Article I
Name of the Organization
a) The Caucus will be known as “The Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus” (MDPAAC).
b) It is incorporated in the state of Missouri in the United States of America.
Article II
Purpose of this Organization
The purpose of this organization shall be:
a) To stimulate an active interest in Asian American relating to political and governmental affairs.
b) To facilitate Asian American participation in the Democratic Party.
c) To promote the ideas and principles of the Democratic Party
d) To attract new members to the Asian American Democratic Caucus of Missouri.
e) To help acquaint Asian American voters with the political and governmental issues.
f) To encourage and seek Asian American candidates for public office and explain positions of other political candidates to Asian American voters.
g) And to bring all Asian American under the values of Democratic Party and to promote the highest degree of governmental response to Asian American needs by our collective efforts.
Article III
Policy
Section I. This organization shall not endorse or support the candidacy of any person for public office prior to nomination by the Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus or in any manner give its influence as an organization the caucus of any candidate or fraction of the party, other than in an election campaign.
Section II. This organization may actively support and by appropriate means nominees of the Democratic Party in National, State and Local elections. It shall endeavor to maintain permanent contact with the voters throughout the area and shall function continuously in order that it may contribute to the growth and influence of the Caucus of Asian American Democrats of great state of Missouri.
Section III. This organization shall be responsible and committed to affirmative action goals within the Democratic Party.
Article IV
Membership
Section I. Any person who is a Democrat is eligible for membership. Person other than Asian American are eligible to be associate members with voting right if approved by the membership.
Section II. To preserve the Caucus main Identity as MDPAAC, MDPAAC must maintain the 80% of Asian - American and 20% of Non-Asian - American membership criteria.
Section III. Admission is on receipt of dues or as otherwise provided for by the Executive Committee.
Section IV. Members may be suspended for causes and in cases of exceptional gravity may, by three-fourth vote of the membership, be expelled. Any members so expelled shall have the right to appeal the members in good standing by a written motion. A special meeting shall be called to hear the appeal.
Article V
Opening new Chapter
Opening new chapters of the Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus statewide shall comply with the Rules, Regulation, Ethics, and By-Laws of the Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus and the Democratic Party. The new Chapters of Caucus shall be established to the Missouri statewide 114 counties based.
Article VI
Officers
Section I.
a) The state committee of the organization shall be called as “Statewide Board” or “Board”. The “Board” of MDPAAC shall consist of the following officers.
i. Chairperson,
ii. 1st Vice-Chairpersons
iii. 2nd Vice-Chairperson
iv. Executive Secretary
v. Organizing Secretary
vi. Treasurer
vii. Director of Membership
viii. Director of Outreach/Election Campaign
ix. Director of Fundraising/Finance
x. Director of Communication/IT
xi. Director of Operations
These board officers shall be elected upon election and voting by the members of MDPAAC.
b) The board shall appoint committee chairs and will approve membership of each committee upon recommendations by its chairperson. Following will be MDPAAC “Standing Committees”.
i. Rules and by-laws
ii. Finance
iii. Publicity
iv. Health-care
v. Education
vi. Social Services
vii. Legal Affairs
viii. Community Development
ix. Immigration and Homeland Security
x. Business and Commerce
Each of the standing committee shall have one chair and four (4) members. If needed, the organization shall create ad-hock committees according to the need of the Caucus.
Section II. The duties of each office shall be:
a) The chairperson shall be presiding at all general meetings of the organization, serve as the spokesperson for the organization and appoint committees as needed to fulfill the purpose of the organization.
b) The 1st vice-chairperson shall assist the chairperson in preparation of all meetings and special events.
c) The 2nd vice-chairperson shall assist both the Chairperson and the 1st vice-chairperson and work collaborative and is the back-up of 1st vice-chairperson. In addition, 2nd vice-chairperson shall be responsible for establishing new chapters of the Caucus statewide.
d) The Secretary shall keep all minutes of the organization and shall maintain and prepare all general correspondence of the organization. At the termination of the office, the secretary shall release to the successor all records. The secretary shall submit the minutes of the previous meeting to the Caucus membership for its disposition.
