Constitution of the Triple Nine Society

Preamble
The Triple Nine Society is committed to friendship, communication, the adventure of intellectual
exploration, and a greater realization of individual potentials. It neither sanctions the impositi-
on of one person’s philosophy on another nor subscribes to any particular philosophy for its
members. It will strive to avoid the insularity of mere exclusiveness. The guiding principle of
the Society is democratic and collegial rather than hierarchical. The Society will remain open to
innovation and evolution.

Article I — Membership
1. Membership in the Triple Nine Society shall be open to any adult who can produce sa-
tisfactory evidence of a score at or above the 99.9th percentile of the general population
on a standardized intelligence test, as determined by the Membership Officer, following
standards established by the Society’s psychometrician.
2. Following certification of qualification by the Membership Officer, an applicant shall beco-
me a member of the Society upon payment of dues to the Financial Officer, provided that
no member shall be excluded because of inability to pay Society dues.
3. All members shall have equal rights to vote, hold office, and participate in the affairs of the
Society.
4. Members shall only be expelled for actions which seriously damage the Society and only
upon due process, which shall include but not be limited to the opportunity for a defense
and an initiative.

Article II — Duties and Limitations of Officers

1. The Regent shall serve as Chairman of the Executive Committee. The Regent shall make
monthly written reports to the Committee

a) outlining the current status of the Society,

b) discussing recommendations for the Society’s improvement, and
c) calling for votes by Committee members whenever appropriate.

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 The Regent shall also make quarterly written reports to the entire membership through
the Society’s journal, each of which shall summarize the Committee’s deliberations during
the preceding three months. Lastly, the Regent shall serve as a spokesman to the public,
responding to inquiries which are not appropriate to other officers. The Regent shall be the
sole person with the authority to represent the Society as a whole. The Regent shall be a
part of the democratic and collegial processes, not superior to them.
2. The Editor shall publish a bimonthly journal for the Society, including therein all official an-
nouncements of the Society and such additional material from members and other sources
as the Editor may deem appropriate, and shall be responsible for the printing and mailing of
copies to all current members and subscribers. The Editor shall inform the Executive Com-
mittee of any circumstances that may require the temporary suspension of publication and
shall indicate the probable duration of such suspension
3. The Financial Officer shall receive funds (dues, subscriptions, and other funds from mem-
bers, subscribers and other sources) and shall duly record them and shall expeditiously
transmit all information necessary to instate a membership to all appropriate sources. The
Financial Officer should be bonded and responsible for the safe and prudent repository
of all Society funds and responsible for the Society’s compliance with all laws relating to
the Society’s finances. This officer shall effect the disbursement of all duly authorized tran-
sactions, keep full records of all financial transactions, give an annual report of financial
activity of the Society, prepare a draft budget to serve as a set of guidelines for disburse-
ments for the next fiscal year, and, as a member of the Executive Committee, help to refine
this draft into an annual operating budget, equally binding on all.
The Financial Officer shall not make determinations of inability to pay dues, unless the
Executive Committee shall require that officer to perform such function.
4. The Membership Officer shall receive inquiries concerning the Society and its membership
requirements, forward informational materials to candidates for membership, determine
whether applicants meet the admission criteria established by the Society’s psychometrici-
an, certify qualified applicants as eligible for membership, and be responsible for coordina-
ting the functions of the Publicity Officer, when such position is filled. The Publicity Officer
shall be responsible to the Membership Officer and the Executive Committee for publicity
functions.
5. The Ombudsman shall receive complaints from members and prospective members con-
cerning irregularities in the conduct of the Society’s business, investigate such complaints,
and publish findings concerning matters that cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of all
parties in the pages of the Society’s journal; the Ombudsman shall be entitled to submit up

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 to two pages of grievance reports per issue of the journal. All records maintained of the So-
ciety’s business by elective or appointive officers or committee members shall be available
to the Ombudsman for inspection.

Article III — Duties and Limitations of Committees

1. The Executive Committee shall consist of the Regent, the Editor, the Financial Officer, the
Membership Officer, the Ombudsman, and four members-at-large. Each officer shall be re-
sponsible to the full Executive Committee for all the functions of his office. The Executive
Committee shall be responsible to the membership for the functions of the offices.
No member of the Executive Committee shall hold more than one position on that commit-
tee at any one time.
2. All elected officers and members of committees shall serve without compensation. Appoin-
ted officers, including the Editor, Financial Officer, and Membership Officer, may be com-
pensated for their services at the discretion of the Executive Committee. Officers and com-
mittee members may be reimbursed for expenses incurred on behalf of the Society, within
budgetary limits, only on prior approval of the Executive Committee.
3. Independent committees or other bodies of members which do not infringe upon the res-
ponsibilities of the Executive Committee are not precluded, rather they are encouraged.
4. All officers and members of committees must maintain membership in the Society. Seeking
and holding office is contingent upon maintaining membership.
5. The Executive Committee shall be responsible for the construction of a budget no less than
annually.
6. All records of Society business maintained by officers and members of committees shall be
available for inspection on reasonable notice by any member of the Society, except that all
records which contain information of an individual’s test scores or the amount of an indivi-
dual’s contributions to the Society or dues shall be kept confidential from the membership
at large and the public at large. Further, the identities of members and prospective members
who have asked the Ombudsman for confidentiality in the handling of a complaint shall be
protected from disclosure.

