Bylaws
Pennsylvania Economic Association Bylaws (2022 Version)
Article I – Name
The name of this organization shall be the Pennsylvania Economic Association (herein referred to as either “PEA” or “Association”).
Article II – Purpose
The purpose of the Association is to: (1) foster economic scholarship and fellowship among persons interested in economics and who reside or work in Pennsylvania; (2) publish the proceedings of the annual meetings; (3) publish a biannual refereed journal (Pennsylvania Economic Review); and (4) encourage freedom of economic decision. The Association as such will not take any partisan attitude, nor will it commit its members to any position on practical economic questions.
Article III – Membership
Any person interested in economic inquiry may be enrolled in the Association upon the payment of the annual dues for the appropriate class of membership. Colleges, universities, businesses, and other organizations may become institutional members of the Association upon payment of the annual dues for that class of membership.
Article IV – Governance and Officers
Section 1
The governance of the Association shall be vested in a board of directors consisting of nine elected directors plus seven officers, the editor of the Pennsylvania Economic Review, the PEA webmaster, and the immediate past-president, who are ex-officio members. In addition, all other past officers and directors may serve as ex-officio members of the board if they desire.
Section 2
The board shall meet at least twice a year.
Section 3
Any director or officer may resign at any time by sending a written notice of such resignation (by mail or electronic delivery) to the secretary of the Association. Unless otherwise specified therein, such resignation shall take effect upon its receipt by the secretary.
Section 4
A quorum of the board for the transaction of any business shall be nine members of the board of directors.
Section 5
The board may fill any vacancy regardless of how such vacancy occurs.
Section 6
The president shall appoint all committees and his/her appointments shall be approved by the board. The board shall delegate such authority as it sees fit to such committees, and shall specify their duties.
Section 7
The board of directors shall have general charge of, and authority over, the affairs and funds of the Association and set dues and other fees. It shall be the duty of the board to carry out the purposes of the Association, to take any action in fulfillment of that duty, and to set the date of the annual meeting and its location.
Section 8
The officers shall be a president, president-designate, vice president of program, vice president of publicity, vice president of membership, secretary, and treasurer, and they shall be members of the board.
Section 9
The term for a director shall be three years, with three directors being elected each year at the annual meeting. The term for officers shall be one year, except that the terms of the secretary, treasurer, vice president of membership, editor of the Pennsylvania Economic Review, and PEA webmaster shall be three years. No person may serve more than three consecutive terms in the same position except the secretary, treasurer, vice president of membership, editor of the Pennsylvania Economic Review, and PEA webmaster. Newly elected directors and officers will start their terms and assume their duties at the adjournment of the annual meeting.
Section 10
The Pennsylvania Economic Review will be managed by an editorial board of at least six persons, including the editor, chosen by the editor in consultation with the president.
Section 11
Pennsylvania Economic Association web services shall be managed by the PEA webmaster as guided by the policies and directives of the Association’s officers and board of directors. The webmaster shall be responsible for the planning, development, maintenance, and expansion of the Association’s web services. These services shall be used to promote the purpose of the Association and provide timely and accurate information regarding the Association’s governance and officers, publications, and conferences.
Article V – Nominations
Section 1
A nominating committee appointed by the board, and chaired by the immediate past-president, shall present a slate of proposed directors and officers to the board sufficient in number to replace those whose terms have expired plus any vacancies which may have occurred since the time of the last election and which have not been filled by the board. The board shall present the slate, after making any changes it deems necessary, to the annual business meeting. Nominations may also be made from the floor provided the persons so nominated have been contacted and expressed a willingness to serve if elected.
Section 2
At any election, when there are more nominees than there are positions to be filled, a secret ballot will be conducted. Those nominees receiving the greatest number of votes will be declared elected. In the event of any ties, a run-off election will be held among the tied nominees.
Article VI – Duties of Officers
Section 1
The president shall call meetings of the board, preside at all meetings and carry out the purposes of the Association.
Section 2
The president-designate shall have the responsibility of seeing that the proceedings of the meeting when he/she was vice president of program are printed and distributed as soon as possible after the annual meeting. Unless this is accomplished before the meeting of the board of directors at the following annual meeting, the president-designate will not be eligible to be nominated to the office of president of the Association. The president-designate shall preside at meetings in the absence of the president.
Section 3
The vice president of program shall preside at meetings in the absence of the president and the president-designate, shall organize the program and be responsible for other details connected with the annual meeting, and shall be willing to serve as president if so elected.
Section 4
The vice president of publicity shall preside at meetings in the absence of the president, president-designate and vice president of program, and shall organize the publicity with respect to the Association and its annual meeting.
Section 5
The vice president of membership shall preside at meetings in the absence of the president, the president-designate and the other two vice presidents, and shall develop and carry out programs to increase the membership of the Association.
Section 6
The secretary shall attend to correspondence as authorized by the president, keep a true and accurate record of all meetings, and carry out such other duties as may from time to time be delegated to this office.
Section 7
The treasurer shall keep a true and accurate record of the income and expenses of the Association, shall pay all bills properly submitted, collect dues and other fees, and report at the annual meeting. The treasurer shall have authority to put the Association’s funds into a federally-insured checking account, NOW account, savings account, money market deposit account, certificate of deposit, and/or any other federally-insured product.
Article VII – Amendments
Section 1
These bylaws may be amended by a majority vote of the members present at the annual meeting provided that due notice of proposed amendments to the bylaws shall be given to all members at least 30 days prior to the annual meeting. Proposed amendments must be signed by at least ten members of the Association and be sent to the president in time for inclusion with one of the announcements of the annual meeting.
Article VIII – Dissolution
Section 1
The Pennsylvania Economic Association shall be dissolved for cause by a combined vote of at least two-thirds of officers and board members present at a scheduled meeting of the board.
- In the event of dissolution, surplus funds shall not inure to the benefit of any person.
- In the event of dissolution, officers and board members shall determine the distribution of surplus funds for charitable or educational purposes.
History of the Bylaws:
- Approved by the Board of Directors, June 2, 1982. Adopted by the membership at the 1982 annual business meeting held on June 4, 1982.
- Change of name to the “Pennsylvania Economic Association” from the “Pennsylvania Conference of Economists” approved by the membership at the 1985 annual business meeting.
- Addition of “president-designate” and “institutional membership” agreed by the membership at the 1989 annual business meeting held on May 27, 1989.
- Separation of positions of secretary and treasurer agreed by the membership at the 2005 general membership meeting held on June 4, 2005.
- Addition of PEA webmaster position agreed by the membership at the 2006 general membership meeting held on June 3, 2006.
- Proposed change to eliminate term restriction for secretary, treasurer, and PEA webmaster, as well as, proposed change to add dissolution statement in order to facilitate 501(c)(3) application approved by Board of Directors, October 26, 2019. Due to cancellation of the 2020 PEA annual conference because of COVID-19 restrictions, a scheduled membership vote on both of these proposed changes by the PEA general membership was held on May 21, 2021.
- Motion to repeal the existing bylaws (2021 Version) and to replace them with updated bylaws (to be called the 2022 Version) approved by the Board of Directors, October 20, 2021. The 2021 Version bylaws were repealed, and the 2022 Version bylaws were adopted by the membership at the annual general membership meeting held on June 4, 2022.