Article I - NAME

The name of this organization shall be the Royal Purple Ladies of the Night Internet Online Quilt Guild. Hereinafter R.P.L.O.T.N., RPLOTN, Association, Organization and/or Guild are used interchangeably.

Article II - PURPOSE

The purpose of RPLOTN is to bring together persons interested in quilts and quilt making by supporting and encouraging the present day art of quilt making through the Internet and/or emails. We strive to establish lines of communication among members for the stimulation of thought, exchange of ideas, mutual assistance and enhancement of individual strengths.

Article III - MEMBERSHIP

Section 1. The RPLOTN shall consist of any person who has paid the membership fee of $5.00 US funds. (Lifetime membership).

Section 2. A membership roster will be maintained by the Membership chairperson. Upon receipt of a member’s request to leave the guild, the member’s name shall be removed from the roster. Any former member wishing to rejoin will follow the same procedures as a new member.

Section 3. All members shall be required to confirm their email addresses on a yearly basis to remain on the active membership roster.

Article IV - ENROLLMENT FEE AND GUILD FUNDS

Section 1. The RPLOTN shall assess a lifetime enrollment membership fee of $5.00 US funds.

Section 2. Enrollment fees and Guild funds are to be used for the purpose of administration of the guild, including:

a) Membership Cards
b) Comfort/Charity work
c) Monthly newsletters and web page
d) Programs
e) Budget as voted by full active membership in 2004 is broken down as follows: 30% of total treasury at any given time goes for quilt batting, 30% of total treasury at any given time goes to backing fabric, 30% of total treasury at any given time goes for postage, 10% of total treasury at any given time goes for miscellaneous.

Section 3. For a member or chair to be reimbursed for approved expenses a copy of the receipt must be provided to the Treasurer and Recording Secretary. Any expenses over the allowed $50.00 US funds limit (as voted at the March 2005 business meeting) should be approved by the board and membership before the money is spent. These receipts will be retained as part of the official RPLOTN records.

Article V - OFFICERS

Section 1.  The Executive Officers of RPLOTN shall be President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Membership Chairperson and Treasurer. The Board of the RPLOTN shall consist of the President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Membership Chairperson, Treasurer, Immediate Past President (nonvoting position) and chairpersons of Board Committees.

Section 2. The Board shall serve without compensation. Expenses incurred may be reimbursed upon presentation of receipts for the approval of the Board or as covered by the bylaws.

Section 3. The President shall appoint a Nominating Committee no later than September 1st of each year. Members willing to serve as Executive Officers and Board Committee chairpersons shall let the Nominating Committee know of such interest. A slate of candidates shall be presented to the membership in the October Newsletter. Voting shall take place at the official RPLOTN web page voting site. The term of office shall commence on November 1st.

Section 4. The President shall preside at all meetings. He/she shall be responsible for calling meetings of the Board, as needed. The President shall cast deciding votes in case of a tie. This person is not the President of the chat room but the President of the RPLOTN Guild.

Section 5. The Vice President shall perform all duties of the President in the absence or inability of the President to so perform. The Vice President shall be chairperson of the Programs Committee.

Section 6. The Recording Secretary is responsible for taking and maintaining minutes of all Monthly and Board meetings held during his/her term of office. Minutes will be sent to each member of the Board within one week of the meeting, for approval. The Newsletter Chairperson will receive an approved copy of the minutes to be posted in the official RPLOTN newsletter. The Recording Secretary is also responsible for notifying the members of the guild of any upcoming events, through mass email, by using the special email address set up on the official RPLOTN web page. If he/she is unable to send a mass email at the time needed, he/she must contact the President so that the President can do the mass email. All records of past meetings (minutes) will be passed to the new Recording Secretary on November 1.

Section 7. The Treasurer will be responsible for receiving and dispersing all guild monies and at each business meeting shall provide an itemized report of all transactions and current balance. The report will be published each month in the Newsletter at the official RPLOTN web page, in the Treasurer's Report Section. Copies of actual bank statements will be provided to any member requesting such. The Treasurer shall also submit a yearly report to the Newsletter Chairperson for publication in the November issue covering the completed term in office.

