Charter
Revised by the general meeting’s resolution on September 26, 2016.
§ 1 Form of Organization, Name
1 The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research will be constituted as a registered association.2 The association goes by name “Gesellschaft für sozioökonomische Bildung und Wissenschaft” with the addition e. V. (German for “registered association”) after the entry into the register of associations.
§ 2 Purpose, Objectives
(1) 1 The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research is a scientific professional association. 2 The association’s purpose is the promotion of science and research, scientific teaching and scientific-oriented education.
(2) 1 As a scientific association in the field of socioeconomics, the Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research is a multidisciplinary network.2 Its common foundation is the embedment of scientific institutions, organizations, agents and processes into society, politics, history, culture and nature. 3 The association commits itself to the principles of a methodological, paradigmatic, theoretical, and socio-political pluralism as well to an ethical reflection.
(3) The association’s purpose will especially be reached by the scientific discourse about phenomena and problems of socioeconomic teaching and education at universities, schools and other educational institutions.
(4) 1 The association promotes the exchange and cooperation between its members as well as the presence of socioeconomic mindsets within science, the general public and education. 2 It fosters the international scientific discourse, especially between Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
(5) The charter’s purpose mainly implies to execute scientific events as congresses, conferences or workshops, the work in sections, the publication and the promotion of scientific publications as well as scientific policy consultation.
§ 3 Common Public Interest
(1) The association exclusively and directly pursues non-profit purposes in the context of the charter’s paragraph “tax-privileged purposes”.
(2) 1 The associations acts without economic interest. 2 It does not primarily pursue commercial purposes.
(3) 1 The association’s resource must only be used according to the charter’s purposes. 2 The members do not receive any grants from the association’s resources. 3 No person must benefit from spending that differs from or is unknown to the association’s purposes or any other highly disproportional compensation.
§ 4 Place of Business
The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research’s place of business is located in Cologne.
§ 5 Business Year
The business year corresponds to the calendar year.
§ 6 Membership
(1) Members of the association can be natural and legal individuals as well as an association of individuals with legal capacity, presupposed that they are willing to promote the association’s aims and purposes.
(2) 1 The contract of admission must be submitted in writing. 2 The board decides about the applications for membership with ordinary resolution. 3 The board updates the members of the board about the resolution via mail. 4 The admission becomes effective in the case that at least three members of the board do not object the admission in writing within one month. 5 In this case, the members of the meeting ultimately decide.
(3) The memberships are linked to the obligation of respecting the association’s code of honor as rules of conduct of a well-functioning scientific collaboration.
(4) 1 The association withdraws annual fees from its members. 2 The annual fees have to be paid by the beginning of every business year. 3 During well-reasoned circumstances, the board of members may reduce the annual fees, pause them temporarily or relieve its members of the full extent of the fees.
(5) 1 The membership ends with death, for legal individuals and other associations of individuals with legal capacity with the loss, dismissal, cancellation or exclusion from their legal capacity. 2 The exit from the association is carried out by a written statement to one authorized member of the board. 3 The exit can only be executed by the end of a business year and should be submitted by September 30 at the latest.
(6) The board can exclude members, when, despite two written warnings, the annual fees are not (completely) paid.
(7) 1 The board or at least three members can propose the exclusion of a member to the general meeting of members, if said member violates the acknowledged rules of scientific work abrasively, aggrieves the association abrasively, or if said member’s civil rights or academic degree are detracted. 2 The general meeting of members rules over this decision with a two-thirds majority.
§ 7 The Association’s Agencies
The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research’s agencies are:
The general meeting of members;
The board (of management);
The sections, which are established by the general meeting of members;
The ethics committee.
§ 8 The General Meeting of Members
(1) 1 The general meeting of members consists of all members of the association. Here, every member has a vote. 2 The general meeting usually meets at least every two years and is called in by the chair(wo)man who informs the attendees about the agenda at least four weeks before the meeting in writing via either a letter or e-mail. 3 Preferably, the meeting takes place in combination with another association’s event.
(2) The general meeting’s duties particularly include the:
Resolution about proposals of amendments to the association’s charter and proposals about the association’s dissolution;
Resolution about sections’ establishment or dissolution;
Election of board members;
Acceptance of the statements of account by the board and the board’s exoneration;
Resolution about the determination of membership fees notwithstanding § 6, section 4, third sentence of the charter.
