The 1891 Agreement: A Key Excerpt

Monday, July 16, 2007

Editor’s Note: Here, for reference, is the “Constitution of the Dartmouth College Alumni” as it appears in the minutes of the June 24,1891 meeting of the Association of Alumni.

1. This Association shall be called “The Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College.”

2. All graduates of the College, the Thayer School of Civil Engineering, and the Chandler School of Science and the Arts, shall be members. Others who receive from the College an Honorary Degree or are elected at an annual meeting shall be honorary members but without the right of voting.

3. The annual meeting shall be held at the college on the day proceeding Commencement Day.

4. The officers of the Association shall be a President, two Vice Presidents, Secretary, Statistical Secretary, Treasurer, and an Executive Committee of five members, all to be elected at each annual meeting upon the nomination of a committee of three members to be known as the Committee on Nominations and appointed by the President.

5. The President or in his absence, the Senior Vice President present, shall preside at each annual meeting, shall appoint committees as herein provided, and shall in the name of the Association receive its guests and particularly the representatives present of the class graduated fifty years theretofore.

6. The Executive Committee shall have charge of the general interests of the Association, including the raising and expending of money to meet current expenses, shall appoint a presiding officer in the absence of the president and vice-presidents, and a secretary pro term. In the absence of the secretary, shall nominate all candidates for honorary membership, shall at its discretion secure an orator to address the Association at any annual meeting, shall act as a board of final decisions upon all questions arising in relation to the votes cast for the Alumni Trustee, and shall fill all vacancies in officers of the Association except that in case of a vacancy in the Presidency. The Senior Vice-President shall succeed to that position.

7. The Secretary shall keep all records and attend to the correspondence of the Association, He shall, at least two months prior to the annual meeting, mail to each graduate of the College, the Thayer School, and the Chandler School, eligible to vote at his last known address, a notice of the coming regular nomination of an Alumni Trustee, containing the name, class, and residence of each candidate with an envelope addressed to himself, within which, sealed each vote shall be forwarded; no alumnus of less than five years standing, however, shall be eligible to vote for the nomination of any Trustee. The Secretary shall open, count, and record all votes.

8. Candidates for Alumni Trusteeships shall be nominated for a term of five years from the first Monday following Commencement and at the end of such term the incumbent will be expected to resign his Trusteeship, except that vacancies occurring within such term only, and that until the entire five Alumni Trusteeships shall have been filled and the terms of the incumbents so arranged that one vacancy therein will regularly occur on the Monday following each Commencement. The length of such terms may be so arranged by the Executive Committee as to produce such regularity at the earliest practicable day. The name of no candidate shall be sent to the Alumni until he shall have indicated in writing to the Secretary of this Association his acceptance of the provisions of this constitution including that part thereof relating to his term of office if elected and resignation at the conclusion thereof.

In case the candidate or candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall decline or be ineligible for any reason to serve the person or persons receiving the next highest number of votes shall be considered as nominated.

9. At each annual meeting a Committee of five members to be known as the Committee on Alumni Trustees shall be appointed by the President with the approval of the meeting. This Committee shall nominate five candidates for the vacancy in the office of Alumni Trustee which will regularly occur on the Monday after Commencement in the ensuing year. For the term of five years such candidates to be voted for in the manner hereinbefore prescribed; they shall make their report on candidates at the Alumni dinner when the Secretary shall also announce the result of the previous election. If any candidate shall fail or decline to signify his acceptance of this Constitution within thirty days after request of the Committee, or if for any other reason a vacancy shall occur in the list of candidates, the Committee shall have power to substitute a name or names in place of such original candidate or candidates.

No voting by proxy shall be allowed in the nomination of Alumni Trustees, a plurality of votes shall nominate, and in regular elections the voting shall close at six o’clock p.m. of the day of the annual meeting.

10. In case of a vacancy or vacancies occurring in any Alumni Trusteeship otherwise than by the expiration of a stated term of five years, the Committee on Alumni Trustees shall be forthwith informed thereof by the Secretary of the Association and shall thereupon meet upon the call of its Chairman, within twenty days thereafter and name five candidates if one vacancy is to be filled, then if two are to be filled, and so on, which names shall be as soon as practicable transmitted to said Secretary who shall thereupon at once proceed to take a vote of the said Alumni of five years standing upon the candidates for such vacancy or vacancies in the same manner as upon nominations to fill a regularly occurring vacancy: Except that he shall upon his notice designate the day on which the voting will close, which shall not be more than seventy five days after notice to him from the Board of Trustees of the occurrence of such vacancy or vacancies: and upon the day following such closing he shall count the ballots.

11. Should the votes of the Alumni be requested at the same time upon nominations to fill more than one vacancy in such Alumni Trusteeships, the several candidates (equal in number to such vacancies) receiving the highest number of votes shall be considered as nominated for said vacancies – the person receiving the highest number for the next longest term and so on.

12. Upon evidence of a due nomination for any vacancy the Secretary of this Association shall at once transmit and certify the name of such nominee to the Board of Trustees.

All ballots shall be preserved by the Secretary and delivered by him to the Executive Committee for such disposition as they shall see fit to make: he shall in no case communicate the state of the ballot to any person before its final announcement and shall refer to the Executive Committee all matters respecting votes of doubtful validity.

The 1891 Agreement: A Key Excerpt

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