Section 8. Two signatures are needed on the checking account, Treasurer’s and President’s, but only one signature is needed on checks, Treasurer's or President's. The President shall keep a few blank checks in hand to cover needs should the Treasurer be unable to fulfill his/her duty in case of emergency.
The Treasurer may continue to present himself/herself for election with a limit of three years.

Section 9. The Membership Chairperson may continue to present himself/herself for election without the two consecutive years term limit.

Section 10. When a Board position becomes vacant, it shall be filled by recommendation of the President, subject to the approval of a majority of the Board. An Officer or Chairperson has an obligation to stay in contact with the guild. If there has been no communication from a Board member in a 30 day period, the President shall attempt to contact him/her by email, phone or letter.

Section 11. A Board Member can be removed from office by petition of the membership. If the membership feels that a board member deserves to be removed from office, a petition is submitted to the Board. The petition is then posted on the official RPLOTN Newsletter or Web site for acceptance or rejection. Decision is carried by a majority vote of participating members at the web page voting site. Votes will be counted by the Board's appointed, neutral committee.

Article VI - BOARD COMMITTEES

Board Committees may consist of:

a) Programs (Vice President)
b) Comfort/Charity
c) Newsletter
d) Birthdays
e) Warm Hearts
f) Secret Sewing Sisters
g) Swaps
Chairpersons of standing committees will be nominated by the Nominating Committee. Approval is through the majority of voting members at the official RPLOTN web page voting site. They will hold these positions for one year. A member may serve no more than two consecutive terms, in the same position, except for the current Newsletter Chairperson and/or Membership Chairperson who may continue to present himself/herself for election without the two consecutive years term limit. See Treasurer (Article V, Section 8).

A Chairperson can have one or more assistants as needed. The Chairperson shall be the voting member of the Board. Assistants to the Chairpersons will be encouraged to participate in Board meetings, but only the Chairperson can vote.

Section 1. The Program Chairperson (Vice President) and his/her Committee will be responsible for getting quilt instructors to offer chat sessions with our members. The programs should be in some way quilt related. Unrelated programs can be presented if there is enough member interest. The entire membership of the guild should be encouraged to participate in programs as instructors, speakers, reporters, etc., as well as participants.

Section 2. The Comfort/Charity Chairperson (hereinafter called Chairperson) will act as a coordinator of comfort/charity donations by RPLOTN. He/she shall manage the block bank and keep an inventory of all items donated for comfort/charity. The Chairperson will present a program for generating donations of blocks, batting, backing and fabric to the Comfort/Charity Bank.

As a member needs blocks for a charity, he/she will contact the Chairperson. The Chairperson will verify that the charity has a need and will benefit from, and accept, a donation of a quilt. Once verification has been made, blocks would be sent to the member who made the request. Should the request be unverifiable, the Chairperson would present the request and information to the RPLOTN Board for review, and let the final decision be up to them. The member will put the quilt together and donate it to that group. The member will be required to give the Chairperson a photo of the finished project, a letter of receipt from the person or organization who receives the quilt, as well as copies of any publicity that goes with this donation.

The guild will pay the expenses of the Chairperson as outlined in Article IV. The Comfort/Charity Chairperson will start with and keep $100.00 US funds petty cash on hand, as voted by membership.

Section 3. The Newsletter Chairperson shall be responsible for publishing a monthly Guild newsletter online at the official RPLOTN web page located at "http://www.rplotn.com/" that may include among other things; reports from all board members and committee chairs, quilt patterns, notices of quilt events, all programs as far in advance as known, show and tell, interviews with members, and other items of interest. A list of Officers, standing Committee Chairpersons, and current bylaws should be kept on line. The Newsletter Chairperson may continue to present himself/herself for election without the two consecutive years term limit.

Section 4. The Birthday Chairperson shall be responsible for sending Birthday or Anniversary greetings to all active members. The Birthday Chairperson is responsible for maintaining a list of members' birthdays or special days by working with the Membership Chairperson and will submit the list to the Newsletter Chairperson as needed to be updated.

