Constitution of NESAJ
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We, the Nepalese students studying at different Academic Institutions in Japan, having felt the need to establish a unified students’ association to promote our academic, professional and other mutual interests through wider, regular and frequent exchange of views among ourselves, and believing that closer relations with various academic institutions and professional groups in Japan, Nepal and abroad would be helpful in promoting our common academic interests, DO HEREBY agree to form ourselves into a voluntary Association and adopt this Constitution.
Article I: Name and Guiding Principles
1. The Association shall be known as the Nepalese Students' Association in Japan or NESAJ in short.
2. The following guiding principles shall shape the objectives and activities of the Association.
(a) The Association shall act as a common forum of all Japan-based Nepalese students to facilitate exchange of views and promotion of mutual cooperation.
(b) The Association shall act as an umbrella body of all other regional/local association of Nepalese students at any Japanese Institutions and work to strengthen mutual cooperation and activate all students.
(c) The Association shall work for the promotion of academic and other common interests among all the members.
(d) The Association shall maintain close links with other institutions to promote the cultural and academic exchanges between Nepal and Japan.
(e) The Association shall help to get information regarding study opportunities in Japan across interested Nepalese. For above (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) purposes, the Association shall also keep in touch with other Nepalese academicians, researchers and professional groups living in Japan as and when necessary.
(f) The Association shall refrain from any politically motivated activities.(g) The Logo of the Association shall be as shown in Annex I.
Article II: Membership
1. This membership policy shall be effective immediately and shall also be the guiding policy for issuing membership from hence forward.
2. The types of Membership shall be as follows:
(a) Regular member (R)
A Nepalese person who is currently enrolled at a university, Vocational College, Language and Cultural Institute in Japan as a "student" or a “research student" (However all the current Regular members’ status will not change until their graduation date). All the regular members are liable to fight for the post of NESAJ Executive committee.
(b) Affiliated member (A)
• A regular member who ceases to be a member and is residing in Japan.
• A person who is currently affiliated to an Educational or a research institute within Japan and does not fall under category 2.(a) of this article.
(c) Friend of Nesaj (F)
• Any Nepalese holding degree from non-Japanese universities and currently living
or working in Japan.
• Any non-Nepalese holding degree from Japanese universities and currently
involved in research or teaching activities in Japanese academic institutions.
• Anyone who has goodwill to Nepal and Nesaj, and is actively involved in Nesaj
activities
(d) Provisional member (P)
• A person who has applied for membership but has not been issued one yet.
3. The membership fees shall be 1,000 yens.
4. Anyone can apply for membership at any time. Application shall be web-based and necessary details are mentioned in the Nesaj webpage.
5. The Ex Com can issue membership types A, F and P at any time of the year. Regular membership (R) shall be issued only to the applicants who apply before calling the Final General Assembly. Those applying for regular membership after calling the Final General Assembly may be issued a Provisional membership. Such members shall be issued regular membership only after April 1.
6. Following methods/materials may be used to prove one's affiliation with the institution mentioned while applying. However, the Membership Management Committee has full rights to ask for alternative if it is not convinced.
• A copy of Student ID card
• Certification by a member of the current Executive Committee
• Name in the official homepage of the concerned institution (provided it is updated)
• Any other material that may convince the Membership Management Committee
• Email address from the affiliated institution's domain
• Any other method that the Membership Management Committee may find convincing
7. The membership status of regular members (R) shall be automatically changed to Affiliated (A) after their graduation date unless they update their information.
8. The membership issued by the MMC shall be effective only after it is approved by the Executive Committee and the President.
B. Duties and Responsibilities of Members
A Regular or Affiliated Member or Friends of NESAJ shall
(a) pay membership fee and other fees as approved by the General Assembly.
(b) furnish the Executive Secretary the mailing address and other relevant information and promptly notify them of any change thereof.
(c) members studying Japanese Language course shall indicate the duration of such course while applying for membership and update his membership status and other details every year.
C. Rights and Privileges of Members
1. A Regular Member shall
(a) be eligible to vote for and can be candidate for any Executive Committee post and/or other posts of the Association.
(b) be entitled to receive all official publications of the Association.
Article III: General Assembly (GA)
The General Assembly consisting of all the Regular Members of the Association shall be the highest body to determine the broad operating principles and activities within the framework of the guiding principles as lay down by this Constitution. Affiliate Members, Provisional members and Friends of Nesaj are eligible to take part but shall not have the voting right in the General Assembly.
