ICU Bylaws 2014-04-23

BYLAWS OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES ON ULTRASONICS
Preamble
In order to promote international exchange in and the advancement of the general field ofultrasonics, these Bylaws of the International Congresses on Ultrasonics are hereby promulgated.
These Bylaws supersede the previous document titled "Bylaws of the International Congresses
on Ultrasonics" (2011 version). See kernel document: UI-WCU-ICU Genesis.
Article 1: The Board of the ICU
1.a. The Board shall act as ultimate authority on all matters concerning the ICU.
1.b. The Chair of the Board shall be elected by its members through a secret ballot. Since theChair shall normally be the President of the preceding Congress, the selection of the President ofan upcoming Congress shall also serve, de facto, as the selection of an incoming Chair. If
circumstances preclude the preceding President from serving as Chair, then the Board will elect a
Chair from among the permanent members of the Board.
1.c. The Chair will normally serve for a period of two years until the following Congress, when
the next Chair is elected.
1.d. The Chair will be responsible for calling meetings of the Board to take place on a regularbasis, whenever possible once a year. During each ICU Congress the Board shall normally meetthe day before the opening ceremony of the Congress and the day before the closing ceremony ofthe Congress.
1.e. The Board may elect a Secretary General who is responsible for the administrative mattersof the ICU. See kernel document: Tasks of the ICU Secretary General.
1.f. An important function of the Secretary General will be to retain the corporate memory of theCongresses. To perform this function the term of appointment of the Secretary General should be
open ended, but require confirmation at each Congress for the following two years period.
1.g. If the Board so wills, the Chair may perform the function and the tasks of the Secretary
General.
1.h. The members of the Board of the ICU are to represent, in as diverse a manner as possible,
the national acoustics and ultrasonics or related societies of the world.
1.i. The Executive Committee, composed of the President, the Chair, and the Secretary General,shall have authority to represent the full Board in cases when action is urgent and the full Board
cannot be consulted.
1.j. Membership of the Board may be terminated at a meeting of the Board for any member whois inactive for a period of four years.

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1.k. The members of the Board are to be proactive in serving the goals of the ICU, and in thisrole are to (1) attend Congresses and meetings of the Board on a regular basis, (2) volunteer tohost a Congress in their respective countries or to assist in the organization of a Congress in aneighboring country, and (3) to generally promote the goals and the values of the ICU.
1.l. Formal nominations for membership on the Board are to originate from the ultrasonics orrelated societies of the world. Election to membership on the Board will be by a simple majorityof the current serving members of the Board. Only candidates who have achieved international
status for their contributions to ultrasonics shall be considered as potential members of theBoard.
1.m. New members to the Board shall be added on a regular basis so that the Board will remain
active and well-informed on emerging concepts and technologies in ultrasonics.
1.n. The Board shall select, on a regular basis, a few younger scientists and engineers who are in
their early career stages and who would serve in apprentice roles within an ICU Young Scientists
Advisory Committee (YSAC). These YSAC members act ex officio without vote and reflect theemergence of new fields of ultrasonics. They shall serve for a period of two years and could beelevated to full member status on the approval of a majority of the permanent members of theBoard. As is the case for regular members of the Board, these temporary members must beapproved by the national ultrasonics or related societies of the country which they represent. The
period of two years may be extended for two more periods of two years, with the approval of theBoard.
1.o. The Board should be sensitive to the broader needs of the ultrasonics community andregularly seek its advice and participation.
1.p. Issues requiring a vote will normally be settled at a meeting of the ICU Board. Voting by Email may also be conducted, where appropriate. If a consensus cannot be reached about animportant topic at a Board Meeting, the decision should be agreed on by at least 2/3 of the Board
members attending the meeting. If 2/3 pro-votes cannot be reached during the Board meeting, thetopic should be passed to all Board Members for a decision by E-mail circular voting. The
options for such a voting are YES, NO, ABSTENTION. For the E-mail voting procedure a single
majority of pro-votes out of all received votes is sufficient. E-mail votes shall be received andcounted by the Executive Committee; any discrepancies in counted votes will be resolved
amongst them before the entire Board is informed of the outcome.
Article 2: Organization of the Congresses
2.a. The International Congress on Ultrasonics (ICU) will be normally held every second year
and be designated "yyyy International Congress on Ultrasonics" and abbreviated "yyyy ICU
City", etc., according to the year and city in which it is held.
2.b. In order to obtain a truly international geographical distribution of the Congress venues, theICU's will normally be held in Europe every fourth year and outside of Europe every other fourthyear.

