Academia Panamericana de Ingeniería
Academia Pan-Americana de Engenharia
Pan American Academy of Engineering
In force as from December 1º, 2008
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I CREATION, LINKS AND LOCATION
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II OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES
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III POWERS
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IV MEMBERS. CONDITIONS
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V DUTIES AND RIGHTS OF THE MEMBERS
TITLE VI NOMINATION,
ELECTION AND TERMINATION OF THE CATEGORY OF THE MEMBER.
Article 17 Nominations to occupy the categories of Member or Associate Members shall be made in the following manner:
17.1 The President of the Institution or whomever is authorized, Member of UPADI for a certain country , which submits a nomination of an individual for the position of Member as established in Article 8 of these By laws , shall sign the nomination document on behalf of his or her Association. The signature shall certify the institutional nature of the proposal and that it is the result of a process of selection as established in Article 8. The proposed person as Member must also count with the support of the Members of that country.
17.2 The nomination of a Member, when performed by three Members from different countries, shall be signed by his/her nominators . The same requirement will be in force when two Members nominate an Associate Member.
17.3 The nominations may be sent by e-mail, stating with absolute clarity the identity of the signatories, simultaneously to the President and the Secretary of the Academy complying with the dates for presentation established by the Board of Directors. The nominations submitted after the due date shall not be included in the Selection Process for that year but will be considered in the following Process.
17.4 The nomination of a person and his/her merits shall be submitted following the lineaments established by the Academy for the presentation of personal information, background and professional and academic experiences, ordered and summarized in a Data Form which will be provided by the Academy. A full Curriculum Vitae of the nominee may accompany the presentation together with the other documents such as letters supporting the proposal from engineering institutions, organizations or firms in which the nominee is working or has worked.
17.5 The presentation must clearly define the member category in which the nominee is proposed. The nomination and the Data Form must be submitted in two languages, English and either Spanish or Portuguese. The full curriculum vitae and the supporting letters may be submitted in only one of these three languages.
Article 18 The Selection Process of a Candidate to fill the categories of Member or Associate Member described in Title IV shall be as follows:
18.1 The President and the Secretary of the Academy will review all the nominations received on time to verify if they comply with the requirements established in these By Laws. Those nominations that do not comply with these requirements will be returned to the proponents but the President may grant a term of up to ten (10) days for the responsible persons to complete the missing information or background of a proposal. The Secretariat will organize the proposals by country and will reproduce them to be sent by electronic mail to each of the members of the Election Committee with one hundred and twenty (120) days anticipation to the date foreseen for the Incorporation Ceremony. He will also send the complete list of existing Members in all categories, ordered by country.
18.2 The members of the Election Committee shall analyze all the nominations and inform within ten (10) days on their justified opinion as regards acceptance or rejection of each of the nominees for the proposed category. In their decision the members of the Election Committee will bear in mind the balanced distribution between countries as established by the Plenary Ordinary Session on the basis of parameters proposed by the Board of Directors.
18.3 The Secretariat of the Academy will send by electronic mail or another expeditious manner the name of the nominees accepted by the Election Committee to each of the Members with an anticipation of no less that ninety (90) days to the date foreseen for the Incorporation Ceremony. The Members must analyze the qualifications of the nominees and vote, within ten (10) days for the acceptance or rejection of a proposal, justifying their decision in the case of rejection. No Member may excuse him/herself from voting, unless he or she submits justified reasons. The vote is secret and the Secretariat will take the necessary measures to maintain its confidentiality, both regarding the vote of the Members as well as the decision of the Election Committee.
18.4 All the terms established in these paragraphs , may be modified by the Board of Directors when there are reasons that justify it.
18.5 The Secretariat of the Academy will register all the answers received in time and if there are two thirds of favorable votes , the nominee will be considered elected as Candidate to Member.
18.6 The Candidates will receive the communication from the President of the Academy informing on their election as a Candidate to Member or Associate Member and they must answer if they accept to form part of the Academy in the category for which they were elected. Together with their acceptance, they must send to the Treasurer the Initial Incorporation Fee established by the Plenary Ordinary Session.
18.7 The President of the Academy shall also notify the persons or Institutions that nominated each of the nominees, whether they have been elected or not as Candidates.
18.8 The Plenary Ordinary Session shall analyze and emit its opinion regarding each Selection Process.
18.9 The Candidates to Members shall receive their Diploma and the official Medallion that accredits them as Academicians in a Solemn Ceremony of Incorporation held when the Academy meets at a Plenary Ordinary Session or when the annual meetings of the Board of Directors are held. Previous to his/her incorporation every Candidate must submit an original Paper with experiences in their professional and academic life, or with the proposal of initiatives, innovations or recommendations of a technical, professional or educational nature. This Paper may be replaced by a spoken and written presentation on a subject included in the Themes of the Forums or technical meetings organized by the Academy on the occasion of the Ceremony of Incorporation. The title and an abstract of the Paper shall be read at the Ceremony and the complete Paper will be included in the Web Site of the Academy.