Article IV: Executive Committee
1. An Executive Committee shall be formed to transact business of the Association in accordance with the policy set forth by the GA.
2. The Executive Committee shall consist of one President, four Vice Presidents (one each from Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu), one Executive Secretary, one Joint Secretary, one Treasurer and seven members. The Executive Committee may also form different sub-committees to carry out specific tasks as and when necessary. The mandate and the tenure of such a sub-committee shall be announced by the Executive Committee at its formation.
3. The Executive Committee shall report to the GA.
Article V: Officers and Elections
A.Officers
1. All Officers and Members of the Executive Committee shall be elected through the election procedure as specified.
2. All Officers and the Members of the Executive Committee must be Regular Members of the Association.
3. Duties and Responsibilities of the Officers
(a) The President shall be the Chief Executive of the Association and shall preside over all the General Assembly meetings as far as possible.
(b) In the absence of the President, the Executive Committee shall choose one of the Vice-Presidents to assume the duties of the President. If the position of the President falls vacant for whatever reasons, the Executive Committee shall immediately nominate a new President from among the existing Vice Presidents.
(c) The Executive Secretary shall attend all the meetings, prepare the business thereof all the members and inform them about the activities of the Association. In the absence of the Executive Secretary, the Joint-Secretary shall assume the duties.
(d) The Treasurer shall keep all the records of the account of the Association and shall present a detailed annual report of all income and expenditures of the Association during the General Assembly. The Treasurer shall prepare the annual budget of the Association and submit it to the Executive Committee for approval.
4. Elections of Officers and Members
(a) Officers and Members of the Executive Committee shall be elected through direct voting by Regular Members every year at the end of the tenure of the existing Executive Committee.
(b) Only the Regular Members shall be eligible to be candidates for any post of the Executive Committee.
(c) The Executive Committee shall make nomination(s) to fill vacant positions, if any, of the Association except that of the President, from among the Regular Members or from inside the Executive Committee. Duration of such nominee shall not outlast the term of the Executive Committee.
(d) In case any of the following situations arises, an election shall be held at the earliest:
• If the posts of the President and all the Vice Presidents become vacant at once due to resignation or any other causes;
• If more than two third posts of the Executive Committee including those of the President and the General Secretary become vacant at once due to resignation or any other causes;
• If the Executive Committee submits resignation en masse.
B. Elections
1. An Election Committee shall be formed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Executive Committee to conduct the election.
2. The election would be held by the use of web-based system to ensure maximum participation from all over Japan. Security of the system should be considered and debated with the members and approved in GA before introducing a new system.
3. The election committee shall comprise of 3 members
4. President of the current executive committee shall be the advisor of the Election. In the case of President seeking reelection, alternate candidate for the post of advisor shall be nominated by the executive committee before the election committee is finalized in the following order: Any one of non running vice presidents, followed by general secretary, joint secretary, treasurer, member.
5. Head of web administration committee shall be Technical Advisor to Election Committee. In the case of Head of web administration committee seeking reelection, alternate candidate for the post of advisor shall be nominated by the executive committee before the election committee is finalized from the rest of the members of web administration committee.
6. Election commission shall publish the detail schedule of the election program in common mailing list. All the general members should be informed about any changes in the program, any disputes and the formation of overview committee in the common mailing list.
7. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes for each post shall be declared elected. The decision of the Election Committee shall be considered final if any dispute arises in the process of the election.
8. The decisions by Election committee shall be made by consensus.
9. If the election commission fails to arrive at consensus, election chairperson shall call on advisor and technical advisor and form an overview committee comprising of 3 election committee members, Advisor and Technical advisor. This overview committee shall overview the results/log files and decide by majority.
10.The Election Committee shall conduct the oath of the elected officers collectively or individually according to the format set by the committee.
11. Position of any Officers and/or Members of the Executive Committee shall be considered automatically vacant, if the member ceases to be the Regular Member of the Association.
Article VI: Meetings
A.General Assembly (GA)
- Frequency:
a) The President shall call at least one GA during the tenure of the Executive Committee.
b) Upon the demand of at least one-fourth of the Association’s Regular Member, the Executive Committee shall call a special General Assembly at the earliest.
2. Participation:
(a) Participation in person or through any form of electronic media shall be valid for the purpose of any meeting.
(b) All the members of the Association are eligible to take part in the General Assembly for expressing their views. However, only the views of the Regular Members shall be counted for voting purpose should such a situation arise on any issue during the General Assembly session.
