AMENDED CONSTITUTION OF ORISSA BOTANICAL SOCIETY

(Regd. No. 16671/1506 of 1979-80)

1. NAME :
The name of the society shall be “The Orissa Botanical society” here-in-after called the Society.

2. LOCATION OF THE OFFICE :
The registered office of the Society shall be located in the Post Graduate Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar 751004.

3. OBJECTIVES :
(a) To cultivate and Promote interests among members of the society in augmenting the development of plant and allied sciences in the State of Odisha.
(b) To create a union of all persons interested in the teaching, research and extension of botanical and allied sciences both within and outside the State of Odisha.
(c) To organise conferences/seminars/symposia of regional/national/international nature.
(d) To publish journals, bulletins, proceedings of the seminars/symposia, concerning reports and other scientific memoirs.
(e) To work in association/cooperation with other national and international societies/organizations having similar scientific objectives.
(f) To undertake such other scientific activities as may be necessary for the fulfilment of above-mentioned objectives.
(g) To felicitate eminent members with significant contribution to Society by giving awards annually.
(h) To create extra and exceptional interest among the student community of the state.

4. MEMBERSHIP AND PRIVILEGES OF THE MEMBERS:
The society shall consist of Patrons, Founder members, Honorary members, Invited members, Life members, Annual members and Sessional members. Besides the society shall have institutional and corporate membership.
(a) Patron shall be those with great personality in the society, whose association would be considered by the General Body conducive to the interest of the Society and who will contribute Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees ten thousands only ) to the Society. They shall enjoy all the privileges of the Society except the right to vote or holding elected office.
(b) Founder members are those life or annual members who joined the Society during the inaugural year. They are exempted from the payment of enrolment fee.
(c) Honorary members shall be persons eminent for their contribution or services to plant sciences in the State of Odisha and are elected by the General Body. Their number shall be limited to five at any time and not more than one elected in a year. They shall have all the privileges of the Life Members except that of voting right or holding any office and shall be exempted from the payment of subscriptions.
(d) Invited members shall be persons from outside Odisha, eminent for their contribution to the development of plant and allied sciences and are associated with the Society in different capacities. They shall be members by invitation and their number shall be limited to six at any time.
(e) Life Members shall be the persons interested in plants and allied sciences who pay a compound sum equal to ten years annual subscriptions. Annual members who have paid subscriptions continuously for seven years or more shall take the advantage of becoming life members of the Society on payment of a compound sum equal to five years subscriptions.
(f) Annual members shall be the persons interested in plant and allied sciences who pay the annual subscription and the enrolment fee in the year of enrolment.
(g) Sessional members shall be the students of a College/University in the B.Sc. Hons./M.Sc./M.Phil./Ph.D. classes of Botany and allied sciences who pay only the annual membership subscription.
(h) Institutional and Corporate members of the Society are the institutions/corporate bodies interested in plant and allied sciences who make payment of Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees Five thousands only) to the society. The member Institution/Corporate body will enjoy the Privileges of the Society through its representative (One only) except the right to vote and holding any office.

5. SUBSCRIPTION OF THE MEMBERSHIP AND ENROLMENT:
The annual membership of the Society shall be Rs. 300/- (Rupees three hundred only) subject to changes from time to time by the General body. It is payable on the first day of January of each calendar year. A sum of Rs. 50/- (Rupees Fifty only) shall be collected at the time of enrolment from all annual members and those who have discontinued annual membership.

6. STRUCTURE:
There shall be three bodies representing the Society:
(a) General body (here in after called GB) GB shall determine the general policies of the society and it will be the apex body of the Society to select the members of the Executive Committee and Editorial Board for three years’ time period and ratify list of Office Bearers of the Society.
(b) Executive Committee (here in after called EC) EC shall look after the administration, direction and management of affairs of the Society. It shall consist of office bearers of the society viz. President, Vice President, Secretary, four Joint Secretaries (representing central, north, south and west zones of the State), Treasurer and fifteen EC members. In addition to this the outgoing President and the Chief and Managing editor of the editorial Board shall be ex-officio members of the EC for next one term of three years. The term of the office bearers of the society and the EC will be as follows:
a) President and vice President ................. 1year (Tenure)
b) Secretary, Jt. Secretaries, Treasurer and EC Members ................. 3years (Tenure)
(c) Editorial Board: There shall be an Editorial Board directly elected by the GB. It shall have one Chief-editor, one Managing Editor and ten members.3years (Tenure)

(A) Selection/Nomination of President and Vice President :
1. He or She must be a Life member of the society.
2. Must have a brilliant academic record and outstanding research output.
3. Must occupy or have occupied a senior position in the respective Department/ Office.
4. Must be senior in age, minimum age being 55years.
5. Among the selected persons one who has consistent involvement in society affairs.
6. All eligible candidates would be getting the chance once in the life time no matter sooner or later eligible. The corollary to it is if one is omitted for some reason or the other in any year, he or she may be considered for the position in a subsequent year.

