Sample CA Constitution and By-laws

A Draft CA Constitution and Bylaws in Word format is available for preparing documents for a new Electoral District Association. It was used to create this page, and has the same text. Since it was created Elections Ontario has replaced the term "Constituency" with "Electoral District." Users of this file may want to do the same.

Draft Constitution and By-Laws for Constituency Associations

The following is the sample Constitution and Bylaws originally prepared by the Ontario Libertarian Party as a sample for new Constituency Associations. Some wording has been updated; for example, "Commission on Election Expenses and Contributions" has been changed to "Elections Ontario."

Following each Section in square brackets are revised wordings that were actually adopted by either the Beaches (B), High Park (HP), Peterborough (P), Saint George (SG), or Sarnia Lambton (SL) Constituency Associations, and approved by the Party. The numbering of some sections has been changed to make them consistent with the sample Constitution and Bylaws.

A CA must be approved by the Party in order to be registered with Elections Ontario. Unless a CA is registered it may not issue Official Receipts to donors who may then obtain a political tax credit.

The key requirement from the Party's perspective is that all officers of the CA must be Members (i.e. 'voting members') of the Party. Elections Ontario requires that each CA must have a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who is responsible for accepting donations, writing cheques, and providing audited 18 page financial statements to Elections Ontario as required by The Elections Finance Act. Failure to do so can result in deregistration of the CA. Additional officers may include a President or Chairman, a Secretary and one or more Vice-presidents.

CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE 1. Name

The name of the organization shall be the "[CONSTITUENCY] Libertarian Constituency Association", hereinafter referred to as the "Association," which shall be the Constituency Association for the Ontario Libertarian Party, hereinafter referred to as the "Party."

ARTICLE 2. Period of Duration

The duration of the Association shall be perpetual.

ARTICLE 3. Purposes

The purposes for which the Association is organized are the following:

1. To support Party candidates for political office.
2. To promote membership of the Party, particularly in the [CONSTITUENCY] area.
3. To promote the libertarian philosophy.

• [HP:) "To demonstrate the libertarian philosophy in action.";
• [SL:) "To demonstrate the libertarian philosophy in action, and to promote that philosophy."]

ARTICLE 4. Membership

Section 1. - Members of the Association must be members of the Party.
[B: omitted;
[HP, SL: "Members in good standing of the Association shall be defined in the By-Laws. Members need not be members of the Party."]

Section 2. - There is no restriction as to place of residence of members.

ARTICLE 5. Officers

Section 1 - The Association shall have a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Chief Financial Officer, and a Member-at-Large. All of these officers shall be elected at the Annual Meeting. In the case of a vacancy the vacant position shall be filled by the members electing a new officer at the next General Meeting.
[HP, SL: "a President, a Vice President/Secretary, and a Chief Financial Officer."
[SG: "... a President, a Vice-President, and a Secretary/Chief Financial Officer."

Section 2 - No offices shall be combined.

Section 3 - The Secretary shall provide or make provision for legal services to the Association as required.
[HP: "... Vice President/Secretary ..." ; SG: "Secretary/Chief Financial Officer"]

Section 4 - The Chief Financial Officer shall receive, expend, and account for the funds of the Association under the direction and supervision of the Executive Committee. The Chief Financial Officer shall arrange for an audited annual financial report to be made in compliance with the standards set up by Elections Ontario.
[SG: "... Secretary/Chief Financial Officer ..."]

Section 5 -[B, HP, SL: " All officers shall be members of the Party."]

ARTICLE 6. Executive Committee

Section 1 - The Executive Committee shall consist of the officers and the nominated candidate.
[HP: "... candidate. The nominated candidate may be an officer."]

Section 2 - The Executive Committee shall meet in the manner, time, and places prescribed by the By-Laws.

Section 3 - An Executive Committee member may be removed from his position if a motion to that effect is made and passed by a simple majority attending a meeting of the Association. However, written notice of such a motion to remove an officer must be given with the notice of the meeting. Members may also vote on this motion by delivering their vote in written form, prior to the time of the meeting, to any officer of this Association. Members may also authorize, in writing, another member to cast their votes in their stead.

ARTICLE 7. Nomination of Candidate

Section 1 - The Party candidate for the Association shall be elected at the General or Annual Meeting. Written notice of the election shall be included in notice of that meeting.

Section 2 - A Party candidate must be a member of the Association.

Section 3 - [P: "No candidate may be nominated who is legally ineligible to run for office."]

