Membership of the Union

Members (Statutes Article 5)

Members of the Union are National Committees. They must be representative of the whole of the individuals and corporate bodies interested in vacuum science, technique and its applications, in their country.

Membership is limited to one (1) National Committee (usually a vacuum society) in each country.

Any country wishing to become affiliated to the Union forms a National Committee able to take charge of the country's interests in the field of vacuum.

In certain cases and particularly when several neighboring countries have not yet established their own National Committees, they will be entitled to form a joint committee which can apply for the status of Member. None of these countries may have its own National Committee.

A National Committee wishing to join the Union shall submit satisfactory evidence that it conforms to the requirements and shall undertake to observe the current Statutes of IUVSTA

Application for Membership (Statutes Article 6)

Application for membership of the Union shall be addressed to the President of the Union and sent to the Secretary General of the Union. It shall be signed by the President of the National Committee.

The application shall be accompanied by:

• the text of the statutes and by-laws of the national-committee;
• a translation of these documents into one of the working languages of the Union; and
• a definite proposal concerning the appropriate number of contributory shares. The proposal will have been previously prepared for discussion with the assistance of the Secretary General of the Union.

When all of these documents have been received by the Secretary General of the Union, the latter registers the application and, at the next meeting of the Executive Council following the registration of the application, proposes to the Executive Council the provisional admission of the National Committee.

Fuller guidelines are to be found here.

Provisional Admission (Statutes Article 7)

Provisional admission is made by the Executive Council and requires a majority of four-fifths of the votes cast by Members of the Executive Council with voteing by at least three quarters (3/4) of the Members of the Executive Council.

Voting on provisional admission may take place either during an Executive Council meeting or by correspondence. A postal vote shall be closed six weeks after the date of despatch of the voting papers.

Immediately after their provisional admission, new Members have all the rights and duties of ordinary Members, with the exception of the right to vote which they will acquire after their definite admission by the General Meeting together with the obligation to pay the annual subscription fees.

Admission or rejection by the Executive Council, as the case may be, is notified to the National Committee within six weeks following the date of closure of the vote.

In case of rejection by the General Meeting, the application may only be re-submitted at the General Meeting at the end of the next Period, the Executive Council not being empowered to grant provisional admission..

Definite Admission (Statutes Article 8)

Admission of new Members shall constitute a specific item of the agenda of the Ordinary General Meeting at the end of the Period, preferably as the first substantive item of the agenda.

The draft agenda for that General Meeting shall explicitly state:

• all applications received by the Secretary General during the last Period and the provisional decision taken by the Executive Council in each case,
• a proposal concerning the contributory shares of each possible new Member,

The General Meeting shall discuss each candidature separately and proceed immediately after each discussion to vote on the admission of the new Member under consideration and to ratify the number of contributory shares that the new Member shall pay.

The General Meeting shall decide on definite admission by secret ballot using the normal voting rules. Definite admission may be granted even if for any reason the Executive Council has previously refused provisional admission.

Only representatives of countries already Members of the Union shall be present for the discussion and ballot. The representative(s) of an applicant Member may not be present. Once this entire item of the agenda has been concluded, the representatives of the Member (s ) newly admitted to the General Meeting can participate in the work of the latter with the right to speak and vote on all subsequent items of the agenda.

Resignation, Suspension and Exclusion (Statutes Article 9)

Membership may cease:

• by resignation. Notification must be forwarded to the Secretary General, by registered letter, before 30th June of any year, such resignation becoming effective on 31st December of that year;
• as a consequence of dissolution for any reason of the National Committee in question;
• if a National Committee no longer complies with the required conditions of membership;
• if a National Committee has not paid its subscription for two (2) years. However, the Executive Council may suspend membership pending the payment of outstanding subscriptions up to the point of suspension;
• by exclusion of membership which is pronounced by the General Meeting on a motion of the Executive Council, under the same conditions as for admission.

In case of resignation or exclusion, the Member of the Union is responsible for its commitments until the end of the current year. The subscription paid by a National Committee which announces its dissolution during the calendar year remains the property of the Union. Any Member which ceases to belong to the Union gives up, ipso facto, its rights in the assets of the Union.

The loss of Member status will be notified by the Secretary General to the President of the National Committee concerned, as well as to the person previously authorised to correspond in its name with the Secretary General of the Union