact with the President of the CCA, particularly with respect to the timing of annual meetings, joint sessions, and other joint projects.
Executive members are normally elected for a two-year term. After two years, they may be re-elected for another term of one or two years.

Article 7:  Other Committees
Committees may be formed by the executive on an ad hoc or permanent basis to undertake projects of interest to the members, including for example the establishment and awarding of prizes to support scholarship on media and communication history in Canada.  Committees will be elected by the AGM or the executive, and will choose their own chair, who will be responsible for reporting activities to the Executive Committee.

Article 8:  Amendments
The constitution may be amended by a two-thirds majority of members present at the AGM.