e) The Organizing Secretary shall assist the Executive Secretary and shall be responsible for establishing new chapters of the MDPAAC statewide. The Organizing Secretary also shall be the liaison between the ad hock committees (if any) and the Caucus.
f) The Treasurer shall be the custodian off all organization funds and shall disburse them at the direction of the membership. All checks shall be signed by the Treasurer, and either the Secretary or the Chair, except when the Secretary and Treasurer positions are combined, and authority is given to the Secretary / Treasurer by the Chair to make payments because of distance or time constraints. The Treasurer shall present a written report, containing all receipts and disbursement at each regular meeting. The Treasurer shall collect dues and keep the Director of Membership informed of the current roster of active members. At the termination of office, the Treasurer shall have an audit conducted by an independent firm for presentation to the organization. The Treasurer shall submit a current financial report to the Caucus at the 1st Saturday of April in Each year during the annual meeting of the organization.
g) The Director of Membership shall be responsible for maintaining an accurate listing of all membership as well as conducting systematic events and activities to increase the number of members by promoting Membership drive.
h) The Director of Outreach / Election Campaign shall be responsible for outreaching the diverse Asian American Communities and shall be conducting systematic campaigns on behalf of the Caucus to support the Democratic Candidates for national, state and local elections.
i) The Director of Fundraising / Finance shall be responsible for fundraising and act as the liaison between the statewide board and the Finance Standing Committee.
j) The Director of Communication / IT shall be responsible for the technological support and act as the liaison between the Executive Committee and the Publicity standing committee and support the Caucus for technological needs.
k) The Director of Operations shall be the liaison between all other directors of MDPAAC. The Director of Operations shall be responsible for all type of operational and logistical supports. The Director of Operations and the Organizing Secretary shall work closely to establish the Caucus Counties Chapters.
Committee Chairs:
The board will appoint chair persona for committees to achieve its objectives in areas of interest to MDPAAC membership.
i) The Chair for Rules and by-laws shall be responsible for originating all amendments to the by-laws, conduct all elections and all hearing of violations of the by-laws and write the rules for meetings. The Rules chairperson shall also serve as the Caucus Parliamentarian.
ii) The Chair for Finance shall devise ways and means of financing, sustaining and promoting the organization.
iii) The Chair for Publicity shall be responsible for coordinating all publicity for the organization.
iv) The Chair for the Health-care shall be responsible to deals with the citizen’s issues about their health care. The Health-care chair shall act as the advocate of MDPAAC and conduct business as the liaison between the governmental agency and the MDPAAC.
v) The Chair for Education shall be responsible to indicate and find issues of the government and establish the education based issues that MDPAAC will work on. The Chair of Education also is responsible for advocating the young college bound Asian American and bring them to have a better understanding of MDPAAC and help the organization recruiting the students in the MDPAAC.
vi) The Chair for Social Services shall be responsible for conducting social service related activities and also act as the liaison between the MDPAAC and the government agency of Social Services.
vii) The Chair for Legal Affairs shall be responsible for educating the membership about legal matters and act as the liaison between the governmental agency and MDPAAC in term of influencing the leadership for ongoing legal issues.
viii) The Chair for Community Development shall be responsible for community development among the Asian American communities in the state of Missouri. Also act as the liaison between the MDPAAC and the Governmental agency.
ix) The Chair for Immigration and Homeland Security shall act as the liaison between the MDPAAC and the Government agency. The chair of Immigration and Homeland Security takes a key role finding the ongoing issues of the immigrants that need to be addressed in a political point of view.
x) The Chair for Business and Commerce shall act as the liaison between the MDPAAC and the Government business agency. The chair of Business and Commerce shall act as the business representative of MDPAAC.
Section III. The officers shall be elected at the 1st Saturday of April during the Annual Meeting of the organization by a majority vote of the membership present and voting. Officers shall hold and office for not more than four (4) years. Should a vacancy occur the membership should, by special meeting, elect by majority vote and a serve no more than two (2) consecutive terms in the same office. Election of the officers shall be by secret ballot.
