Online Sigma

Beta Sigma Phi's
eighth online chapter

Originally adopted Sep/99
Amended Mar/00, Feb/Oct/Nov/02, Jan/Mar/04, Dec/05, Nov/11, Jan/12, Oct/14, Nov/17, Dec/23

1. ORDER OF BUSINESS VIA OLS MAILING LIST

A. For the Chapter meeting, the President shall email a copy of the agenda of the meeting to the OLS List no later than the day of the meeting Call to Order.

B. The President shall post the Opening Ritual to the list after the President has called the meeting to order. She shall also post the sign-in link for members to indicate their attendance to the meeting at the same time.

C. All officers and committees shall post their reports on the first day of the meeting.

D. All motions and seconds shall be posted no later than the end of the business meeting.

E. Members are asked to keep all postings during the meeting, 3rd Wednesdays to 4th Wednesdays, limited to Chapter business.

F. All members shall use the link posted with the Opening Ritual to indicate their attendance prior to the closing of the meeting, by the time they have read all reports and postings concerning Chapter business or they may send their name to the Executive’s email address at olsexec@bspsisters.ca (not the bspols mailing list) with the word "PRESENT" in the subject line.

G. Any change of the meeting date shall be announced by the President no later than a week prior to the regular meeting date.

H. In the event that the server is down, and the Chapter is unable to conduct business on the third Wednesday of the month or the first scheduled day of the meeting, the Executive Board shall postpone the meeting until the server is running and in good order.

I. The Recording Secretary shall post the minutes of the previous month's meeting following the posting of the Opening Ritual. A copy of the minutes shall be sent to International.

J. The President shall post the Closing Ritual on the evening of the 4th Wednesday.

K. Reports from the Teller Committee shall be posted by the President as soon as possible after the close of the voting period. All ballots shall be kept for a minimum of thirty (30) days from the date the voting closed before they are destroyed. All protests or questions regarding any vote must be brought to the Executive Board within twenty-one (21) days of the voting closing. Information from ballots is to be stored with identifying information removed, so that the ballots remain secret.

L. Before the close of the meeting, the President shall invite all members to share in "Chapter Chatter" items to be posted after the Closing Ritual and to continue throughout the month.

2. ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR ONLINE CALLED MEETINGS

• Call to Order and posting of agenda
• Opening Ritual
• Officer's reports
• Committee reports (See list of Committees Item 7 below)
• Announcement of the Program and Social
• Old Business and Motions
• New Business and Motions
• Announcement of Program of the Month
• Chapter Chatter announcement
• Adjournment
• Closing Ritual

3. CHAPTER YEAR

A. The Chapter year shall consist of 12 meetings, May through April.

B. The Chapter birthday shall be on April 30th, (1999) and shall be acknowledged in some special way by the members.

4. MEMBERSHIP

A. Membership of this Chapter shall be limited to 30 Active members, with a hard cap at 35, if qualified members wish to join, with the chapter’s approval, as we realize that membership can be in flux at times.

Inactive members of the Chapter will be placed on a waiting list at the time they want to return to an active status if the Chapter's active membership has reached 30 members. See above.

B. Membership shall be made up of members of Beta Sigma Phi listed with International as Active, Leave of Absence or Member at Large status. A member must stay current in her International dues.

C. All applications for membership shall be made through the Vice-President. A new member to the OLS roster should be approved for membership in the chapter by the OLS chapter members and the Executive board before she is admitted to membership. Present chapter members will have the opportunity to voice their comments re the proposed new member to the Executive Board who will make the final decision.

D. Membership categories shall be Active, Leave of Absence, and Member at Large, as defined by BSP International. Inactive or Personal Leave status may be granted by the chapter as outlined below.

1. A member in good standing may request a "Personal Leave" by which she is unsubscribed from the OLS list for a period of up to 3 months for such reasons as health, vacation, etc. If the time needs to be extended, the approval of the Executive Board will be needed. Such a member will also need to make arrangements where her Special Sister obligations are concerned.
2. Members may be excluded from membership and the OLS mailing list by unanimous vote of the Executive Board if they exhibit any behavior unbecoming a Beta Sigma Phi. To be excluded, there must be 5 requests sent via email to the Executive Board requesting removal of the member with reasons explained. The Vice-President shall notify the member of the action taken and reasons for removal. The Mailing List Administrator shall be notified by the Vice-President to have that member's name deleted from the OLS mailing list.

