Bylaws of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis

A. Voting by the Board of Directors

1. The Board of Directors routinely conducts its business by email and in physical meetings. Should a member of the Board not have reliable access to email, the President and Executive Secretary make special arrangements to permit the active participation of that Board member in the discussions and votes of the Board of Directors.
2. A proposal for action may be made by any member of the Board at any time, by sending such proposal to the Executive Secretary for distribution to the Board.
3. An absolute majority of positive votes of the Board of Directors is required for a proposal to pass.
4. Votes are recorded by email, by votes in a physical meeting, or in writing, to the Executive Secretary.
5. In the case of a proposed bylaw, the above voting procedure is to be repeated, with a minimum period of two weeks and a maximum of six months, after an initial positive vote.
6. Failure to be re-approved within six months nullifies the first vote approving a proposed bylaw.

B. Recording of Constitution and Bylaws

The Executive Secretary maintains a current version of the Constitution and Bylaws, and makes them available to any ISBA member on request. In conjunction with the ISBA webmaster, the Executive Secretary maintains the current Constitution and Bylaws on the ISBA website.

C. Prizes administered by ISBA

1. ISBA Prizes are:
   1. The DeGroot Prize
   2. The Lindley Prize
   3. The Mitchell Prize
   4. The Savage Award
2. The respective purposes of these prizes are:
   1. The DeGroot Prize is awarded to the author or authors of a book published in statistical science. This prize is named for Morris ("Morrie") H. DeGroot in recognition of the impact and importance of his work in Statistics and Decision Theory, and his marked influence on the evolution of the discipline over several decades through his personal scholarship, educational and professional leadership. The prize particularly recognizes DeGroot's authorship and editorship of major books that had a marked impact on the development of Statistics and Decision Theory, and the value he placed on books generally. Award-winning books will be textbooks or monographs concerned with fundamental issues of statistical inference, decision theory, and/or statistical applications, and will be chosen based on the novelty, thoroughness, timeliness, and importance of their intellectual scope.
   2. The Lindley Prize is awarded for innovative research in Bayesian Statistics that is accepted for publication as a contributed paper in the refereed proceedings of the Valencia and ISBA international meetings. This prize is named for Dennis Lindley, and recognizes the impact and importance of his work in the foundations, theory and application of Bayesian Statistics, and his marked influence on the evolution and spread of the discipline, over many decades. Award winning papers will present research in Bayesian statistics that is judged important, timely and notably original; truly innovative work will be judged more highly than successful development of ideas previously exposed. The prize may be awarded for work in foundations, theory, methodology and applications of Bayesian statistics.
   3. The Mitchell Prize is awarded in recognition of an outstanding paper that describes how a Bayesian analysis has solved an important applied problem. It is named after Toby J. Mitchell, a Senior Research Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Toby made incisive contributions to statistics, especially in biometry and engineering applications. He was a marvelous collaborator, an especially thoughtful scientist, and a serious and influential spokesman for the Bayesian approach to hard problems.
   4. The Savage Award is given to outstanding doctoral dissertations in Bayesian econometrics and statistics, one for the best thesis in Theory and Methods, and the other for the best thesis in Application Methodology. It is named for Leonard J. ("Jimmy") Savage, author of his ground-breaking book The Foundations of Statistics, and one of the seminal thinkers in the neo-Bayesian movement.
3. The ISBA Prize Committee
   1. There are six members of the Committee, appointed by the President of ISBA with the advice of the Executive Committee and the consent of the Board of Directors. The members have staggered three-year terms expiring on June 30 or when a replacement has been appointed and consented to, whichever is later. Thus two members are appointed each year for three- year terms. Members may be reappointed. Vacancies are filled for the remainder of the three-year term in the same manner. Each year the members elect a chair whose term expires on June 30 or when the successor chair is elected, whichever is later.
   2. The Committee
      1. receives reports from the ISBA Treasurer about the financial status of each prize fund;
      2. decides, with advice from the ISBA Treasurer, on the amount of each prize to be awarded. The intent of the founders of the DeGroot and Lindley Prizes is that they be at least $1500 (and a plaque) and of the Mitchell Prize that it be at least $1000 (and a plaque);
      3. advertises each prize to be awarded, together with the purpose, deadline, and acceptable methods of submission (which includes both modes of transmission and who may make the nomination)];
      4. receives the submissions for each award;
      5. appoints an Award Committee, in consultation with the ISBA President for each prize to be awarded, of persons without a conflict of interest with respect to the submissions received. As guidance to the Prize Committee, it is useful to include on Award Committees persons with experience with respect to the prize in question, particularly with respect to the DeGroot and Mitchell Prizes, where the same work may be considered in consecutive award competitions;