3. Notice of Meeting and Agenda:
All the Members of the Association shall be informed about the meeting and the agenda by the Executive Committee through the common mail of the Association.
4. Duration:
The Executive Committee shall determine the duration of the General Assembly as deemed necessary by the agenda and the participation of the Members.
5. Quorum:
Participation of least fifty percent of the Regular Members in the General Assembly shall be considered a valid quorum. If this quorum is not fulfilled within the stipulated duration, the Executive Committee may extend the duration as deemed necessary. After the extension of the duration, the General Assembly shall be considered valid irrespective of the percentage of participation.
6. Decision:
Decision on any issue, except for those mentioned otherwise in this Constitution, shall be made on the basis of a simple majority vote cast by the Regular Members.
B.Executive Committee
(a)The Executive Committee shall meet at the request of either the President or the Executive Secretary or on petition of two other Members of the Executive Committee.
(b) The frequency and the operating procedures of the meeting shall be decided by the Executive Committee.
(c) The Executive Committee shall be transparent and approachable to any member of the Association at any time.
Article VII: NESAJ Fund
1. Financial Sources:
The necessary financial funds for the running of the Association shall come from
(a) Membership fees from the Regular and Affiliated Members of the Association; and
(b)Fund raising programs organized by the Association if and when deemed necessary.
2. Management:
The fund shall be handled by the Executive Committee for the functioning of the Association, carrying out its programs, publication of the Association’s bulletin and other regular activities of the Association. Utilization of fund for any purpose other than the above shall be approved in advance by the General Assembly. Records of all the incomes and expenditures shall be kept by the Treasurer and an annual Financial Report shall be presented in the Annual General Assembly meeting.
3. Auditor:
Based on the generally accepted concept of the auditor, the Executive Committee shall nominate any person irrelevant to NESAJ(holding any Executive/official position or even any kind of NESAJ membership), as the Auditor/s to audit the accounts of the Association before presenting the Annual Financial Report to the General Assembly.
Article VIII: NESAJ Bulletin and Editorial Board
An official bulletin of the Association, NESAJ PATRA, shall be published regularly as per the guidelines provided by the Term of References (TOR) of the Bulletin approved by the Executive Committee and shall be made available to all the Members of the Association. The Executive Committee shall nominate the Editor in Chief and other members of the Editorial Board of the Bulletin. The Executive Committee shall also nominate one of its office bearers to coordinate the Editorial Board and the Executive Committee. The tenure of the Editorial Board shall be of one year.
Article IX: Impeachment and Dismissals
1. Any Member of the Executive Committee may be suspended or removed from the post by a two-third majority vote of all Regular Members of the Association. Such suspension or removal may be made on any of the following grounds:
(a) inefficiency
(b) abuse of the Office
(c) disloyalty towards the Association
(d) gross misconduct
(e) immorality
(f) other grounds deemed actionable by the General Assembly.
2. NESAJ Executive may suspend or remove the membership of NESAJ members in case s/he acts against the spirit of NESAJ and behaves objectionably with NESAJ members. However, every opportunity shall be afforded to such Member to clarify and defense against the accusations.
Article X: Advisory Committee
An advisory committee can be formed two third majority of the executive committee. Executive Committee may nominate an Advisory Committee if and when felt necessary. Such a Committee shall act as an advisory body to the Association and shall consist of a Chairperson and other members as deemed necessary by the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee may nominate any person who is directly or indirectly related to the Association or Nepal, who is a well wisher of the Association and whose inclusion would be beneficial to the Association, as the Chairperson or Member of the Advisory Committee. The President of the Association shall act as the Member Secretary and the immediate past President of the Association shall be the ex officio member of the Advisory Committee. The tenure of the Advisory Committee will be automatically dissolved along with the end of Executive Committee.
Article XI: Policies and Procedure (P & P)
The Executive Committee shall make policies and procedure (P & P) to smoothly discharge the functions. Special decisions under the framework of Article 1.2 (a, b, c, d and e) may be made at any regularly called meetings of the Executive Committee to deal with any unforeseen conditions of emergencies. However, such decisions shall be ratified by a simple majority vote in a General Assembly meeting within a period of three month
Article XII: Formation of NESAJ Alumni Association in Nepal
NESAJ Alumni returned to Nepal can be organized together to form an Association which will work independently and cooperate with NESAJ for mutual benefit.
Article XIII: Amendment of the Constitution
This Constitution of NESAJ or any Articles/clauses/sub-clauses herein may be amended by at least a two-thirds majority vote of the GA meeting.
