DDA Bylaws

Bylaws of the American Astronomical Society
Division on Dynamical Astronomy
Revised October 2023

I. Name

This Division of the American Astronomical Society (hereinafter called the "Society") shall be known as the "Division on Dynamical Astronomy".

II. Object

The object of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy (hereinafter called the "Division") shall be the advancement of all aspects of dynamical astronomy and coordination of such research with other branches of science. The field of dynamical astronomy contains but is not limited to the sub-fields of celestial mechanics, astrometry, geophysics, cosmology, and star and planet formation as well as Solar System, exoplanet, planetary system, stellar system, galactic, extra-galactic, relativistic, and astrophysical fluid dynamics.

III. Enabling Authority

Section 4.21 of the Society Bylaws, as revised in 2017 and as may be subsequently revised or amended, is hereby incorporated into these Bylaws by reference.

IV. Membership

Full Membership in the Division is open to all members of the Society by application to the Secretary of the Division and by payment of the first year's dues and such enrollment fee as may be adopted by the Committee. A member of the Division may resign from the Division by notifying the Secretary. Membership in the Division is contingent upon continuing membership in the Society and upon payment of such annual dues as the Division shall assess.

Affiliate Membership in the Division is provided for persons who are not members of the Society but who are members of another recognized professional organization with interests related to dynamical astronomy. An application for Affiliate Membership shall be sponsored by at least two regular members of the Division, and it shall be submitted to the Secretary of the Division. Whenever the total of Affiliate Members exceeds one third of the total of the regular Members of the Division, the applications shall be held in abeyance by the Secretary in the order in which they are received. Otherwise, each application shall be submitted in order to the Committee of the Division for approval or disapproval. Affiliate Members shall have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of regular Members, except that they may not hold any office in the Division. Affiliate Membership shall be terminated upon nonpayment of dues to the Division or upon written request to the Secretary by the individual.

Undergraduate Student Membership in the Division is open to currently enrolled undergraduate students who are currently members of the Society or another recognized professional organization with interests related to dynamical astronomy. Undergraduate Student Members shall have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of Full or Affiliate Members, depending on their membership in the Society.

Graduate Student Membership in the Division is open to currently enrolled graduate students who are currently members of the Society or another recognized professional organization with interests related to dynamical astronomy. Graduate Student Members shall have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of Full or Affiliate Members, depending on their membership in the Society.

Emeritus Membership in the Division is open to Emeritus Members of the Society, and the dues for the Division are waived. Emeritus Members shall have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of regular Members, except that they may not hold any office in the Division.

Any person of outstanding accomplishment in the area of dynamical astronomy may be elected an Honorary Member by the Committee upon nomination by two or more Full or Affiliate Members of the Division. Membership in the Society is not required. Recipients of the Brouwer Award are automatically designated Honorary Members. The total number of Honorary Members cannot exceed one sixth of the total Membership in the Division. Dues are waived for Honorary Members. Should Honorary Members choose to pay dues, they shall have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of Full Members.

V. Officers and Committee of the Division

The Committee of the Division (hereinafter called "the Committee") shall consist of the officers of the Division, the past Chair whose term has most recently expired (provided the full term was completed), and six elected Committee members. Three of these six committee members shall be elected to additionally serve as action coordinators for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA). All members of the Committee shall be members of the Division and the Society. The Committee shall have general charge of the affairs of the Division and, through the Chair or Secretary, shall report the activities of the Division to the Board of Trustees. The Committee may set an enrollment fee for new members, annual dues for all members, registration fees for meetings of the Division, or any combination of such fees and dues.

The officers of the Committee and of the Division shall be a Chair, a Vice-Chair, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. In addition to the duties specifically assigned to them by these Bylaws, the officers shall discharge the other duties usually incident to their respective offices.

The Chair shall call all meetings of the Committee and shall preside at all those meetings at which the Chair is present. With the advice and consent of the Committee, the Chair shall appoint any special committees which are necessary to conduct the affairs of the Division. The current Chair shall be an ex officio member of each special committee except the Nominating Committee.

The Vice-Chair may act for the Chair at the latter's request and shall act for the Chair in the event that the latter is incapacitated.

The Secretary shall send out necessary notices and announcements to the members of the Committee and to members of the Division. Announcements of meetings of the Division shall be prepared by the Secretary and transmitted to the appropriate officer of the Society for publication and distribution to all Society members at least nine weeks before the date of each meeting. The Secretary shall assist the Committee or the Program Committee with arrangements for the meeting and for the publication, if any, of the proceedings. The Secretary shall also prepare minutes of each meeting of the Committee and of the business sessions of the Division; the Secretary shall submit these minutes to each member of the outgoing and incoming Committee and to the Secretary of the Society within three weeks after each meeting. Within five days after each regular meeting of the Division, the Secretary shall ensure that the final abstracts of the papers are available to the Society for publication by the Society.