5. OFFICERS

A. Elected Officers

Officers of this Chapter shall assume the same duties as in a regular Chapter in addition to the following:

1. President: The President shall direct meetings of the Executive Board held by any method agreed upon by the members of the Executive Board.
2. Vice President: Shall keep all members names and email addresses current and accept applications for membership. She shall notify the membership of new members and members who become inactive in the Chapter.
3. Recording Secretary: Shall email minutes of the meetings to all members for review. The Recording Secretary will also complete the online Chapter Minutes each month for International:
   bspinternational.org/
   Fill_In_Forms/chapter_minutes_form.php
   The Recording Secretary, along with the webmaster, will act as the Teller Committee and record any voting for the chapter.
4. Corresponding Secretary: Shall email a copy of any correspondence to the membership when directed to do so by the Executive Board, and act as Sunshine Chairman for the Chapter.

B. Qualifications, Nominations, Elections, and Installation of Officers

1. Qualifications:
   a. All officers of the Chapter shall be in good standing with OLS and International and have access to a computer.
2. Nominations:
   a. Nominations shall be made by the Nominating Committee.
   b. Nominations from the membership shall be accepted by the Nominating Committee until one week before voting begins.
   c. Nominees and their qualifications shall be submitted to the membership via the OLS mailing list .
   d. A candidate for office may post to the list her qualifications, BSP history, offices held, and a brief statement concerning her personal goals for the office and the Chapter for the coming year. No solicitations advocating the election of any nominee are to be distributed by any media.
   e. A final slate of nominees shall be submitted to the membership via the OLS mailing list for a vote at the Chapter meeting.
3. Elections:
   a. The Teller Committee will count the votes and report the final results to the President, who will inform the membership.
   b. Any tie votes will be re-submitted to the membership as soon as possible with the same procedures of voting and notification
   c. Elections shall be held during the March meeting of the Chapter, in keeping with the traditional timeframe set by International.
4. Installation:
   a. Officers shall be installed during the April meeting, for the sorority year May 1st to April 30th.
   b. The newly-elected officers shall be installed via email, as well as any other method agreed upon, such as Zoom, by posting their response to the installation rituals.
   c. The outgoing President shall conduct the installation or appoint someone to act in her place.

6. EXECUTIVE BOARD

A. Executive Board meetings shall be held as necessary, at the discretion of Executive Board members.

B. Minutes of the meeting shall be kept by the Recording Secretary, and submitted to International along with the Chapter meeting minutes.

7. COMMITTEES

A. Committees shall be appointed by the Executive Board.

B. Members shall inform the newly-elected President of their interest in serving on a committee via email immediately after elections.

C. Members may join committees at any time of the year with Board approval.

D. The committees shall assume the same duties as in a regular chapter committee unless otherwise specified. All business shall be reported by the chairman on the OLS mailing list.

E. Standing Committees:

1. Program & Social
   a. Shall coordinate members who will be responsible for the combined monthly program and social.
2. Special Sister
   a. Shall be responsible for selecting Special Sisters.
   b. Shall provide online reminders and ideas.
3. Sunshine
   a. Shall be responsible for greetings sent to members via email.
   b. Cyber cards shall be sent to a sister on the occasion of sickness, death of an immediate family member (including parents), engagement, wedding, and birth or adoption of a child.
   c. The committee shall report significant events in the lives of sisters to the membership as soon as possible.
   d. Members learning of significant events in the lives of sisters shall report them to the committee as soon as possible.
   e. The Sunshine Committee shall post a list every month of members who have birthdays and anniversaries during that month.
4. Tellers
   a. Shall be responsible for counting all votes (with exception of WOY) via email and report the count to the President.
5. Reunion
   a. Responsible for organizing the annual reunion of the Chapter. Chairman will be the person who volunteers to host the reunion in her area.
6. Yardstick
   a. Shall be responsible for calculating and submitting the annual Yardstick form to BSP International each year.

F. Other committees shall be appointed as needed by the President with the approval of the Executive Board.

G. The List Administrator shall be responsible for maintaining the OLS mailing list.

H. The website administrator / webmaster shall be responsible for timely and accurate maintenance of the chapter website (currently at http://www.bspsisters.ca/ols ).

