1. The name of the Society shall be OPEN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY (OKS)

2. The Society is registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act of 1955.

Objectives

The Society shall assemble and discuss matters of public interest and mainly strive to achieve the objectives described below:-

• To promote actively the philosophy of open access and support organizations in establishing their institutional repositories and scholarly journal publishing

• To encourage a collaborative environment among the various open access initiatives and to act as a facilitator for commercial / governmental/academic writers and publishers to come together

• To act as an open access publisher to produce quality research journals

• To facilitate access to traditional knowledge and other knowledge repositories including libraries and archives

• To promote open and online education

• And ultimately to cultivate an atmosphere nationwide for the growth of quality research
  

Office

Registered office of the Society shall be at

No. XX/23, Akkara,
Angamaly- 683 572,
Ernakulam,
Kerala,
India

Area of operation of the Society shall be the whole of India

Membership

Membership of the Society shall be open to all individuals above 18 years of age, without any discrimination of race, sex or nationality and to the objectives of the Society. The individuals can take membership in representative capacity of Organizations and Institutions.

A member of the Society has the right to elect and to be elected.

Functioning of Society

• The funds of the Society shall consist of Admission fee, Subscription, Grants-in-aid received from State Government and Government of India, Donations and contributions from other sources and other incomes and receipts.

• All funds and properties of the Society shall be managed by the Executive Committee. Funds shall be deposited in an account with a scheduled bank. Approved cash transactions shall be carried out by any two of the President, Secretary or Treasurer.

• The accounts of the Society shall be audited by a Chartered Accountant annually. He shall be appointed by the General Body of the Society.

• All donations to the Society are nonrefundable.

General Body meeting

• The General Body consists of all the members of the Society.

• All members of the Society shall have the voting rights

• Each financial year shall be one year of the Society.

• General Body Meeting of the Society should be convened  not later than in every September month of each year.

• General Body Meeting should be convened in connection with the annual conference of the society, as a pre-conference event.

• The yearly Receipts and Expenditure Account, Balance Sheet and Budget shall be presented and approved by the General Body. This shall be filed at the office of the District Registrar within 21 days of the said General Body.

• Twenty five percent of the members of the Society shall form a quorum for the General Body meeting. Three members of the Executive Committee shall form the quorum for the Executive Committee meeting.

• Minimum 10 days notice shall be given to the members for meetings with specification of the date, time, venue and the business of the meeting.

• The General Body shall elect six members Executive Committee comprising President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and two executive members, for the day to day functioning of the Society. Election for the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and two executive members shall be conducted by secret ballot.

• It is the duty of all members to be present on all General Body Meetings.

• On normal circumstances if 50% or more members request in writing an extraordinary General Body shall be convened by the Secretary. If it is not convened by the Secretary the said members shall convene a General Body by them self and shall take decisions.

• Any changes in the Rules and Regulations should be intimated to the members 10 days in advance of the General Body by the Secretary. Three-forth members present in the General Body shall vote for the said changes to be valid.  The changed Rules and Regulation shall be filed at the Office of the District Registrar within 14 days of the said General Body.

• Balance sheet and receipts and expenditure statement of the Society shall be audited by a Chartered Accountant annually. He shall be appointed by the General Body of the Society.

• Powers to do lawful acts and make change as may be required with time and circumstances for the fulfillment of the above aims shall be with the General Body.

• Implementation of all policy decisions and projects approved by the General Body shall be the responsibility of the Executive Committee.

• If any Executive Committee member, members or Executive Committee doing any unlawful activity to jeopardize the existence of the Society shall be dismissed by the General Body.

• Only the general Body shall have the power to take a final decision on the matters regarding theft, missing or unable to recover the property of the Society.

Executive Committee

• The Society shall be administered by a governing body of Executive Committee which comprises President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and two executive members, elected by the General Body Meeting from amongst the eligible members of the Society.

• The Executive Committee shall nominate and enroll three individuals with their previous consent as advisory members on the basis of their record of meticulous service to any public cause. Every subsequent Governing Body would have at least one founder member as an advisory member.

• Every subsequent Governing Body would have at least one founder member as an Executive member apart from one nominated as advisory member.

• Quorum of the Executive Committee shall be three.

• The Executive Committee shall have full powers to manage the affairs of the Society according to the Rules and Regulations of the Society.

• The Executive Committee shall hold office for one year and shall be eligible for re-election provided, however, that the president shall not hold office for more than two consecutive terms.

• The standing Executive Committee shall be in charge until the new Executive Committee takes over the charge after the election.

• Online meetings and discussions through e-groups shall be official equivalent of the physical meetings in the case of Executive Committee meetings. The proceedings of said meetings and discussions, like emails and other digital records shall be considered as the official and legal documents of the Executive Committee meetings.
  

Office Bearers

1. President
   
   

   • To exercise such powers of functions as are provided by the regulation and such other powers as are delegated by the Executive Committee from time to time.

   • The President shall preside over all meetings of the Society and act as Chairman of the Executive committee.

   • All documents and records of the Society shall be in the name of the President.

   • He shall be an ex-officio member of all sub-committees of the Society and shall have the power to take any action not contrary to those present to meet an emergency, subject to report to the committee at the earliest feasible date.




2. Vice President
   
   

   • In the absence of the President the Vice president shall assume duties and powers as are delegated to him by the President.

   • Shall help the President in day to day administration.

   • Other duties decided by the Executive Committee.




3. Secretary
   

   The Secretary shall

   • be in charge of the correspondence and records of the Society

   • convene all general meetings of the Society and of the committee with the previous concurrence of the President

   • carry out such other work as may be entrusted to him by the committee and sue and be sued upon all matters relating to or affecting the Society

   • be the ex-officio webmaster of the society, who also controls the content of the websites along with the editor or publications of the Society.




4. Treasurer

   
   The Treasurer shall

   • Be in charge of all accounts of the Society including the opening of current/savings account and fixed deposit account with any scheduled bank approved by the Executive Committee and operating them jointly with the President or the Secretary in the manner prescribed by the Executive Committee

   • Prepare quarterly and annual financial statements and budget for submission to the committee

   • Accept money and issue receipts on behalf of the Society

   • An imprest amount shall be retained by the Treasurer for day to day requirements of the Society's activities. The Executive Committee shall be the deciding authority in fixing this amount.

   • Signed vouchers shall be filed for any amount spent.

   • Be in charge of pass books and cheque books. 

   • Official seal of the Society shall be affixed on all receipts issued on behalf of the Society

Cessation of Membership

A member of the Society ceases to be a member on

• resignation from membership by a letter addressed to the Secretary.

• suspension owing to nonpayment of dues till the end of the year.

• conduct prejudicial to the interest of the Society and

• on conviction of any offence in connection with the formation, promotion, management of conduct of the Society's affair.

• on death.

Dissolution

• Any number not less than three-fourths of the members of the Society may determine that it shall be dissolved, and thereupon it shall be dissolved forthwith, or at the time then agreed upon, and all necessary steps shall be taken for the disposal and settlement of the property of the Society. All aspects including the property and the funds of the Society shall be decided by the General Body.
  

• If upon the dissolution of the Society there shall remain, after the satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities, any property whatsoever, the same shall not be paid to or distributed among the members of the Society or any of them, but shall be given to some other registered Society with similar objectives. In case of non existence of such Societies the properties shall be taken up by the Government