The Treasurer shall work with the Society to ensure collection of such enrollment fees and divisional dues as may be set by the Committee, to manage funds, and to make disbursements in accordance with the budget approved by the Committee. The Treasurer shall submit to the Committee an annual financial report based on financial data provided by the Society. After approval by the Committee and the members of the Division, the annual report shall be submitted to the Board of Trustees.

The Committee shall meet at least once each year. A request in writing from at least three members of the Committee shall render a convocation of an additional meeting of the Committee obligatory. Any member of the Committee unable to attend the meeting shall have the privilege of naming an alternate to the meeting without vote, subject to the approval of the Chair. At any meeting of the Committee, six of its voting members shall constitute a quorum. A minimum of three weeks notice will be given Committee members when calling a meeting of the Committee.

The Division website shall be maintained through the Society’s website. Committee members shall have access to the Division website to ensure that the content remains current. 

VI. Election and Tenure of Officers and Committee Members

The terms of office for officers and committee members shall be one year for Chair and Vice-Chair, three years for Secretary and Treasurer, and three years for Committee members and IDEA action coordinators. Each year, the membership shall elect one new general committee member, and one new committee member that shall also serve as an IDEA action coordinator. The term year shall be construed as running from 1 July to 30 June. At the end of the Chair's term of office, the Vice-Chair elected by the membership shall normally become a candidate for Chair. Except for Secretary and Treasurer, no member of the Committee is eligible for re-nomination to the same category of position until having been out of office one year. Neither a Secretary nor a Treasurer may serve more than two consecutive terms.

At the discretion of the Committee, the positions of Secretary and Treasurer may be combined to form a Secretary-Treasurer position to be held by a single individual. Similarly, the Committee may split the Secretary-Treasurer position into separate Secretary and Treasurer positions.

At each regular meeting of the Division, the Chair of the Division shall, with the advice and consent of the Committee, appoint one new member of a Nominating Committee. This individual shall not be a member of the new Committee of the Division or a new Officer. The term of members of the Nominating Committee shall be three years, beginning after the meeting at which they are appointed. The longest-serving member of the Nominating Committee shall serve as its Chair.

No later than February 1^st, the Nominating Committee shall submit to the Secretary nominations of at least one candidate for each vacancy for an officer and at least 1.5 candidates (rounded up) for each vacancy for Committee member. The Nominating Committee shall have ascertained the willingness of its nominees to serve if elected. If the incumbent Vice-Chair is unable or unwilling to assume the office of Chair, or if the incumbent Vice-Chair was appointed by the Committee, the Nominating Committee shall nominate at least one candidate for the office of Chair. No later than February 8^th, the Secretary shall report the list of nominations to all members of the Division and shall announce a deadline for write-in candidates, which shall be at least 14 days after the date of the announcement.

Any member of the Division proposed as a candidate for officer or Committee member by petition of not fewer than 12 members of the Division before the announced deadline for write-in candidates shall be deemed a candidate provided the nominee has stated to the Secretary a willingness to serve if elected and provided the Secretary with a brief biography and position statement.

The Nominating Committee should strive to keep both disciplinary and geographic balance on the Division Committee. The Division Committee may, at its discretion, instruct the Nominating Committee to make its nominations in such a form that each nominee is a candidate for a particular seat on the Division Committee.

Full members and Affiliate members of the Division are eligible to vote in the election of Officers. The Secretary of the Division shall work with the Society to prepare an online ballot containing the names of all candidates nominated according to Paragraphs 4-6 of this Article. The ballot and the candidates' brief biographies and position statements shall be available to all members of the Division through the Society’s website. Each member may cast one vote for each post of the Committee to be filled.  The vote will be closed not later than 15 days after it opens. All communications relating to the election will be carried out by email or other electronic means.  The ballots are tallied by the Society’s online voting system. In the event of a tie vote for any DDA officer, the current DDA chair will vote to break the tie. The DDA chair will normally not vote unless a tie must be broken. The Secretary shall report the results of the election to the Division members and the Secretary of the Society not later than 7 days after the close of voting.

A new Committee elected under the provisions of this Article shall take office immediately upon the first day of July following the election. 

The tenure of members of the Committee shall begin on 1 July following the regular meeting at which they are elected. An outgoing Secretary or Treasurer shall, however, remain responsible for statutory reports relative to the meeting at which the Secretary or Treasurer’s tenure ends..