Article XIV: Affectivity of the Constitution
This constitution (THIRD AMMENDMENT) shall be effective as soon as it is approved by the GA meeting.
Article XV: Disclaimer of NESAJ
We, the NESAJ, understand the importance of the privacy of the personal information of our members. We have set the following Personal Information Protection as our basic policy in handling personal information.
1. Collection and Use of personal information:
collect essential personal information of the members that we need to carry out the aims of NESAJ activities stipulated in the NESAJ constitution. The information collected is used for identification, confirmation of membership qualification, delivery of our email, statistical research of Nepalese living in Japan and so on.
2. Type of personal information we collect:
collect personal information such as address, name, date of birth, sex, duration of stay in Japan, and other information that we need to carry out our activities smoothly.
3. Disclosure Personal Information:
disclose your personal information to the government of Nepal and the related authority if it requires.
Article XVI: Code of conduct for web and common mail
- General
1. A mailing list is comprised of all the general members of the NESAJ and it is
monitored by the Web Management Committee.
2. The provision of any list facilities shall be entirely at the discretion of the WMC. The
WMC will periodically monitor list usage and withdraw the facility if usage is found
to be inappropriate.
3. All usage of the email list system must conform to the NESAJ Web Management
Committee for the use of "Mailing List" facilities.
4. WMC holds right to moderate emails in consultation with NESAJ President on the as
recommendation of the executive committee.
5. Web Management Committee has full authority take any stern action against the
members who violates the "Code of Conduct" without any prejudice.
6. The "Code of Conduct" will have provision to amend its point on a required basis
with the approval of NESAJ Executive Committee.
B. Use of Mailing System
1.The common mail is strictly for the communication among the NESAJ members for
easy and accessible communication. This will be established only to support the
following activities:
(a)Professional communications (for example a list might be established by a group of sub-committee to discuss a topic in their subject area);
(b) Formal communications within the NESAJ members (for example to send urgent information, useful information, about social event, job opportunities, counseling, announce new facilities in a service);
(c) Formal Notices (for example to make a announcement of NESAJ event, Nepalese gathering, Nepalese Social event, Nepalese and Japanese Festival, Exhibition, Culture Program, Business event and so on);
(d) Communications for Social, Culture, academic and Business affair which is of interest to the general members of NESAJ (for example make a interaction social welfare, culture exchange, professional collaboration, academic information, business opportunities, and so on).
2. The recipients can differentiate between list generated email and unsolicited junk
email by the following criteria:
(a) All email sent to lists must have a subject field which states sensibly what the I
tem is (For example it should be "Part time jobs available", "Nepalese Culture
Program", "Dashain Festival Program", "Hanami Program" and so on)
(b) Email should be signed with the full name and status of the person sending it.
3. Email lists should be used with consideration-recipients must not be sent multiple
messages about the same issue.
C. Prohibition
1. NESAJ is a non political and not religious organization, so the political and religious
discussions are strictly prohibited.
2. Personal mail, abusing mail (Offensive and counter offensive) mails are strictly
prohibited and such mail could terminate the members from mailing list on the
recommendation of WMC.
3. Attached file should be defined properly first.
4. Pornography and/or any sexually excited mails are strictly prohibited and such mail
could terminate the members from mailing list on the recommendation of WMC.
5. Sexual harassment, discrimination, and similar acts on this plate form are strictly
prohibited and such act could terminate the members from mailing list on the
recommendation of WMC.
6. Any kinds of cyber crime, which is not mentioned in this code of conduct, will be
dealt according to international cyber law in critical condition. If anybody found guilty
will be subject to deserve a severe punishment.
7. Hacking or sending abusing mail to the mailing list or someone is a social crime and
will be subject to deserve a severe punishment.
ANNEX I: LOGO of the Association
Explanation of the LOGO
The ellipse (oval Shape) represents earth with its water body blue, above which is a large book representing education and research. The map of Nepal appears at the back of Japan, which means that people coming from Nepal are in Japan doing study and research, which is also represented by the same large book. The flags of the two countries symbolize a strong bond and a friendly relationship between Nepal and Japan. Below the ellipse appears the name of the Association in capital letters as NEPALESE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN. Then comes the establishment year of the Association and a banner with five white letters NESAJ representing the abbreviation of the name of the Association.
From NESAJ Executive Committee:
This Fourth amended constitution is presented by NESAJ Constitution 4th Amendment Committee 2011 and is approved by NESAJ Annual General Assembly 2011, it came to practice from 20th March 2011.
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