Constitution

Part One: Type of the Organization

          Article 1. Center for Studies of Secular democracy (hereinafter mentioned as the Organization) is a not-for-profit, non-political and non-religious organization that was incorporated according to the Federal Laws of the United states of America and the laws of the Colorado State on September 27, 2012 and has been formally registered on the same day at the office of Secretary of State On the same date (►).

          Article 2. This Organization is incorporated according to the section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the USA and is bound to observed all the provisions of this law. (►)

          Article 3. The activities of the Organization are executed. Nevertheless, all legal correspondence with the Organization should be handled by recorded mail to its registered address.

          Article 4. In all activities, seminars, and gatherings of the Organization, all members of the Board of Trustees and the persons responsible for running Organization's affairs cannot propagate for political parties, groups and fractions that they support or belong to.

          Article 5. All the revenues of and probable grants and donations to the Organization are to be expensed towards the realization of the goals of the Organization as enumerated in this Constitution.

          Article 6. In case of the dissolution of the Organization, all its assets would be transferred to a similar non-profit organization according the applicable laws.

Part Two: Goals of the Organization

Article 7. The main goal of this Organization is to elevate the awareness of the public and relevant organizations about the role of secular democracies in changing the political processes of the developing world for the betterment of life and social relations by means of actions some of which are:

a.      Collecting information about the situation of political processes  in developing countries, especially those under the rule of ideological dictatorships,

b.     Creating news and information archives and making them accessible to the public through internet and other media.

c.     Holding lectures, classes, seminars and conferences in relation to the goals of the Organization.

d.     Helping the educational institutions that deal with political sciences to design especial courses of secular democracy and how it is related to liberal and social forms of democratic government

e.      Facilitate the setting of conventions and conferences that are focused on the attributes of secular democracy, with emphasis on the problems in developing societies.

f.       Publishing pamphlets, papers and books and producing audio-visual material that spread information and attract support for the cause of secular democracy.

Part Three - Board of Trustees

          Article 8 – The Organization is run under supervision of a Board of Trustees that has 5 members.

          Article 9 – The Board of Trustees will initially be formed by the three Founders of this Organization whose name have been put under this document. Two more members could be added to the Board by the unanimous acceptance of the Founders.

          Article 10 - The Founders would be considered permanent members of the Board of Trustees and will have no extra-ordinary power over the Board and its future members after the first meeting of the Board.

Article 11 - In its first meeting, the Board will elect the following officer from amongst its members for two full years:

                        a.      The Chairman of the Board

                        b.     The Secretary of the Board

                        c.     The Financial Supervisor of Organization.

Article 12 - The duties of the Board of Trustees are as follows:

                        a.      Determining the general policies and programs of the Organization in its annual ordinary meetings.

                        b.     Determining and sanctioning the responsibilities of the Executive Director in its annual ordinary meetings

                        c.     Hearing the annual report of the Executive Director, finalizing and approving it in its annual ordinary meetings.

                        d.     Hearing the annual report of the Financial Supervisor, finalizing and approving it in its annual ordinary meetings.

                        e.       Attending to any other matters that have been included in the agenda at the time of inviting the Board for the meetings.

Article 12 - A member of the Board of Trustees cease to be a member due to the following conditions:

                        a.      Resignation

                        b.     Suspension according to the votes of the absolute majority (two-third of the members)

                        c.      Death

Article 13. In the case of the Board losing a member, a new member

would be selected by the unanimous consent of the Board’s members.

Article 14 – Board meetings could also be formally held by means of new technologies such as Paltalk and Teleconferencing.

Article 15 – Those members who are not able to attend a meeting can give proxy to other members of the Board.

Article 16 – The quorum for having a deciding Board meeting is the presence of two-third of its members.

Article 17 – If the quorum is not reached for three times, the Chairperson will write a letter to the absentees and will demand that they clear their position about their membership of the Board. In the same letter the Chair will inform the absentee(s) that if they do not respond to this letter the Board will consider them as resigned and will select new members to fill their places.

Article 18 – Apart from the Chairperson, no other member of the Board could be considered the spokesperson of the Organization and whatever such members say or declare should be considered as their personal opinion that has no legal ramifications for the Organization.

Part Four – Running the day to day works

          Article 19 – The Board selects a person as the Executive Officer for handling the day-to-day affairs of the Organization. This paid person could have an administrative office and needed employees who will work under his/her supervision.

          Article 20 – All the financial documents of the Organization should be signed by the Executive Officer and the Accountant of the Organization.

Part Five – The Departments of the Organization

          Article 21 - To fulfill its mission, the Organization will have different department that would have their activities executed under their own special names.

          Article 22 – Creating a new department should be sanctioned and its Director has to be selected by the Board of Trustees.

Part Six – Changing the Constitution

Article 23 – Only the absolute majority of the Board (two-third of the members) can change the contents of this constitution.

Article 24– The changes to this Constitution can neither remove any provision that is related to the IRS codes for the operations of non-profit organization, nor can add any provision that would be contrary to those codes.

Article 25 – This Constitution, with its 25 articles, was ratified by the Founders on 15/Sept/2012.