Section IV. The order of succession shall be:
a) Chairperson
b) 1st Vice Chairperson
c) 2nd Vice Chairperson
d) Executive Secretary
e) Organizing Secretary
f) Treasurer
g) Director of Membership
h) Director of Outreach / Election Campaign
i) Director of Fundraising / Finance
j) Director of Communication
k) Director of Operations
Section V. The Executive Committee shall consist of the Chairperson, the 1st Vice Chairperson, the 2nd Vice-Chairperson, the Executive Secretary and the Treasurer. Rest of the officers of the State Board including the Executive Committee shall be called at large the “The Board of Director” (BOD). State wide Board shall have five (5) at large members elected from the general membership. There shall be no more than three (3) people (including officers) elected to serve on the Executive Committee from any area.
a) The Executive Committee shall be responsible for the
implementation of the mission statement and conduct
routine Caucus business.
b) The Executive Committee shall select and use the
MDPAAC’s official financial institution for the banking
operation of the Caucus.
Article VII
Meetings
Section I. There shall be three (3) regularly scheduled Caucus meetings in a year.
a) During the MDPAAC annual celebration on the 1st Saturday of April each year. The Caucus will convene its annual organizational meetings. The place and time will be decided upon by the membership and will be posted on the party’s website and marked in the Meetings and activities.
b) 1st Saturday of August of Each year, the place and time will be decided upon by the membership and will be posted on the party’s website and marked in the Meetings and activities.
c) The third meeting will be at the 1st Saturday of December each year. The place and time will be decided upon by the membership and will be posted on the party’s website and marked in the Meetings and activities.
Notification of such meetings shall be made in writing to members at least fourteen (14) days prior to the meeting.
Section II. Special meetings may be called by a majority of the elected officers at time and place most convenient to the membership.
Section III. The Chairperson shall convene a special meeting upon receipt of written petition from 20% of the membership. The Executive Committee shall convene a special meeting within three (3) weeks of receipt of the petition and shall notify in writing the full membership at least ten (10) days prior to such meeting.
Article VIII
(a) Membership eligibility:
Section I. The Asian American Democrat Caucus of Missouri, consisting of both citizens and those who have Legal Residency (LR), and who would become potentials citizens of the United States of America in 1-7 Years, would like to use this political forum to present their positions on the concurrent issues that impact them in both political and governmental aspects.
Section II. Membership should be approved by the appropriate authority of MDPAAC.
(b) Membership Fees:
Section I. Membership Fees shall be charged as set forth in this section. Fees shall be $25.00 annually and shall expire one (1) year from the date on the face of the membership card.
Section II. Life memberships are available at a one time cost of $1000.00, payable in installments of at least $100.00 per year until paid in full.
Section III. Additional contributions may be requested as the membership deems necessary for the efficient operation of the organization.
Article IX
Voting
Section I. All decisions to be made by the general membership of the organization shall be by a majority vote of the members present and voting.
Section II. Only members who are present and current in their membership dues, and is in good standing shall be eligible to vote.
Article X
Amendments
Provision of these by-laws may be amended in the following manner. Any member desiring to so amend must propose the amendment or amendments and forward to the Rules and by-laws Chairperson. For such amendment the quorum is required and 2/3rd majority of voting members must be present and voting will full-fill the quorum. The membership of the organization shall be notified pursuant to article IV.
Article XI
No smoking
There shall be no smoking in any Caucus meeting.
Article XII
Rules of Order
The Caucus shall adopt Robert Rules of Order for governing all meetings.
Article XIII
Mission Statement
The mission of the Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus (MDPAAC) is to stimulate an active interest in Asian Americans relating to Political and Governmental affairs to facilitate Asian American participation in the Missouri Democrat Party, to promote the ideas and principles of the Democratic Party, and to encourage and seek Asian American candidates for public office and explain positions of other political candidates to Asian American voters. The Caucus shall also work with the Asian American Communities to bring their issues to the state and national political attention. We are the Asian- American Communities living in United States of America and exercising our Rights in the Main Stream Political Process. The mission statement shall be reviewed at the every 1st Saturday of April’s annual meeting. The membership will determine, by majority vote, if the mission statement will be changed or not. Changes shall be attached to the current MDPAAC by-laws.
Article XIV
Dissolution
The MDPAAC is perpetual and based on Mutual benefit, and upon dissolution of the Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus, all of its assets shall be given to the Missouri Democratic Party.