Section 5. The Warm Hearts Chairperson shall be responsible for sending sympathy cards, new baby cards, or other warm heart greetings as required. These should not be mass emails but individual greetings. Warm Hearts is not responsible for organizing any group projects.

Section 6. The Swaps Chairperson shall be responsible for maintaining a list of RPLOTN member-hosted swaps and round robins. The Swaps Chairperson will submit to the newsletter on a monthly basis an updated list, including swap title and the host, a description of the swap, the start and end dates of the swap, and the email address of the host. The Swaps Chairperson will maintain a list of unreliable hosts and will not publish the swaps of these hosts. The Swaps Chairperson is not the coordinator of the Fabric Stash swaps board and is not responsible for listings on that board.

Section 7. The Secret Sewing Sister Chairperson shall coordinate the program by collecting bios from members interested in participating and shall assign sisters. She shall serve as an intermediary for electronic and other mail (postage prepaid) and provide suggestions for cyber-messages and other communications. The yearly program will begin January 1 and terminate October 31. In the event a Secret Sewing Sister does not fulfill her commitment, the Chairperson shall attempt to rectify the situation. A new SSS may be assigned if necessary.
A list of all SSS participants will be published in the Newsletter at the official RPLOTN web page site in December, after active participants have had their revealing. The fact that a list will be published at the end of the year should go out with every bio.>

Section 8. Ad hoc Committees may be established at the discretion of the President or Board. The ad hoc Committee will address a specific issue or task, then will be dissolved when the task has been completed.

Article VII - MEETINGS

Section 1. General Guild meetings will be held once a month on a regular basis, date set each year by the President. Meetings will be held in the Fabric Stash, or in another chat-style format that is accessible to the members if the Fabric Stash proves inadequate. An Agenda will be provided in advance through the official RPLOTN web page. Members wishing to have a topic of discussion on the agenda should have their request in to the President by a given date so that the President may add his/her concern. There will be a time on the agenda when members will be allowed to air their concerns and make suggestions. Simple, commonplace motions will be carried by the affirmative vote of a simple majority of those present at the meeting. Major events and motions will be carried by the affirmative vote of the full active membership through the official RPLOTN web page voting site, with votes tallied by a two person committee set up by the Board. This allows full membership participation since worldwide time zones are not conducive to full membership attendance at monthly meetings. The Board will decide when a vote is considered simple or major.

Section 2. Board meetings will be held once a month on a regular basis as chat sessions in the Fabric Stash chat room. Board meetings are open to the full membership. Special meetings may be called by the President or by petition of one half of the Board. All Board members must be notified of special meetings at least 3 days in advance, and should RSVP within 36 hours. Motions made during Board meetings must have an affirmative vote from the majority of the entire Board. Minutes will be kept of every board meeting.

Section 3. Anyone may attend the meeting, but only ACTIVE members may vote or offer new business. Anyone asking a question (?) or making a comment (!) should display the proper sign and then wait to be recognized. A basic agenda should be published on the official RPLOTN Newsletter/Web page in advance of the meeting, listing specific business, so that those attending may plan their discussion. The agenda will be followed and meetings will last as long as necessary.

Article VIII - RULES OF ORDER

Robert's Rules of Order shall be used as the basis for procedures at all meetings.

Article IX - INTERNET

Section 1. The web master is a business position or administrative function and is not a voting board position. It’s currently being sponsored by Automated Quill Solutions Inc.
Section 2. A list of Officers, standing Committee Chairpersons, and current bylaws and meeting minutes should be kept on the official RPLOTN web site.

Article X - AMENDING BYLAWS

All proposed amendments to the Bylaws shall be posted in the newsletter at the official RPLOTN Newsletter/Web page site one month prior to voting there. Amendments to the Bylaws will be adopted by a majority vote of the active membership.

ARTICLE XI - GUILD DISBURSEMENTS

Upon closure of the guild, all inventory and cash WILL BE donated to a cause that the whole guild will support.