8. ATTENDANCE

A. A member commits to read all Chapter reports, and sign in to the attendance link for each monthly meeting. She also commits to participating in the monthly program and social, as well as voting during elections and on motions brought before the Chapter.

B. A member shall be excused from meetings or the deadline to post "Present" for the following reasons:

1. Out of town.
   a. Out of town members knowing in advance that they will be out of town shall notify the Recording Secretary prior to the meeting date with their explanation to be excused.
2. Illness
3. Hardware problems
4. Server problems

C. Server and/or hardware problems shall be reported to the Recording Secretary as soon as possible and will be counted as an excused absence.

D. If a member does not have daily access to a computer and is unable to meet the deadline to reply "Present," she shall inform the Recording Secretary of this fact and request an extension of up to four days to reply "Present." This request must be made for each month it is needed.

E. Members must sign in to the meeting using the attendance link at some time during the week of the meeting. If a member can't attend a meeting for any of the excused reasons, she must notify a member of the Executive Board beforehand, or will be considered absent.

9. VOTING

A. The Teller Committee shall email a ballot to the membership at the close of the monthly meeting. The ballot shall contain all necessary information for voting.

B. The choice of a vote of "YES" to approve, "NO" to disapprove, or "ABSTAIN" to abstain from the motion shall be placed on the ballot next to each item.

C. The voting period shall be six days from the posting of the Closing Ritual.

D. If there is not a majority reporting their votes to the Teller Committee, the President may resubmit the motion for a vote at the next meeting, requesting the membership to reply. If a majority again does not reply, the motion shall be ruled defeated by the President.

10. OLS AND BETA SIGMA PHI INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

A. The Executive Board must review all information that is placed on the Internet concerning the Chapter. The webmaster shall notify the chapter of changes/additions to the web site, and the executive and members will communicate with the webmaster if changes/corrections are needed.

B. Chapter officers will be provided with a "position" email address, which will forward to their personal email, such as olsofficer@bspsisters.ca. Only the position email aliases will be shown on the public pages of the website, and shared to other chapters.

C. Member web pages and any other internet communication, such as Facebook and other social media, may contain indication that the member is a member of OLS, and/or a link to the OLS website.

D. No member shall use the Beta Sigma Phi name or any emblems or information related to International without the approval of the International Executive Board.

E. Any OLS internet site approved by International and the OLS Executive Board shall be submitted to link from The Beta Journal.

11. SPECIAL SISTERS

A. The Special Sister program begins on January 1st, and ends on December 31st of each year.

B. By participating, a sister commits to taking part in Special Sister exchanges for the entire year. If circumstances require withdrawal from Special Sister participation, a sister will give the committee one month's notice. Special Sisters will be revealed and new Special Sisters assigned at the December meeting. Participation is optional; however, a sister must notify the Special Sister Committee if she wishes to participate. If the committee is NOT notified, it will be assumed that a sister does NOT wish to participate and NO Special sister will be assigned.

C. New members choosing to participate will be assigned Special Sisters as they join OLS.

D. We will exchange cyber greeting cards with our Special Sisters for all holidays and other special occasions. One actual gift will be exchanged at Christmas each year. Revealing Day will be Christmas.

E. For those of our Sisters who are not married, their anniversary / Special Day will be 6 months after their birthday.

12. TRADITIONS

Special Recognition: Woman of the Year

1. A Woman of the Year will be recognized by our chapter in accordance with the Guidelines and Point System as set forth in Attachment A to these Standing Rules.
2. A Woman of the Year committee will serve to calculate all points earned for each chapter member from May 1st through April 30th. The committee will consist of the immediate past Woman of the Year and another chapter member as appointed by the President.
3. After all points are calculated by the Woman of the Year Committee then the three members with the most points will be voted on by all members of the chapter.
4. All point sheets and record of votes shall be kept on file for 30 days.

13. Progression

A. Beta Sigma Phi International has given online chapters "official" status. A member can progress to the next higher degree in an online chapter, depending upon years in her current degree and active participation in Online Sigma.

B. "Virtual" members (those currently in a "land" chapter) will progress according to membership in their respective land chapters.

14. AMENDMENTS

1. Amendments to the Standing Rules of Online Sigma shall require 2/3 of the members counted as present to pass a vote.