      6. decides when and how Prize Awards are to be announced. The Lindley Prize is traditionally awarded at an ISBA World Meeting; and
      7. proposes to the Board of Directors the establishment of new prizes and modifications to the bylaws governing the criteria and process of administration of the existing prizes.
   3. The Award Committee, within the deadline set by the Prize Committee, considers the nominations received, decides on the winner(s), and announces them.
4. Conflicts of Interest
   1. The purpose of avoiding the reality or the appearance of conflicts of interest is to ensure confidence in the fairness of the awarding of prizes.
   2. Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:
      1. Authorship or Co-authorship of a submission;
      2. A close personal relationship;
      3. An adviser/advisee relationship;
      4. Recent co-authorship;
      5. Colleagues at the same institution.
      It is understood that in a community such as ours, people tend to know each other and to have been friends over a long period of time. Whether such an acquaintanceship or friendship is so close as to constitute a conflict of interest is a matter about which there can be honest differences of opinion.
   3. Persons who believe they have a conflict of interest shall remove themselves from a decision-making capacity with respect to those matters about which they have such a conflict.
   4. The Prize Committee may remove a member of an Award Committee or limit the activities of such a member to avoid a conflict of interest. Such a decision may be appealed to the Board of Directors, whose decision is final.
   5. Members of the Prize Committee register a conflict of interest when it arises (on receipt of submissions) with the other members of the Prize Committee, and are either replaced for the year by the ISBA President or recused for that prize. Such a decision may be appealed to the Board of Directors, whose decision is final.
5. Funds
   1. The ISBA Treasurer maintains a separate account for the funds of each prize, containing contributions to the fund and the interest, capital gains and dividends earned by the investments of the fund.
   2. The ISBA Treasurer makes financial reports to the ISBA Prize Committee, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors about the financial status of each fund on request.
6. Frequency of Awards
   The Prize Committee, in conjunction with the ISBA Treasurer, decides on the frequency of awards. For the guidance of that Committee, at present the Savage Award and Mitchell Prizes are given every year, while the DeGroot and Lindley Prizes are awarded every two years.
7. Eligibility
   1. There are no membership requirements for eligibility for these prizes.
   2. The eligible contributions for each prize are as follows:
      1. DeGroot Prize: All books published no earlier than 5 years prior to the year of the competition may be considered. There are no restrictions on the publisher or country of publication.
      2. The Lindley Prize: All papers published as refereed contributed papers at the most recent ISBA World Meetings and the Valencia meetings are eligible.
      3. The Mitchell Prize: All refereed papers published in the two years previous to the prize year are eligible, whether in a journal or conference proceedings, and whether in a journal primarily focused on statistics or not. Papers accepted but not yet published are also eligible.
      4. The Savage Award: all Ph.D. theses that have not been submitted in a previous year are eligible.
8. Special Provisions:
   The L. J. Savage Fund may be used to support meetings, provided that the fund is administered in a prudent way so as to insure the continued ability of the fund to award annual prizes. Any expenditure to support meetings must be approved in advance by the Prize Committee.
9. Sponsors
   The founders of these prizes, who contributed funds to initiate the prizes, are as follows:
   1. The DeGroot Prize: Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Iowa State University, Microsoft Research, National Technical University of Athens, Ohio State University, the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science of the American Statistical Association, University of Connecticut, University of Durham, University of Kent, University of Minnesota, University of Sheffield, University of Texas at Austin, University of Warwick and the Valencia Organizing Committee.
   2. The Lindley Prize: Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Iowa State University, Microsoft Research, National Technical University of Athens, Ohio State University, the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science of the American Statistical Association, University College London, University of Connecticut, University of Durham, University of Kent, University of Minnesota, University of Sheffield, University of Texas at Austin, University of Warwick and the Valencia Organizing Committee.
   3. The Mitchell Prize: Colleagues at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Duke University, Peter Rossi, Jerome Sacks, Microsoft Research, the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science of the American Statistical Association, University of California at Los Angeles and Donald Ylvisaker.
   4. The Savage Award: was funded from royalties due to the authors and editors of a series of books produced over a number of years under the auspices of the Seminar on Bayesian Inference in Econometrics.

