Section 1: This organization shall be known as Bharath Student Association, hereinafter referred to as the ‘BSA’ in this constitution and its By-Laws.

Section 2: The BSA shall be a non-profit, non-political, non-religious organization formed to carry out its purpose as listed in Article II of this Constitution.

Article II Purpose

Section 1: The purpose of the BSA shall be as follows:
(a) To bring together individuals who share an interest in various aspects of Indian life and culture.
(b) To promote an awareness of India among the local community
(c) To promote better relations and understanding among the various communities in Albuquerque New Mexico and surrounding areas

Article III Membership and Voting Rights

Section 1: Membership is open to anyone who shares the goals listed in Article II of this Constitution subject to the following condition: at least fifty percent (50%) of the members shall be university persons. The terminology ‘university persons’ refers to students, faculty, staff and their spouses at University of New Mexico.

Section 2: Membership is classified into two broad categories: (i) student membership and (ii) other membership. Faculty, staff and their spouses constitute other membership. Outside community who would like to be members also come under other membership.
Section 3: In the case of student membership, the member gets one (1) vote. In the case of other membership, each member will not be able to vote.

Article IV The Executive Committee

Section 1: The BSA shall be governed by an elected committee, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Executive Committee’ in this Constitution and its By-Laws.

Section 2: The Executive Committee shall be composed of one (1) President, one (1) Treasurer and one (1) Public Relations Officer.

Section 3: Any student member of the BSA is qualified to become a member of the Executive Committee. The members of the Executive Committee shall be elected each year by the members of the BSA for a one (1) year term in a meeting that can be attended by all the members of the BSA. Any meeting that all the members of the BSA can attend shall hereinafter be referred as ‘General Body Meeting’. The elections shall be held in the spring semester, before the end of the academic year of University of New Mexico. The members of the Executive Committee shall take office on the first day of the month of July on the year they are elected and shall leave office on the thirteenth day of the month of June of the following year.
(a) In the event that a member of the Executive Committee resigns at any time during his/her term, the member thus resigned shall continue in office till a new member is elected in his/her place in a General Body Meeting. The election shall be held within thirty (30) days of the date of resignation.
(b) In conformance with the procedures of the University of New Mexico, the BSA shall have a Faculty Advisor from the faculty / Staff of University of New Mexico at all times.
(c) In the event that the Faculty Advisor resigns, the Executive Committee shall nominate a new Faculty Advisor.

Article V General Body Meetings

Section 1: The Executive Committee, during its term, shall call at least two General Body Meetings. The Executive Committee shall notify the members of the BSA of the date, time, place and agenda of any General Body Meeting at least ten (10) days in advance. However, in the case of an emergency, a General Body Meeting may be called at a shorter notice.

Section 2: If a member of the BSA wishes to call for a general Body Meeting, he/she should get the support of at least twenty percent (20%) of the total members of the BSA. A written request stating the purpose of the meeting shall be given to the committee, along with documentary evidence that the request enjoys the support of at least twenty percent (20%) of the total members of the BSA. The Executive Committee shall then call a General Body Meeting at an appropriate date, within one month of the date of the receipt of written request.

Section 3: If the Executive Committee refuses to call a General Body Meting even after a member demonstrates that such a request satisfies the criteria laid out in Section 2 of Article V of this Constitution, the member may then file a complaint with the faculty Advisor, who may then act according to the provisions of Article VI of this Constitution.

Article VI Dismissal of the Committee Members

Section 1: If the Faculty Advisor determines that the Executive Committee has violated one or more of the procedures set forth in this Constitution and its By-Laws or that the Executive Committee has been acting against the interests of the BSA, he/she may choose to initiate dismissal procedures against one (1) or more of the members of the Executive Committee as described in section 2 of Article VI of this Constitution.

Section 2: To effect the dismissal of one (1) or more members of the Executive Committee, the Faculty Advisor shall call a General Body Meeting of the BSA. For this purpose, Section 2 of the Article V of this Constitution does not apply. At this meeting the Faculty Advisor shall provide justification for his/her decision to seek the dismissal of one (1) or more members of the Executive Committee. If a member if the Executive Committee facing dismissal is not in agreement with the faculty Advisor’s decision, he/she shall be given an opportunity to address the members of BSA at this meeting. The members of the BSA shall then vote in favor of or against the dismissal of each member of the Executive Committee facing dismissal. An Executive Committee member is dismissed if two thirds (2/3) of the members present vote in favor of the dismissal of that Executive committee member.

Section 3: In the event that one (1) or more members of the Executive Committee are dismissed, the members of the BSA shall immediately elect replacement for each dismissed member of the Executive Committee for the remaining term.

Article VII Amendments

Section 1: This Constitution may be amended at any General Body Meeting by two thirds (2/3) vote of the members attending. Introducing any amendments to this Constitution in any General Body Meeting needs the written support of at least twenty percent (20%) of the total members of the BSA. The full test of the proposed amendment(s) to be considered in a General Body Meeting shall be communicated to the members in advance.
Section 2: The By-Laws to this Constitution may be amended at any General Body Meeting by simple majority vote of the members attending.

Article VIII Election Procedure

Section 1: BSA student members interested in Executive Committee posts should make their interest known by completing an election nomination form available at the BSA website (http://bsa.unm.edu). The incumbent Executive Committee will receive nomination until the 2nd weekend of March in the year the elections are held. The date will be mentioned in the election notice communication sent to all BSA members, after consultation with, and review by, the faculty advisor. Nominations received after the 2nd weekend of March will not be accepted.
Refer to the Nomination form at http://bsa.unm.edu for various posts of executive committee.

