IOU Bylaws

BYLAWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION

History of the bylaws

The Statutes and By-Laws of the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) were originally prepared by Donald S. Farner, President of the 17th International Ornithological Congress (IOCongress), as the Statutes and By-Laws of the International Ornithological Committee (IOCommittee). They were adopted at that 17th IOCongress in Berlin 1978. Revisions of these Statutes and By-Laws were later prepared by Walter J. Bock, as Permanent Secretary of the IOCommittee, and adopted at the 20th IOCongress in Christchurch 1990, 21st IOCongress in Vienna 1994, and 22nd IOCongress in Durban 1998. Further revisions were put together by Jacques Blondel (President of the 24th IOCongress in Hamburg 2006) and by the members of the Statutes Committee, consisting of Walter J. Bock (President of the 23rd IOCongress in Beijing 2002), Dominique G. Homberger (Secretary of the IOCommittee), Christopher Perrins (President of the 21st IOCongress in Vienna 1994), John Wingfield (Vice President of the 24th IOCongress in Hamburg 2006), and Hans Winkler (Member of the IOCommittee Executive Committee). The revised Statutes and By-Laws were adopted at the meeting of the IOCommittee at the 24th IOCongress in Hamburg on August 13, 2006. At that meeting, the IOCommittee charged its Executive Committee with developing new statutes and bylaws to enable the incorporation of the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU). The Statutes and Bylaws of the IOU were so developed by Dominique G. Homberger (Secretary of the IOCommittee), in collaboration with Jacques Blondel (President of the 24th IOCongress in Hamburg 2006), John Wingfield (President of the 25th IOCongress in Campos do Jordão 2010), Walter J. Bock (Past President of the 24th IOCongress in Hamburg 2006), and Soekarja Somadikarta (Honorary President of the 25th IOCongress in Campos do Jordão 2010), with input from members of the IOCommittee and its Executive Committee. They replace the existing Statutes and By-Laws of the IOCongress and were accepted by the IOU Committee of Representatives at its meeting in Campos do Jordão on August 21, 2010. At the 26th IOCongress in Tokyo, the IOU members at their meeting on 21 August 2014, charged the IOU Executive Committee to revise and streamline the Statutes and By-Laws. The revised Bylaws of the IOU were approved on 14 October 2014 and on August 20, 2018.

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