Bylaws

These are the Bylaws of Digital Medievalist. They were last emended by approval of the Board and Membership on April 21, 2022.

1. Preamble

  • The name of this organisation is ‘Digital Medievalist’ (hereafter abbreviated ‘DM’).
  • The primary purpose of DM is to be an international community of practice supporting ‘digital medieval studies’, which is understood to be an interest in the creation, use of, or research using digital objects relating to the Middle Ages.
  • DM comprises three entities: the Executive Board, the Postgraduate Committee, and Membership.
  • The Executive Board is a body of 8 elected members. It is primarily responsible for governance, the promotion of DM through programming and conference attendance, and managing membership.
  • The Postgraduate Committee is a body of 6-9 members representing postgraduate and early career DM members dedicated to driving outreach activities to promote digital medieval studies.
  • Membership applies to anyone who subscribes to the DM mailing list
  • DM will have other purposes and objectives as decided by the DM Board. These include:
    • To provide an online mailing list (dm-l) as a forum for members of DM to discuss digital medievalism.
    • To publish a free online open-access peer-reviewed journal entitled ‘Digital Medievalist’ as a high quality publication of work of interest to digital medievalists.
    • To host online information resources of use to digital medievalists.
    • To organize events of interest to digital medievalists. For example, occasional conferences sessions as an outlet for scholarly discussions of interest to digital medievalists.
    • To undertake other activities relating to its purposes and objectives or the promotion of DM as a community.
  • DM shall be a non-profit organisation; any funding received will be used to enable DM to further its purposes and objectives.
  • For DM-sponsored and enabled events, webpages, and especially the mailing list, we aim to facilitate constructive discussions of issues related to digital medieval studies. We strive for an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. Racist, sexist, and ableist behavior will not be tolerated. Furthermore, the misuse of our events or the mailing list, namely (amongst other things) the circulation of SPAM and false or misleading information, would be considered inappropriate and might lead to revoking the Digital Medievalist membership.

2. Membership

  • Membership in DM is open to anybody interested in its goals.
  • Membership is conferred by subscription to DM mailing list (dm-l).
  • Subscription to the DM mailing list, and therefore membership in DM, may be suspended or expelled by the Director or their delegate (subject to confirmation by the DM Board) for inappropriate behaviour on the list. Once the DM Board confirmed the decision, the member will be notified in writing. A member who has been suspended or expelled, must reapply to the board for readmittance.
  • Individual members have the right to vote in DM elections and such issues as the board shall decide to poll the membership on.
  • Members who meet additional eligibility criteria (see below) may stand for positions on the DM Board.

3. DM Board

3.1. Organization and Responsibilities

  • DM will be governed by a Board elected by its membership. [See also now Election Procedures, which provide guidance on this but which are not part of the Bylaws.]
  • The DM Board shall elect a Director annually from its ranks (see below), and appoint subcommittees and officers as necessary for the efficient running of the project.
    • Under normal circumstances, these subcommittees and officers should include:
      • A moderator/moderators for the dm-l listserv.
      • An editorial committee responsible for the production of the DM journal.
      • An editor or editors responsible for overseeing the operation of the DM online information resources of use to digital medievalists.
      • An organiser/organisers for planning conference and poster sessions.
    • Membership on these committees need not be exclusive: individuals may serve on more than one committee and the board may assign all tasks to a single executive committee if it sees fit.
    • The DM Board may delegate these tasks to participating members and others if it sees fit, although it shall retain final responsibility for all decisions.

3.2. Term

  • The DM Board shall consist of eight members, with each member elected for a four-year term.
  • Terms on the DM Board shall be staggered so that four positions are open for election every other year.
  • Elections shall be held bi-annually. Any ties in voting shall be decided by the existing DM Board members excluding any who are standing for re-election.
  • No member may be elected to the DM Board for more than two consecutive terms (eight years). After two terms, the member must wait at least two years before becoming qualified for re-election to the DM Board.
  • DM Board members may resign from their commitments at any time but are expected to give adequate notice.
  • In this case, the DM Board shall hold a special election.