Section 2: The incumbent Executive Committee will review all nominations received to determine eligibility of the nominees. Eligibility requirements are as follows: Nominees shall be enrolled at University of New Mexico and shall be current members of BSA, and will be affiliated with both the University and BSA for a minimum of 1 year. BSA members will be notified of nominees for various posts eligible for running in the election by the 3rd weekend of March. The date will be mentioned in the election communication referred to in Section 1.

Section 3:. Elections will be held at a General Body Meeting during the 1st weekend of April. The date will be mentioned in the election communication referred to in Section 1. The faculty advisor will facilitate the meeting; An election ballot with names of all nominees will be given to BSA members present at the meeting. Nominees should be present at the meeting to be eligible for receiving votes. Nominees for various Executive Committee posts will be given 5 minutes to share their vision for BSA and answer any questions from the audience. Following the presentations, BSA members will be asked to cast their vote using the ballot. Winners for various posts will be based on number of votes received. The faculty advisor will oversee the counting process or an individual (usually a faculty member) designated by the faculty advisor will oversee the vote-counting process.

Section 4: In the case of tie-vote, the faculty advisor will cast the deciding vote.

Section 5: The newly formed Executive Committee will select an BSA member for any of the Executive Committee positions that was not voted-on during elections at the General Body Meeting. The selected nominee(s) should comply with the eligibility standards mentioned in Section 2 above.

Section 6: The election results will be made public at the General Body Meeting to the members present, and via e-mail to all BSA members not present at the meeting.

BY-LAWS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BHARATH STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
University of New Mexico

Article I The Executive Committee

Section 1: The President shall be in charge of the overall coordination of all matters pertaining to the BSA and shall be responsible for having the BSA registered with the Union Activities Board of University of New Mexico.

Section 2: The role of the Treasurer shall primarily be as outlined in Article V of the By-Laws to the Constitution of the BSA.

Section 3: The Public Relations Officer shall primarily handle all the publicity for events organized by BSA.

Section 4: On all the operational matters pertaining to the BSA, the decision of the Executive Committee shall be final.

Article II The Executive Committee Meetings

Section 1: The Executive Committee shall meet periodically (at least quarterly) during its term to act upon matters related to BSA. Each member of the Executive Committee has the right to call for such a meeting. The Faculty advisor shall be invited to attend such meetings.

Section 2: The President shall preside over such meetings. In the event that the President cannot attend such meeting, the Treasurer shall preside over that meeting.

Section 3: The Public Relations Officer shall record the minutes of such meetings. In the event that the Public Relations Officer, one of the other members of the Executive Committee shall record the minutes. The Faculty Advisor shall be provided with a copy of the minutes.

Article III Membership Dues

Section 1: The rates for membership dues shall be decided by the Executive Committee each year. For the purpose of assigning membership dues, the Executive Committee may further subdivide the categories mentioned in section 2 of the Article III of the Constitution of the BSA.

Article IV Appointments

Section 1: The Executive Committee may create additional posts/subcommittees in order to assist it in matters pertaining to the BSA. These posts/subcommittees shall carry a designation and the responsibilities of these posts/subcommittees shall be clearly defined. The term of these posts/subcommittees shall be identical to the term of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee shall notify all the members of the BSA about such posts and invite volunteers from them. The Executive Committee shall then make appointments from the volunteers in accordance with its best judgment.

Section 2: The Executive Committee has the right to dismiss an appointed person/one (1) or more members of any subcommittee it creates, if in its judgment, the person(s) involved has(have) failed to discharge his/her duties.

Article V Treasury, Accounting and Records

Section 1: Only the President and the Treasurer have the authority to sign checks on behalf of the BSA for expenses related to BSA activities.

Section 2: The Treasurer shall keep an account notebook in which he/she should record all the incomes and expenses involving the BSA, along with detailed explanations.

Section 3: The treasurer shall obtain and keep a receipt for each expense incurred. However, the Treasure has authority to spend up to a maximum of fifty US dollars ($50.00) during his/her term without obtaining any receipts.

Section 4: The Treasurer shall issue a receipt for each income the BSA receives; the counterfoils of all such receipts, giving the date of the transaction, the amount and the source, shall be retained by him/her. The income to the BSA includes membership dues, donations to BSA, advertisement revenues, funding obtained from University of New Mexico and other sources.

Section 5: The Treasurer shall prepare a statement of revenues and expenses for each month during him/her term and send copy of that to the President and Faculty Advisor.

Section 6: The Faculty Advisor shall review and approve the financial statement mentioned in Section 6 of the Article V of the By-Laws to the Constitution of the BSA each month.

Section 7: The Treasurer shall prepare a statement of revenues and expenses at the end of his/her term. Copies of this statement are to be distributed to the members of the BSA. This statement shall be presented by the Treasurer and shall be discussed by the members of the BSA at a General Body Meeting.

Section 8: At the end of the term of the Executive Committee, but no later than one month after a new Executive Committee takes office, the outgoing Treasurer shall obtain the following: a statement of funding approved for the BSA by the University of New Mexico. These statements shall be furnished to the incoming Treasurer and the Faculty Advisor.

Section 9: At the end of the term of the Executive Committee, but no later than one month after a new Executive Committee takes office the outgoing Executive Committee shall provide the incoming Executive Committee with the following records: (i) minutes of all the General Body Meetings and Executive Committee meetings for the preceding year,(ii) monthly financial statements mentioned in section 6 of Article V of the By-Laws to the Constitution of the BSA, (iii) annual financial statement mentioned in section 8 of Article V of the By-Laws to the Constitution of the BSA and (iv) any other records relevant to the BSA.

Article VI Donations

Section 1: The BSA may donate money to organizations requesting donations from BSA subject to the conditions laid out in sections 2, 3 and 4 of Article VI of the By-Laws to the Constitution of the BSA.

Section 2: The Executive Committee shall satisfy itself that the goals of such organizations are consistent.