ISSA BY-LAWS

A Shortened Summary for Quick Reference

This is our quick-reference summary of the organization's By-Laws. We thought this would be useful if our members needed to double-check something without sorting through 14 pages of legalese! You can read the full version of our By-Laws here.

1. There are four types of Memberships: Single, Household, Honorary, and Introductory. Honorary and Introductory do not pay dues, nor do they have voting rights, though they may choose to upgrade to a regular membership and pay dues as normal to gain them.
2. Introductory memberships are free and are granted to puppy buyers for a variable length of time depending on when they acquired their pup.
3. Single memberships are $25 per year or $60 for three years. Household memberships are $40 a year or $100 for three years.
4. Dues are due on January 1st for everyone.
5. If you join the club after September 1st with a paying membership, your membership is not up for renewal for an extra cycle—so, you won’t owe dues after only being a member for a month or three. Instead, your membership will renew on the following year, so if you joined in September of 2020, you wouldn’t have to renew until January 1st of 2022.
6. The Board doesn’t vote on new members; the Member Coordinator reviews the application, checks the reference given, verifies payment with the Treasurer, and makes the call to approve the member. The only time the Board would be asked for input would be if there was a question regarding an application. We wanted applications to be processed faster so that people weren’t kept waiting.
7. Memberships can terminate in three ways: voluntary resignation, failure to pay dues, or, in extreme cases, via expulsion due to disciplinary measures.
8. The Club fiscal year begins January 1st and runs through December 31st. The Club’s official year, which dictates such things as officer terms, begins November 1st (the first day of the first month after the National) and runs through October 31st of the following year. The awards year for calculating annual awards such as Grand Victor begins at the first day of the National show event and ends just before the next National.
9. The Annual Meeting of the ISSA Club will be held within one day of the National event and sufficiently near the location of the National. A Quorum for purposes of voting is 15% and includes proxies. A Quorum is not required to count the ballots of the Board Elections.
10. Article III Section 6: Future Technology Clause. To quote, “As advances in technology permit, the Board should make every effort to embrace and utilize technology that allows more members to interface remotely, in real-time, with the running of the Club as occurs during Annual and Special Club Meetings.”
11. There are seven officers on the ISSA Board of Directors and ALL the positions are elected. None are appointed. The positions include the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Member Coordinator, Registry Liaison, and International Advisor. Please see the complete By-Laws for descriptions of each position’s responsibilities.
12. The Board Elections are held every three years.
13. To run for the Board you need to be a member in good standing, to have been a member for three years or more, and to have attended at least two annual meetings over the course of your membership. These requirements are waived for the first election cycle as the club hasn’t yet been in existence for three years.
14. The Club is bound by law to carry general liability insurance. It also carries events liability insurance to cover events it sanctions.
15. Voting that needs to be done by the membership at meetings will be done by those present in-person or who submit a request for a proxy. For important stuff like the Board elections or amendments, the Club will set up a system for and accept mailed-in votes.
16. The Club can create standing committees or temporary committees, may appoint members for committees or ask for volunteers, and may dissolve such at their discretion.
17. If you wish to lodge a grievance, you need to be a member in good standing, pay a $25 fee (refundable if the grievance is upheld), and your grievance must meet the following requirements: it must be reported in a timely fashion (within 30 days) and it must concern a specific action or behavior at an ISSA-sponsored event, on ISSA-sponsored social media, or concerning the actions or behavior of an ISSA Licensed Breeder. In addition, it must concern an action or behavior inappropriate to the spirit of the Club’s Constitution and purpose; harmful to the reputation of the Club; or which had a significant negative impact on a portion of the club’s membership. To file a grievance, contact the Club Secretary, Anne Becker, at info@shiloh-shepherd.com.
18. The Club can be dissolved only by a 2/3rds vote of the membership. In the event of its dissolution, all Club assets go to a charitable organization for the benefit of dogs selected by the Board of Directors.
19. The ISSA has rules for creating regional chapters, and in the future we will have rules to offer support to individual members who do not have a chapter but who would like to run an ISSA-sponsored event.
20. The Club is not run for profit and no member or officer may profit from the Club's activity, though they may be reimbursed for expenses incurred in the course of Club operations.

You can read the full version of our By-Laws here.

You can review our guiding principles and purpose in our Constitution, here.

You can go to our Breeders page here!

Looking for your own Shiloh Shepherd puppy? Read about our upcoming litters here!