18.10 If a Candidate to Member, for justified reasons, should not be able to attend the Ceremony of Incorporation, together with the letter of acceptance of his/her nomination he or she should justify his/her absence. The incorporation of any Candidate to Member may only be performed within the four (4) years following the Plenary Ordinary Session that approved the Process of Selection.
18.11 The Candidates to Associate Members shall be invited by the President to attend the Ceremony of Incorporation in which they may personally receive the Diploma and Medallion that accredits them as Academicians, but they are exempt from the obligation of attending. In this case their names and their merits shall be mentioned during the Ceremony. The Diploma shall be mailed to them and the Medallion can be received personally at any Ceremony of Incorporation provided they confirm sixty (60) days beforehand their participation to the Secretary.
18.12 The list of the Candidates to the different categories shall be sent by the President to all Members and Associate Members and to the Institutions that proposed them, inviting the authorities of these to participate in the Ceremony of Incorporation.
Article 19 The condition of Member or Associate Member and its respective rights will expire in the following cases:
19.1 Due to resignation.
19.2 Due to lack of payment of two (2) successive years of the membership fees established by the Ordinary Plenary Session. A delay of one (1) year in payment of these , will mean that the Members will lose their right to vote.
19.3 Due to public or private actions contrary to decorum that could affect the good name of the Academy. This should be resolved by two thirds of the Members present at the Session discussing this situation.
19.4 The persons who lose their condition as Members, in any category either by resignation or separation, may not continue to consider themselves Academicians.
19.5 All voluntary resignations must be considered during the first Plenary Session following the date of resignation of a Member. When the Member is in a position to be separated due to non-compliance with the obligation established in 19.2 the decision shall be taken by the Board of Directors by e-mail and the President will inform the persons or Institutions that nominated him/her of this decision.
Article 20 Re-incorporation into the Academy of any person who has lost his/her condition as Member due to lack of payment of fees can take place at any time within two years following the decision to cancel his/her membership, by means of a request submitted to the Board of Directors accompanied by the payment of all outstanding fees plus a re-incorporation fee equivalent to thirty percent (30%) of the amount of the outstanding dues and the payment of the membership fee for the ongoing year .
Article 21 After at least three years have elapsed since the date of incorporation, Members and Associate Members that are up to date with their obligations and are not included in the conditions of expiration established by Article 19, may request the Board of Directors to be transferred to the situation of Passive Members, for which they must justify one of the following reasons:
21.1 Illness or physical impediment that does not allow traveling to participate in the biennial Plenary Sessions.
21.2 Personal financial emergency situation, not foreseeable at the date of incorporation, that does not allow compliance with the payment of the membership fees.
21.3 Be eighty (80) or more years old.
Article 22 Passive Members may attend without voice or vote the Plenary Sessions; represent the Academy if so requested by the President; participate in forums, conferences, seminars and congresses organized by the Academy and submit technical papers, documents and proposals. They will not enjoy the remaining rights nor will they be subject to compliance with the obligations assigned to their category by these By-laws being exempt of the obligation of paying the annual membership fee. . If the financial or illness situations that motivated the acknowledgement of the Passive condition disappear, the Member will be in a position to request the Board of Directors, for this once, acknowledged with all the rights and obligations that correspond to the category of Member in the Academy.
Article 22.1 If after six (6) years of occupying the position of Passive Member, the Member has not requested his re-incorporation in the category he occupied at the time of being transferred to the Passive condition, his membership in the Academy shall expire. It may expire before this date upon a decision of the Board of Directors.
Article 22.2 The transfer of a Member to the Passive condition means that the position he occupied is now vacant and allows the Academy to incorporate another Member from the same country in the same category.
Article 22.3 The Board of Directors may accept up to three (3) Members in the Passive condition from one country and will resolve the situation should a fourth request of transfer be submitted.
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VII WORKING, INFORMATION AND CONTROL INSTRUMENTS
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VIII MEETINGS OF THE ACADEMY
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IX BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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X FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES OF THE AUTHORITES OF THE ACADEMY
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XI ELECTION COMMITTEE
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XII ADVISORY BOARD
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XIII AUDITING COMMITTEE
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XIV ASSETS
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XV MODIFICATIONS TO THE BY-LAWS
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XVI DISSOLUTION AND LIQUIDATION
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XVII OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
By Laws approved by the International Board of UPADI in San José, Costa Rica, 1996
Modified by the Plenary Extraordinary Session of the Academy – Mexico 2004
Modified by the Plenary Extraordinary Session of the Academy, Brasilia , Brazil . December 2008