If a vacancy occurs in the Committee, the Committee may appoint a member of the Division, to serve on the Committee until the next regular election, at which time the vacancy shall be filled by the regular procedure.

VII. Meetings of the Division

A meeting of the Division, to be known as the regular meeting, shall be held each year at such time and place as shall be decided by the Committee. This meeting shall include a business session, designated the Annual Business Meeting, devoted exclusively to the reports of officers and committees and to the transaction of business affairs. No scientific program of the Division shall be presented simultaneously with the business session.

Meetings of the Division other than the regular meeting may be scheduled by the Committee. Special conferences or symposia, when designated as being wholly or jointly sponsored by the Division, shall be announced to all members of the Division and of the Society and shall be open to all individuals who have the right to attend a regular meeting of the Division.

The dates and places of all meetings of the Division shall be chosen in consultation with the Board of Trustees or with an officer designated by the Board of Trustees. In order to facilitate the convening of the regular meeting in a given year, the Committee will establish a Local Organizing Committee (LOC). The LOC, which shall include the Division Treasurer, will be charged with planning and developing a budget for the meeting in conjunction with the Division Committee and the Society’s Executive Office and with making all of the necessary local arrangements. The LOC is directed to the latest edition of the DDA Meeting Organizing Procedures, as provided on the Division’s website, for specific tasks and a timeline for hosting a regular meeting of the Division.

All meetings of the Division shall be open to all members of the Society and to such other categories of participants and individuals as designated by the Committee or, by delegation, the Program Committee.

VIII. Appointed Special Committees

The Chair, with the advice and consent of the Committee of the Division, shall appoint the Nominating Committee, which shall have such duties as are specified in Article VI of these Bylaws, and such other special committees as conditions may demand.

The Chair, with the advice and consent of the Committee of the Division, shall appoint an IDEA prioritization committee with broad representation across minoritized identities in the field. IDEA action coordinators shall act as ex officio members of the IDEA prioritization committee. The IDEA prioritization committee shall meet at least once each year to discuss and prioritize division efforts around inclusion, diversity, equity and access.

All appointed special committees shall be considered to be automatically discharged at the close of the regular meeting next following their appointment unless specifically continued at that time by the Committee of the Division.

In case of vacancy on a committee, or the unwillingness of a member to serve, the Chair shall appoint a new member and shall inform the Division Committee of the action.

The Nominating Committee shall determine the slate of nominees for each elected position in the Division and the willingness of nominees to serve if elected.

IX. Programs

Meetings of the Division may include programs of invited papers, contributed papers, or such other format as designed by the Committee. The Committee may appoint a Program Committee and delegate to it the planning of programs, the selection of papers to be placed on the program, and arrangements for meetings.

The Committee of the Division shall require that abstracts for all papers, except for invited review lectures, intended for presentation at a meeting of the Division be submitted through the Society’s website in accordance with instructions of the Secretary of the Division. Within five days after each such meeting, the Secretary shall ensure that the Society has the final form of the abstracts so submitted for publication by the Society.

The Division may hold joint meetings with other Divisions of the Society as well as with other scientific groups.

X. Amendment of Bylaws

Proposals for amendments to these Bylaws may be made by the Board of Trustees, by the Committee of the Division, or by a petition to the Chair of the Division by not fewer than 15 members of the Division. After discussion of the proposed amendment by the Committee, the Secretary shall distribute, via electronic means, copies of the proposed amendment(s) to the Division membership for review and comment. The proposed amendment(s) shall also be reviewed and discussed at the next Division business meeting. The proposed amendment(s) shall then be distributed to the members of the Board of Trustees for their approval not less than three weeks prior to the next meeting of the Board of Trustees. Upon approval of the amendment(s) by the Board of Trustees, the Secretary shall provide ballots through the Society’s website containing the final wording of the proposed amendment(s), as approved by both the Division Committee and the Board of Trustees, to all members of the Division who shall vote through the Society’s website, as instructed in the Secretary's distribution of the ballot; the voting shall close not later than four weeks after the date of announcement of the ballot The adoption of an amendment shall require the affirmative vote of not fewer than two thirds of the members voting. An amendment, if passed, shall be transmitted to the Secretary of the Society.

XI. Suspension of the Bylaws

At the Regular Meeting, the chair may call for a two thirds vote of the members present to suspend individual articles of these bylaws until the next succeeding Regular Meeting.

At times other than the Regular Meeting, by a two thirds vote of the Committee, the Chair may suspend individual articles of these bylaws.

The Chair shall notify the Board of Trustees of any suspension of these bylaws.