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Article IV — Elections
1. (For the purpose of this Article, members-at-large of the Executive Committee are conside-
red to be officers of the Society.) There shall be biennial elections for the Regent, the Om-
budsman, and the four members-at-large. The Editor, the Financial Officer, and the Mem-
bership Officer shall be appointed by the Executive Committee and those appointments
shall be reviewed by the Executive Committee at least annually with the finding of that re-
view transmitted to the membership (the Editor, the Financial Officer, and the Membership
Officer shall not participate in their own evaluations unless the Executive Committee deci-
des that self-evaluation would be a useful tool).
The Executive Committee may, upon the vacancy of an office, use its discretion in filling that
office by appointment, by special election, or by assuming as a body all the responsibilities
of the vacated office or offices for the remainder of the term, but it must exercise one of
these options. For each biennial election there shall be an Elections Officer who shall not
be a member of the Executive Committee or hold any other elective office in the Society.
For the first set of elections, to vote upon the Constitution and the first group of officers,
the Editor shall appoint a suitable person to serve in the capacity of Elections Officer. For
all subsequent elections, the Executive Committee shall appoint an Elections Officer during
the first half of its term for the next biennial election. The Elections Officer may not be a
candidate for any office in any election which he or she shall supervise and conduct.
2. There shall be three categories of elections: the election of six officers as members of the
nine-member Executive Committee, two with specific responsibilities, as outlined above,
and for other officers and committee members as the need shall arise; an open-ended (as to
subject) initiative provision; and an amending formula for the Constitution. (All petitions
that would alter, augment, or delete any provisions of the Constitution as it exists at the
time the petition is formulated shall be considered a Constitutional Amendment.)
The deadline for statements of candidacy to reach the Editor shall be December 15. The pu-
blication date of these statements shall be the first issue of the Society’s journal published
in the following year. The deadline for publication of ballots shall be for that same first issue
of the Society’s journal in the new year and the ballots shall be returned to the Elections
Officer by March 1. The assumption date for all offices shall be April 1. The effective date
for initiatives and Constitutional amendments shall be the first day of the month following
approval of an initiative by a majority of those members voting, or approval of a Consti-
tutional amendment by two-thirds of those members voting. Petitions for initiatives and
for Constitutional amendments may be sent to the Editor at any time during the year. The

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 Editor will publish such a petition within three months. However, the Editor has the opti-
on of not publishing a petition that seems unduly lengthy or frivolous, but must obtain the
approval of a majority of the Executive Committee to exercise this option. Petitioners who-
se petitions have been rejected for publication may distribute them to members at their
own expense. Whenever the Elections Officer certifies that a sufficient number of Triple
Nine members have signed a petition, the Editor shall call for a final vote, simultaneously
publishing any germane comments on the petition that have been received from members.
3. All petitions seeking signatures from members for validation of proposed initiatives or
Constitutional amendments shall be published in the Society’s journal if requested, and
supporting arguments for these petitions shall be published as space allows.
4. The Elections Officer shall verify all signatures submitted. The Executive Committee shall
determine by motion what constitutes a signature.
5. Each candidate for elective office shall be entitled to one half page in the Society’s jour-
nal for a statement of qualifications for and intentions in exercising office. The candidate
should take into consideration the current method of reproducing the journal in deciding
the format to employ in using the one half page allotment. Space for ballot arguments shall
be allocated by the Editor in such a manner as to represent fairly all shades of opinion on
matters to be voted upon.
6. Voting for candidates for elective office shall be on a preferential basis, i.e. members will
rank their preferences for all or some of the candidates in terms of their first choice, second
choice, etc. The Elections Officer shall first tally the votes to determine whether any can-
didate has a simple majority of the first-choice votes. Those that have shall be considered
elected. Those votes which fail to meet this test shall be subject to a second tally in which
the information contained in all choices shall be utilized by a weighted vote, the weights
being the precise reverse of the rankings. The remaining candidates receiving the majority
of all weighted, preference votes shall be deemed elected. In the case of a tie on the second
tally, a majority vote by the existing Executive Committee shall break the tie.
7. An initiative may be proposed mandating that the Society take any action or establish any
rule of procedure or policy not prohibited by the current Constitution. Actions, policies or
procedures established by initiative may not be changed by any officer or committee of the
Society except by a subsequent initiative or Constitutional amendment.
8. The Elections Officer shall tally all votes received within the prescribed voting period for
each office and proposal voted upon in each election and shall submit the election results
to the Editor to be published in the Society’s journal without alteration.

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Matter Voted Upon Required to Propose Required to Pass or Elect

Election of officers and com- Each candidate is to file a Majority by a preferential sy-
mittee members statement of candidacy stem of voting

Initiative Petition signed by the squa- Simple majority

re root of the membership for
the year of tenure in question

Constitutional amendment Petition signed by the squa- Two-thirds vote

re root of the membership for
the year of tenure in question

Last Changed by Member Initiative: November 01, 2016