The organization. The Virginia Tech Association of Chinese Students and Scholars of (VT-ACSS) is established for the general welfare of the Chinese community at Virginia Tech. The VT-ACSS is organized to help its members to familiarize themselves with the American academic and cultural environment, to protect its members against various possible injustices, to facilitate the mutual helps within the community, and to promote cultural communications with other communities and cultural groups.

Membership. By default, all current or former Chinese students and scholars and their family members of Virginia Tech are members of VT-ACSS. VT-ACSS membership is open to anybody around the world as long as his/her goal is consist with clause 1.

The VT-ACSS members' rights and responsibilities. The VT-ACSS members have the right to take part in the various activities organized by VT-ACSS. The VT-ACSS members have the right to monitor the behavior of the VT-ACSS board. The VT-ACSS members have the right to access all the VT-ACSS board records, including financial records of all the boards in the history of VT-ACSS.

The properties of VT-ACSS. The instruments, the homepage, the Blueridge Mountain Magazine, the VT-ACSS list, the VT-ACSS official list, and other properties that are bought or established in the name of VT-ACSS belong to the whole VT-ACSS organization. The uses and operations of these properties are within the authority of the VT-ACSS board in power.

The President. The VT-ACSS President is elected by the whole organization either through e-mails, meetings, or other forms that are accessible to all the members of the organization. The term of presidency is one academic year.

The President and VT-ACSS board. The President has the whole authority of structuring the VT-ACSS board. The president has the full authority to appoint, to ask to resign, and to dismiss VT-ACSS board members. The VT-ACSS board, under the leadership of the president, is fully responsible for all the VT-ACSS activities.

The VT-ACSS transitional committee. The president should appoint a transitional committee in case his/her term is over and could not find the next president candidate, in order to keep the legal status of the organization.

In case of the president's leaving Virginia Tech, of resignation, of illness, of death, the board he/she appointed should take the responsibility of leadership by helping to elect a president from the board or from other members of the community with the consensus of the majority of the organization.

Impeachment and resignation of the president. The whole organization has the full power over the president. The president reports to the organization. In case the president misuses his/her presidential power, or the president fails his/her duty, the organization can vote for his/her resignation or impeachment. The proposal for the president's resignation or impeachment must be signed by more than five VT-ACSS members in order for the proposal to be sent to the whole organization to vote; the proposal must be passed by the majority of the organization in order for the proposal to be effective.

The misuses of presidential power. The following cases are considered as misuse of the presidential power: (1) to use the organization for individual benefits; (2) to mistreat individual members; (3) to misuse VT-ACSS legacy fund.

The failures of presidential duty. The following cases are considered as failures of presidential duty:(1) Failure to protect the honor of Chinese people when the president is able to;(2) Failure to protect Chinese students and scholars when the president is able to.

Financial spending. The president and his/her board have the full authority of using the money they receive from the university, from the Chinese embassy, and from other sources within their term (except the Legacy Fund as defined in clause 14, clause 15, clause 16).

Donations. The president and his/her board have the full authority to use the name of the organization to raise donations from the Chinese community, from other businesses in Blacksburg and around the world.

VT-ACSS Legacy Fund. The VT-ACSS Legacy Fund is excluded from the income of any VT-ACSS board. The VT-ACSS Legacy Fund is defined as the total amount of VT-ACSS Savings of each VT-ACSS board plus Member Donations. The VT-ACSS board Saving is defined as the total amount of VT-ACSS income of the concerned VT-ACSS board within its term (not include the Legacy Fund) minus the total amount of spending of the concerned board within its term. The Old Member Donations is defined as the donations VT-ACSS received from the old members who have found their jobs and who explicitly donate the money to Legacy Fund.

The VT-ACSS emergency. The following cases are considered the VT-ACSS emergency: a) the death of VT students; b) the serious illness of VT students; c) the danger of China as a nation threatened either by natural disasters or by invasions from other nations.

Freedom of speech. Any VT-ACSS members have the privilege of using VT-ACSS list and other communication channels set up by VT-ACSS. These uses include the uses for political, economic, religious, and daily life purposes so long as the users do not abuse this privilege.

The following cases of the uses of VT-ACSS list and other VT-ACSS communication channels are considered abuses: a) personal attacks; b) abusive languages; c) pornography; d) racial discriminations; e) illegal messages. In cases of abuses of VT-ACSS list and other communication channels, the president of VT-VT-ACSS has the right to block any abusers from using VT-ACSS list and other VT-ACSS communication channels and to report the case to the university authority and other legal authorities.

VT-ACSS Rewards. The VT-ACSS president and his/her board reward the members of the organization for their outstanding services. The rewards must be approved by the VT-ACSS board and signed by the VT-ACSS president. The rewards can be cancelled (under the proposals of the president who was in charge of the rewards or the president in power, or the board in power) if the rewarded individuals do great harms to the organization later or the organization found great mistakes for the rewards. The rewards (or cancellations) are informed to the VT-ACSS members by all available VT-ACSS communication channels.

History of VT-ACSS. The VT-ACSS History is recorded in VT-ACSS homepage. The working experiences of various VT-ACSS boards are recorded in VT-ACSS history signed by the presidents of the concerned VT-ACSS boards. The names of various board members are recorded in VT-ACSS history.

This bylaw is passed by the whole organization of VT-ACSS. This bylaw is published on the VT-ACSS homepage. The revision of this bylaw is monitored by the VT-ACSS board in power or by a committee of five VT-ACSS members and should be passed through VT-ACSS list by the whole community before the revision is effective.

(The writing of this bylaw was proposed by 1997-1998 VT-ACSS board. The writing was charged by Zhang Laiju as appointed by the joint announcement of 1997-1998 VT-ACSS board and 1998-1999 VT-ACSS board. The authors include (in alphabetic order): Bao Yeqing, Kang Huaiying, Ni Lingli, Peng Wei, Song Xiling, Ye Zhihong, Yu Zhou, Zhang Laiju. The bylaw was passed on October 17, 1998 by the whole organization of VT-ACSS through the VT-ACSS list---"VT-ACSS").

© Copyright 2003 VT-ACSS. All rights reserved.