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2.c. The Board of the ICU will be responsible for the organization of the Congresses and will
select the venue for each one. See kernel document: ICU Venue Application Guidelines.
2.d. The President of a forthcoming ICU will be elected by the members of the Board and has thefull executive power for preparing and running the Congress.
2.e. The President or the legal entity of her/his organization has the sole financial responsibilityfor the Congress.
2.f. The term of the Presidency of the ICU is normally two years, the period between two
consecutive Congresses. After the Presidency the President will normally serve as Chair of theBoard for the next 2 years.
2.g. The President is responsible for informing the members of the Board of the progress of anupcoming Congress and identifying problems that may require the intervention of the Board. It is
the Board’s obligation to offer logistical help and advice when needed and where possible.
2.h. The President shall appoint a Local Organizing Committee (LOC), responsible for preparing
the Congress. See kernel document: ICU Preparation Guidelines.
2.i. The President shall ensure that the logo of the ICUand the banner of the ICU (extended logo)

is used on the website and is clearly visible during the Congress in order to maintain the ICU'scorporal graphic identity. In addition, a second logo may be used that is characteristic for thevenue.
2.j. In order to foster the international ultrasonics community, at each ICU prizes will beawarded. See kernel document: ICU Award Bylaws.
2.k. A startup fund has been created that will be transferred from one Congress organizer to thenext. In addition, 5% of the Conference budget shall be transferred to a fund for global ICU
issues. Executive power for this fund resides with the Executive Committee of the Board. Seekernel document: ICU Global Issues.

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2.l. The Board may establish an own legal entity representing the ICU and administrating thefund for global ICU issues.
2.m. The President of the most recent ICU should transfer the contact information (e.g. list ofemails or other contact addresses) of attendees of the most recent ICU to the organizer of thenext ICU. When the Congress attendees are registering, they should be informed that theircontacts will be forwarded to the next Congress organizer to be exclusively used for electronic
information about future ICU events.
2.n. All essential information about the Congress series, e.g. past and future Congress events
data, should be posted at the ICU Relay Website www.icultrasonics.org. From this umbrella
website also the ICU Cloud Archive, in which all important ICU documents are stored, should beaccessible.
Article 3: Arranging the Congress Program
3.a. The President shall appoint a Scientific Program Committee to work closely with thePresident and the Local Organizing Committee to arrange the scientific program for theCongress, which will include plenary and keynote papers by outstanding scientists and engineers,structured sessions on topics of current interest and contributed oral and poster presentations.
3.b. The President, with the assistance of the Local Organizing Committee and in consultation
with the Scientific Program Committee, shall ensure that an electronic version of a "Book ofAbstracts" of an upcoming congress is available well in advance of the Congress. This “Book ofAbstracts” shall not be copyrighted and shall not preclude in any way the rights of the appointedpublisher to publish the Congress Proceedings.
3.c. The Social Program for the Congress shall include a Welcome Reception and a CongressBanquet.
Article 4: The Congress Proceedings
4.a. The President, with the assistance of the Local Organizing Committee, the Scientific
Program Committee, and the Publications Committee, shall ensure that papers presented atthe ICU will be published online as the Congress Proceedings. See kernel document: ICU
Proceedings Specifications.
4.b. The submitted manuscripts for the Conference Proceedings are to be reviewed in a
critical and timely manner so that the papers in the Proceedings shall be topical and of hightechnical quality.
4.c. The criteria that shall be observed as far as possible in selecting a publisher for the ICU
Proceedings are: (1) the publisher has an established international reputation and known
record, (2) the Proceedings should be freely publicly available (open access) for at least 20years, (3) there must not be an exclusive copy-right transfer to the publisher of theProceedings, but only "permission to publish" approval by the author.

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4.d. The registration fee for the Congress shall cover the Congress Proceedings.
4.e. To ensure continuity and brand recognition, it is desirable to remain with the same publisher
for a significant period of time, providing that the deal being offered remains competitive andcost effective.
Article 5: Affiliation
5.a. The ICU shall maintain its affiliation with the International Commission for Acoustics(ICA), and via the ICA with the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), and via theseentities affiliation with other international science and engineering bodies.
Article 6: Association between ICU and the Journal Ultrasonics
6.a. ICU will strive to maintain close links with the journal Ultrasonics since they share thecommon purpose of serving the broad-based ultrasonics community.
6.b. Common membership of the Boards of ICU and the Journal Ultrasonics will be sought
where appropriate and necessary steps will be taken to ensure that the Editor-in-Chief ofUltrasonics is a full member of the ICU Board. The Publishing Editor at Elsevier responsible for
the Journal Ultrasonics will be welcome as a non-voting member at meetings of the Board.
6.c. ICU and Ultrasonics will constantly strive to achieve the greatest possible overlap between
the subject areas covered by the ICU conferences and the subject classification categories ofUltrasonics.
6.d. Board Members of ICU are encouraged to suggest topical subjects for special issues (SI) ofUltrasonics and to act as Guest Editors for these SI's.
6.e. Sponsorship will continue to be sought from Elsevier, via the journal Ultrasonics, for the R.
W. B. Stephens Prizes awarded at the ICU Congresses. The expectation is that this sponsorshipwill be forthcoming as long as there is this close association with Ultrasonics and Ultrasonics
remains an Elsevier Journal.
Article 7: Modification
7.a. These Bylaws may be modified by a two thirds affirmative vote of the members of theBoard. Suggested changes must be distributed to all members at least one month before thevote is taken. The cited kernel documents can be updated by a majority vote according to 1.p.
Article 8: Transition
8.a. These Bylaws should be followed as closely as possible but are not binding for theCongress Organizer who is already preparing for the next ICU at the date these new Bylaws
are installed.