D. Voting and Elections

1. As specified in the ISBA Constitution, the Past President chairs the Nominating Committee. There are six other members of the Nominating Committee.
2. The President requests suggestions for membership on the Nominating Committee from the ISBA Board and ISBA membership by March 31.
3. In April, the Board of ISBA elects members of the Nominating Committee by approval voting from among the suggestions received by the President.
4. As specified in the ISBA Constitution, the Nominating Committee selects and gets consent to stand for election from, at least two candidates for each office. The Nominating Committee reports its results to the Executive Secretary by August 15.
5. The Executive Secretary posts the Nominating Committee's nominations on the ISBA website promptly, and otherwise notifies the members of these nominations.
6. Additional nominations may be made by petition of the membership. Such petitions are presented to the Executive Secretary by September 15. It requires the request of 30 ISBA members or 10% of the membership, whichever is less, to nominate by petition. Written consent of the nominee(s) is also required. Email to the Executive Secretary is an acceptable method of petitioning.
7. The Executive Secretary makes ballots available, physical or electronic or both, by October 15, to be returned by November 15.
8. The Executive Secretary announces the winners of each office by December 1.

E. Standing and Ad-Hoc Committees

1. Standing Committees are established in the Bylaws.
2. Ad-Hoc Committees are established by resolution of the Board, for a task to be done in a specified period of time. Such a resolution specifies the task, the date the Committee's mandate ends, the number of members and how they are to be appointed, and to whom and when the committee is to report.

F. Vacancies

1. If a vacancy in an elected office occurs, the Board of Directors chooses a member of ISBA to act in that office until the next election.
2. If an elected officer is otherwise a member of the Board, the Board vacancy created by his or her election is filed by the Board candidate receiving the next highest number of votes. The person thus elected fills the vacancy for the remainder of the term.
3. Other Board vacancies remain vacancies until the next election.
4. Vacancies in an appointed position are filled by the appointing officer subject to whatever rules apply to that appointment.

G. Membership and Dues

1. Membership entitles a Member to receive, free of charge, the ISBA Bulletin, and to register for any ISBA meeting at a reduced rate.
2. Membership dues are payable annually in advance on the 1st of January. Members who have not paid their dues by March 31st shall receive a second notice requesting renewal of membership dues. If dues remain unpaid by July 1, then membership is suspended. A Member who has been suspended for non-payment of dues may be re-instated on payment of the full dues for the corresponding calendar year.
3. Any change to membership dues is to be approved by the Board of Directors by 15 November in any year in order to have effect from the following January.
4. Only paid-up Members may vote in elections. Returned ballots will be checked against the current list of members to confirm paid-up ISBA membership of all voters.
5. Only paid-up Members may nominate, be nominated, stand for election, or serve as ISBA Officers and Directors. Any serving ISBA Officer or Director whose ISBA Membership is suspended will be automatically removed from office.

May 2007