(3) Every properly called general meeting of members is competent to have a quorum. The meeting decides with a simple majority of the received votes.
(4) A two-thirds majority of the received votes is necessary in order to conclude amendments to the association’s charter. § 13 of the charter applied to the association’s dissolution.
(5) The general meeting of members’ resolutions must be documented in a protocol, which will be signed by the chair(wo)man or the secretary.
§ 9 Board (of Management)
(1) The board consists of the chair(wo)man, the deputy chair(wo)man, and two to seven additional selected members.
(2) 1 The board will be nominated for 2 years. 2 A reelection is possible. 3 The chair(wo)man and deputy chair(wo)man should, at most, have a continuous mandate for six years. 4 If one member of the board should drop out during the term, the board can replace the mandate temporarily until the next general meeting of members.
(3) The board obligates itself to adopt rules of procedure.
(4) 1 In the context of constituent meeting, the board elects a bursar and an agent for young academics. 2 The board can delegate special competences to other members of the management.
(5) 1 The board establishes an ethics committee. 2 The ethics committee consists of three members and will be active if necessary. 3 One member of this committee acts as the person of trust for the association’s members in case of ethical problems.
(6) 1 In the association’s name, the board gives out prizes and awards. 2 In this case, a jury is selected.
(7) 1 For particular task areas, the board can establish work groups. 2 Every established work group appoints one representative.
(8) 1 The board can establish an advisory council for the association. 2 The members of this advisory council must be approved by the general meeting of members. 3 The advisory council advises the board and supports the concerns of society, science, the general public and politics.
(9) The board can establish an office and elect a director.
(10) The association will be judicially and extrajudicially represented by two members of the board, among them are the chair(wo)man or the deputy chair(wo)man.
§ 10 Sections
(1) 1 The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research’s general meeting of members can establish sections for particular topics. 2 The resolution can also be conducted according to § 8 (5) and (6) of the charter. 3 Sections serve as forums for a continuous scientific discourse and for the initiation of collaboration in research and education.
(2) 1 The sections elect a representative with a simple majority by an open ballot. 2 The representative must be a member of the association. 3 The representative immediately informs the management about the election.
(3) The section’s representative reports regularly (at least every two years) about the section’s activities to the board and the general meeting of members.
(4) The general meeting of members can conclude on the dissolution of a section that has neither reported any activities nor organized any events or can document any publications.
§ 11 Cash Audit
(1) 1 The general meeting of members elects two cash auditors who are neither part of the management nor of any committee appointed by the management. 2 The cash auditor’s term of office is two years long. 3 However, they remain in office until their successor’s election. 4 The general meeting of members can elect a deputy cash auditor, who succeeds this mandate if the cash auditor drops out.
(2) 1 At least once per year, the cash auditors check the factual and arithmetical correctness of the association’s overall cash register including all accounts, accounting documents and other bills. 2 They make reports on the budget situation to the board and also to the general meeting of members.
§ 12 Privacy Protection
(1) Exclusively for the fulfillment of the association’s purposes and considering the legal requirements of the “German Federal Data Protection Act” (German: BDSG), personal data about member’s personal and factual conditions will be registered, saved, transmitted and changed.
(2) Every association’s member has the right:
To access information about the data saved regarding oneself;
For the correction of one’s personal data, if incorrect;
For the inhibition of one’s personal data, if claimed mistakes can neither be verified nor falsified;
For the erasure of one’s personal data, if the storage was improper.
(3) 1 The association’s institutions, their members or any other individuals who act in the association’s name are forbidden to process, publish or allow third parties to access personal data unauthorized for any other purpose than the fulfillment of the task. 2 This obligation is valid even after the retirement of the above mentioned individuals from the association.
§ 13 Dissolution
(1) The Association for SocioEconomic Education and Research’s dissolution is carried out by the general meeting of members’ resolution.
(2) The resolution of dissolution requires a majority of at least three quarters of the registered votes.
(3) 1 In case of the association’s dissolution or abolishment or discontinuation of its original purpose, the assets go to “The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V.” (DFG, German Research Foundation), Bonn. 2 The DFG must directly and exclusively spend the assets on nonprofit purposes for the promotion of socioeconomic research and education.