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Respiration Section
Statement of Organization and Procedures
(July 1998, revised April 2005)

ARTICLE I.  Name

The name of this organization is the Respiration Section (RS) of the American Physiological Society.

ARTICLE II.  Purposes

The purposes of this Section are to:

• Assist the Society, through representation on the Joint Program Committee, in the organization of the scientific meetings of the Society.

• Advise the Society on matters of interest to the members of the Section.

• Nominate individuals for membership on Society committees.

• To recognize members who have made significant contributions to the affairs of the Section and the Society.

• Provide the President-Elect with recommendations of and supporting material for individuals to be nominated by the Society for awards.

• Be open to all members of the Society expressing an interest in Section membership.

ARTICLE III.  Membership

Membership is open to any member of the Society (student, affiliate, regular, emeritus, corresponding, or honorary) who wishes to become a member.  Section membership is conferred by designating Respiration Section as a primary, secondary, or tertiary section for affiliation through the APS Membership Services Department.

ARTICLE IV.  Officers

Section 1.  Steering Committee

The responsibility for management and supervision of the affairs of the Section shall be vested in a Steering Committee.  The members of the Steering Committee shall be the:  1) Chair, 2) Councillor/Chair Elect, 3) Section Program Committee Chair (SPC), 4) Program Committee Chair-Elect, 5)Secretary, 6) Treasurer, 7) Committee-on Committees Representative, 8) AJP: Lung Editor (ex-officio), 9) JAP Editor (ex-officio).  The SPC Chair will serve as the Section representative to the Joint Program Committee and the Section Chair will serve as the Section Advisory Committee Representative (SACR).  A quorum for conducting official business for the Section will be three of the seven members of the Steering Committee.  The Steering Committee will meet or converse twice yearly, i.e., at the annual spring meeting, at a fall conference of the Society, by conference call, or at the meeting of a parallel interest society.

Section 2.  Steering Committee Members and Their Duties

The Steering Committee members shall serve a three-year term and those terms shall overlap so that no more than one member of the Steering Committee shall be elected each year except in unusual circumstances.

The Chair shall call and chair meetings of the Steering Committee and supervise the election process in coordination with the Councillor (Chair-Elect).  The Chair may appoint committees that are necessary for the proper conduct of the affairs of the Section.

The Secretary shall keep the minutes of the Steering Committee and the membership list, prepare and send the newsletter to the membership of the Section.  The Treasurer shall maintain fiscal records.

The Section Program Committee Chair (SPC Chair) shall chair a committee composed of the members of the section’s steering committee, one or more new investigators who are working in exciting new areas of research, the editor of the parallel journal, and an SPC Chair-Elect.  The SPC shall be charged with developing the section’s scientific program for the Experimental Biology Meeting.  The SPC Chair will interact with the Society’s Joint Program Committee to ensure minimal overlap or redundancy with respect to other sections’ programming activities and to develop joint programs integrating more than one section.

Section 3.  Election of Officers and Terms of Office

The terms of office shall be for three years.  The Chair and SPC Chair both should have served on the Steering Committee prior to being elected to their respective offices.  Both officers will be elected by ballot vote of the regular membership with a primary affiliation in the Respiration Section.  Election will be by ballot distribution and counted by the Membership Services Department of the Society.  The election shall be scheduled to take place prior to the annual spring meeting of the Society.  Terms of office of all members of the Steering Committee will begin and end at the close of the annual spring meeting of the Society.

Section 4.  Nomination for Membership on the Steering Committee

Nominations for membership on the Steering Committee will be made annually, as appropriate, by the Section’s membership in response to a request by the Nominating Committee.  The Nominating Committee is chaired by the Councillor (Chair-Elect) and includes three additional members chosen from the active membership of the Section by the Councillor and the Section Chair.

ARTICLE V.  Dues

Dues will not be assessed.

ARTICLE VI.  Amendments and Quorum of the Membership

Section 1.  Amendments

Amendments to these procedures must be proposed in writing to the Steering Committee by five members at least two months prior to the annual meeting of the membership which normally will be held at the Society’s spring meeting.  The proposal must then be sent to the members prior to the annual meeting of the membership.  Amendment requires the approval of two-thirds of a quorum.

Section 2.  Quorum

The quorum for all membership business meetings is no less than 25 members of the Section.

ARTICLE VII.  Awards

Awards will be made as financial and other circumstances permit in order to recognize members of the Section and the Society who have made substantial contributions to the affairs of the Section and the Society.  Student and new investigator awards will also be made when appropriate.  Nominations for awards will be accepted when called for by instructions published in a newsletter.