(B) Institution of Award :
For the Institution of any special award, the donor has to contribute Rs.5,00,000/- (Rupees Five Lakhs only) and may suggest the research area or areas from which the awardee will be selected. However, it is the EC to finalize the area or areas either accepting the donor’s suggestion in toto or with modification. Such decision will have to be ratified by the immediate forthcoming GB meeting.

(C) Selection of Special Awards:
1. In case of selection of various special awards of the society, the research output will be the highest priority in the focused area of interest.
2. Once one or a few of deserving candidates are selected by the EC basing on bio-data, a three-member committee constituted by the EC will select the awardees based on above criterion. Besides, seniority in age must be considered since younger ones can wait for selection in future. For each special award, a separate committee will be constituted by the EC., Wherein president OBS, a past President and the Awardee of that area in previous year shall be the members.
3. In case of an award involving more than one area of research, the selection should be from a different area and not from the same area in consecutive years. However, the committee must see that a senior person from the same area more talented is not missed out by that selection.
4. An award is life time recognition and debars one from other awards in the category of special awards. So selection must be very carefully done by the constituted committee separately and not through open house discussion.
5. Members of different constituted committee can reject any selected person, if not found suitable by them. The decision of the constituted committee is final and not to be challenged.

7. FUNCTION :

(a) GB :
i) It shall meet at least once in a year preferably during the annual conference of the society being presided by the President of the Society.
ii) It shall consider the resolutions moved by the E.C. for approval.
iii) It shall consider the resolutions moved by the individual members in the GB meeting for approval.
iv) It shall consider the audited account of the Society placed by the Treasurer for approval.
v) It is to take the final decision on the election of the of members of the E.C. and Editorial Board for each term for a period of three years.
vi) It shall ratify the names of President and Vice President, nominated/elected by the past Presidents and EC members of the society in a specially convened joint meeting.
vii) Lien for G.B. is ???th of total members or 50 whichever is less.

(b) EC :
i) It shall be responsible for effective working of the Society and meet at least eight times in a calendar year.
ii) It shall review, discuss and finalize the matter relating to the organization, finance, publication and day to day affairs of the society.
iii) Minutes of the proceedings of every meeting of the EC shall be recorded and placed before the next EC meeting for confirmation.
iv) It may form the sub-committee as and when necessary to facilitate specific work of the Society.
v) It shall appoint an auditor to audit the annual accounts.
vi) It shall open a bank account in the name of the society to be operated by both the Treasurer and secretary based on the requisition by the Secretary.
vii) It shall manage all the properties of the society and accept any trust or fund or endowment in which the Society is interested and raise funds with for the society through gift/donation.
viii) It can appoint from time-to-time persons on adhoc basis for carrying out the affairs of the society. However, the office bearers of the EC will have specific functions as follows:
ix) Lien for EC is one half (??) of its members or 10 whichever is less.

(c) President :
i) He/She shall preside over all the meetings of the Society.
ii) He/She shall have the power to convene an extra ordinary meeting of the GB/EC/Editorial Board in case of exigency, after serving a three days’ notice. He/She can also convene an extra ordinary General body meeting on requisition by more than 30 members of the society by serving a three days’ notice.
iii) He/She shall deliver the Presidential address during the annual conference of the society on his/her area of research/ teaching/any academic interest.
iv) Besides his/her voting right as a member he/she can exercise his/her power of casting vote in case of a tie in any of the meeting he/she presides.

(d) Vice-President :
i) He/She performs all the functions of the President in his/her absence.