3.3. Eligibility

  • In order to stand for election, candidates for the DM board must fulfil two conditions:
    • They must be members of DM.
    • They must have made a demonstrable contribution to the project or the field within the previous year. Such contributions might include:
      • Non-trivial editing or page creation for the online information resources.
      • Inclusion in a sanctioned DM event (such as presenting in a conference session sponsored by DM).
      • Publishing of an article in the DM Journal.
      • Equivalent contributions (to be considered at the time of candidacy).
  • Potential candidates are responsible for providing evidence of appropriate contributions to the project if requested by the DM Board.

4. Director

4.1. Election

  • The DM Board will elect a Director bi-annually from among its members at the first meeting after the bi-annual elections.
  • Re-election is permitted, though no member may be elected as Director for more than three consecutive terms (six years). After three terms, the member must wait at least one year before becoming qualified for re-election as Director.
  • A vote of non-confidence in the Director requires a two-thirds majority of the entire DM Board. After a successful vote of non-confidence, a new Director shall be chosen to serve out the remaining term from the DM Board membership.
  • A vote of non-confidence in the Director does not affect membership on the DM Board.

4.2. Duties

  • The Director will convene, determine the agendas for, and chair meetings of the DM Board and its subcommittees. The Director will also be a member ex officio of all such sub-committees as the DM Board shall constitute. The Director may delegate these tasks.
  • Executive decisions made by the Director can be overturned through a two-thirds vote of the DM Board

5. Mailing List

  • There shall be an e-mail mailing list hosted by DM which shall serve as a forum for discussion by those interested in digital medievalism.
  • The DM mailing list shall be open to anyone interested in digital medievalism.

6. Journal

  • There shall be a journal of record overseen by the DM editorial committee which shall publish worthy articles of note.
  • The focus of the journal shall be of research in the use of digital media that is of interest to medievalists, regardless of whether this research is focussed specifically on medieval projects.
  • The editorial committee will be appointed by the Director on the advice of the board.

7. Information Resources

  • There shall be online information resources hosted by DM in order to act as a repository of information collected and edited by the membership. These may be implemented in the form of a wiki, blog, or other technology as deemed appropriate by the Board.
  • The Director will appoint administrators for the information resources as and when they are needed.
  • Anyone wishing to provide useful contributions to the information resources will be allowed to.
  • Disputes concerning content will be settled by the administrators of the resources and by appeal if necessary to the DM Board, whose decision will be final.

8. Events

  • The primary role of the conference committee is to identify conference opportunities that promote the activity and work of the Digital Medievalist community. The conference committee encompasses two areas of action: first, to create at least one DM-sponsored online event per year, and second, to ensure an active DM presence at appropriate conferences, by organizing sessions, panels, or other interventions.
  • The committee will meet twice a year to develop the annual conference strategy and assign roles for conference committee members, who will act as points of contact for each effort.
  • The committee will seek opportunities that will encourage the involvement of the global DM community.
  • DM Conference Committee members will:
    1. Establish an agenda for the year in January or February of each year to encourage contributions for the DM Journal from events planned during the year,
    2. Plan 1 DM-sponsored online event per year to be spearheaded by 1 conference committee member, to take place in the Fall;
    3. Put out a CFP on the DM list for participation at 1 medieval conference and 1 DH conference per year, each to be spearheaded by 1 conference committee member.
  • DM should not be held responsible for any financial obligations resulting from the organisation of such events.

9. Amendments

  • Amendments to these bylaws can be composed by the DM Board and become proposed amendments with a simple majority of the total DM Board membership.
  • Proposed amendments will be published on the DM mailing list (dm-l) and the DM website with a minimum 10 day period requesting comments by the DM membership.
  • The DM Board will discuss comments on the proposed amendments received from the DM membership incorporating changes agreed by a simple majority of the DM Board.
  • The agreed version of the amended bylaws will be presented as a whole to the DM membership for voting over a minimum 7 day period. The amended version of the bylaws will pass with a two-thirds majority of votes recorded during the voting period.