[-> Japanese version]
Constitution of the Society for Quality Assurance in Molecular Diagnostic Testing

Enacted on January 12, 2002
ARTICLE I - NAME AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
  1. The name of this Society is the Society of Assured Molecular Diagnostic Tests.
  2. The URL of its home page is http://sqamt.umin.jp/.
  3. Its contact address by e-mail is sqamt-adm@umin.ac.jp.
  4. Its official languages are English and Japanese.

ARTICLE II - PURPOSE AND STRATEGY
  1. The purpose of this Society is to promote the study of controlling variance of molecular diagnostic tests and assuring accuracy of their results, to exchange related knowledge among its members and to recommit its profits to the public.
  2. The following are its strategies to achieve these goals:
    1. The holding of scientific meetings
    2. The publication of scientific journals and other material in electronic format
    3. The planning and negotiation of international and interdisciplinary collaboration for research, investigation and development.
    4. The collection and exchange of related scientific information
    5. The administration of a home page.

ARTICLE III - MEMBERSHIP
  1. Individuals and organizations approving the purpose of this Society and following the registration procedure decided by the President shall become its members.
  2. Member organizations shall be required to make entry of one delegate each per unit to exercise their members' rights.
  3. Under the following circumstances, a member shall lose his/her membership of this Society:
    1. When a member follows the withdrawal procedure decided by the President, and
    2. When there is no response for more than one year from a member to the inquiries sent to his/her registered contact address.

ARTICLE IV - MEMBERSHIP FEES
  1. This Society shall charge no membership fees.
  2. Those who receive its publications or notifications via printed media shall have to pay by themselves the printing and mailing expenses.

ARTICLE V - DIRECTORS
  1. The Directors of this Society shall be composed of the Executive Directors and two Auditors.
  2. The Executive Directors shall be the following:
    1. The President
    2. A chairperson or two chairpersons of the executive committee for conducting scientific meetings
    3. The Secretary
    4. A small number of other Executive Directors appointed at the request of the President.
  3. The President shall be elected by the membership from among individual members and the terms of office of the President shall be two years after the election.
  4. The two Auditors, who cannot contemporaneously be Executive Directors, shall be elected by the general membership from among appropriate individuals (whether members or non-members) and the terms of the Auditors' office shall be two years after of election.
  5. The Executive Directors (other than the President) shall be appointed at the request of the President.

ARTICLE VI - MANAGEMENT
  1. The President shall be the principal Officer and the only representative of this Society.
  2. The Secretary shall act as deputy for the President when the President is unable to perform his/her official duty.
  3. The Directors shall not receive any salary or pecuniary compensation to cover expenses incurred in course of performing their official duty.
  4. The President shall make a statement of accounts and an annual report of activities, shall get comments of the Auditors on these, and place these before the members within three months of the last day of the corresponding fiscal year of this Society.
  5. The fiscal year of this Society shall be from January 1 to December 31.

ARTICLE VII - AMENDMENTS
  1. Amendments to this Constitution shall come into force only when voted in by the members.