(e) Secretary :
i) He/She shall be in-charge of the day-to-day management of the affairs of the Society and execute all the decisions of the GB and EC.
ii) He/She shall prepare the annual report and minutes of the GB and proceedings of the EC and place in the respective meeting.
iii) He/She shall convene all the meetings/send official circulars to all the members.
iv) Invitations/circulars/letters to all members must be sent in advance by e-mail or through post in case e-mail is not available. He/She can use other methods of communication to reach the members.

(f) Joint Secretary :
i) The joint secretary will co-ordinate the Secretary for smooth running of the Society in the respective regions.
ii) They will actively operate the membership drive of their regions and appraise the Executive Committee about the development.
iii) Any of the Joint Secretaries as decided by the executive Committee shall function as the Secretary in absence of the Secretary.

(g) Treasurer :
i) He/She shall be in-charge of the operation of the funds of the Society.
ii) He/She shall receive all the contributions, donations or any other payments on behalf of the society.
iii) All the drawals from the Society’s account by the treasurer shall only be done by both the Treasurer and secretary after receiving requisitions from the Secretary.

(h) Members of the EC :
The members of the EC shall bear the responsibilities for the smooth functioning of the Society and discuss actively about the development and day-to-day activities of the society in the meetings of the EC and GB.

8. EDITRIAL BOARD :
It shall look after all the publications of the Society.
(a) Chief Editor shall be the Chief advisor and he/she shall supervise all the activities of the Editorial Board.
(b) Managing Editor shall be responsible for the publication of the journals, proceedings and reports of the Society in time.He/She shall choose reviewers and comply with all correspondence relating to publication.
(c) Members of the Editorial Board shall assist the Chief Editor and Managing Editor in all publication matters of the Society, and should help to maintain the standard and quality of the journal.

9. OBS Journal – “Plant Science Research” :
The annual subscription of the OBS Journal” Plant Science Research” in India is Rs.500/-(Rupees Five Hundred Only) and USD 20.00 (US dollar Twenty only) for person outside the country.
In view of growing interest among research workers to submit papers for the journal because of NAAS accreditation, all such papers can only be considered after review for online publication. However, minimum 10(ten) journals shall be printed in physical form for use in inaugural session of the annual meeting.
For sustainability of the journal “Plant science research” which maintains a good NAAS rating/UGC CARE the contributors of papers shall be charged only printing cost page basis before publication and such money collected from authors will be deposited in the Society account. A new website for OBS will be created and regularly updated mentioning all OBS activities with related information including addresses of the Life members. The website should also include a manuscript submission portal for year-round submission of the manuscripts. Editorial Board may propose to the EC to increase the volume to two or more depending upon the submission trend of the research papers. The decision of the EC in this regard will have to be ratified in the next GB meeting. Page charges could be modified time to time depending on the printing cost of the Journal. Authors will be supplied with a PDF copy of the published paper instead of hard copy.

10. ELECTION :
Election of the members of the EC and Editorial Board shall take place at the annual GB. Meeting of the Society.
In case of any vacancy of the office (s) of this body before the expiry of the term, the vacancy shall be filled up through nomination for the rest of the year by the EC, which hall subsequently be ratified by the next GB or otherwise election for the said post for the remaining part of the term shall be held by the G.B. if necessary.
An eminent person can be elected as the President only once in his life time. The nomination of the President shall be done by the procedure mentioned above. Announcements to any such effects will be made by the President after ratification of the nominations by the GB.

11. AMENDMENTS :
(a)The amendments of any provision in the constitutions shall be done by the GB. Any proposal to that effect needs to be discussed by the EC earlier.
(b)Any members who desire to bring amendments should inform the EC in writing about the proposal at least fifteen days before the commencement of the GB.
(c)All the amendments made in the GB will be effective from the next general meeting of the society.
(d)All amendments must be passed by 2/3rd majority of the members with voting right present in the GB.

12. SECURITIES :
All the securities and properties of the Society (both movable and immovable) shall be lodged in the permanent office of the Society in the safe custody.

13. DISSOLUTION :
The Society can be dissolved by a resolution in the General Body convened only for this purpose by the President in his/her own or on requisition by at least 30 members of the society with voting rights. At least 3/4th of the total members should exercise their options in favour of the motion for dissolution being present in the said meeting.
In Such an event, the entire property (movable and immovable) shall be handed over to another society of the state of equal nature as decided in the aforesaid GB meeting to take decision for dissolution.


Note: - Written by Professor R.C. Mohanty, Past President after amendment, on authority on 15.01.2018