ARTICLE 8. Affiliation with the Party

The Association shall apply for affiliate status with the Party.
[HP, SL: "... apply for recognition by the Party, and shall comply with requirements which will continue that recognition."; SE: omit]

ARTICLE 9. By-Laws

The By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the members at any General Meeting. The Party must be sent notice of any changes in the By-Laws.
[SG: "The Party and all Association members must be ..."]

ARTICLE 10. Amendments to the Constitution

Section 1 - This Constitution may be amended by a majority vote of the members at the Annual Meeting, provided that all members are sent written notice of the intent of any amendments, postmarked at least thirty days before the Annual Meeting. If written notice is not given thirty days prior to the Annual Meeting, then amendments must receive the support of over two-thirds of the current membership of the Association. Members may authorize other members, in writing, to cast their ballots in their stead. Members may also vote by delivering their vote in written form, prior to the time of the meeting, to any officer of the Association.
[SG: "This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the Association members at the Annual Meeting."]

Section 2 - The Party must be sent notice of any constitutional changes.
[SG: "The Party and all Association members must ..."]

BY-LAWS

ARTICLE 1. Membership

Fees for membership in the Association shall be set and amended by majority vote at the Annual Meeting.

ARTICLE 2. Duties of Officers

Section 1 - The duties of the officers shall be governed by the purposes of the Constitution. The officers shall make reports to the membership and the Executive as required.

Section 2 - The President shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the Association.

Section 3 - The Vice-President shall assist the President in his duties.
[HP, SL: "...Vice President/Secretary..."]

Section 4 - The Secretary shall keep a record of the membership of the Association and shall act as recording secretary at all Executive meetings and the Annual Meeting, or ensure that the minutes are recorded by another member. The Secretary shall be responsible for giving such notices as are required under the Constitution and By-Laws.
[HP, SL: "... Vice President/Secretary ..."; SG: "... Secretary/Chief Financial Officer ..."]

Section 5 - The Chief Financial Officer shall perform such duties as required by the Constitution and his office, and shall make an annual financial report to the members within ninety days following the end of the fiscal term. He shall also make reports to the Party and Elections Ontario as required. All monies received shall be deposited by the Chief Financial Officer in an account designated by the Executive Committee in a chartered bank or trust company.
[SG: "... Secretary/Chief Financial Officer ..."]

ARTICLE 3. Executive Committee

Section 1 - A majority of the Executive Committee members are required for a quorum.
[P: Three-fifths of the Executive ..."]

Section 2 - Any member of the Executive Committee can call a meeting of the Executive Committee. Unless unanimously waived, a written notice of the time, place, and nature of all meetings shall be mailed to each member of the Executive Committee not less than fourteen days prior to said meetings.

Section 3 - The Executive Committee may, without meeting together, transact business by voting on questions submitted to them by any member of the Executive Committee. Fourteen days shall be allowed for the return of the votes to the Secretary. The Secretary must preserve such votes and report on the results at the next Executive Committee meeting.

ARTICLE 4. Finances and Accounting

Section 1 - The fiscal term of the Association shall run from January 1 to December 31, or coincide with the fiscal year required by Elections Ontario.

Section 2 - The financial records and accounts of the Association shall be kept in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Section 3 - Procedure for handling the Association's assets shall be set up to insure sufficient internal and accounting control.

ARTICLE 5. Meetings

Section 1 - Except as provided herein and in the Constitution, procedure at the Annual Meeting, General Meetings, and Executive Committee Meetings shall be in accordance with the parliamentary authority as outlined in Article 6.

Section 2 - The first General Meting shall be held within 90 days of the founding of the Association. Membership fees may be set at that meeting or at the Founding Meeting.

Section 3 - There shall be at least one meeting of the membership in any fiscal year.
[P: "There shall be at least two meetings, including the Annual Meeting, of the ..."]

Section 4 - The Annual Meeting shall be held within the 90-day period following the end of the fiscal year.
[HP: "There shall be an Annual Meeting of the Association."]

Section 5 - Notice of General Meetings shall be mailed out to all Association members at least 14 days in advance, and of the Annual meeting at least 30 days in advance.

Section 6 - A General Meeting may also be called by the members of the Association on presentation of a petition to the Secretary. Such petition must have the signatures of at least 10 members, or if the total membership of the Association is less than 30 members, then it must contain the signatures of at least one-third of the members.

Section 7 - [HP: "The executive shall meet quarterly or more often as conditions require."]

ARTICLE 6. Parliamentary Authority

Robert's Rules of Order - Newly Revised shall be the parliamentary authority for all matters of procedure not specifically covered by the Constitution, By-Laws, or Rules of the Association.