Psi Chi Chapter Bylaws are very important in the operations of your Psi Chi chapter. These Bylaws are the most important governing rules that your chapter must create for itself. Psi Chi Chapter Bylaws have an important bearing on the rights and duties of members within your chapter. Without bylaws, your chapter would have problems functioning, chapter conflicts would arise, and members may experience disagreements. Psi Chi Chapter Bylaws create guidance for the chapter on governance, administration, and are useful for developing better leadership and organizational skills.

The Psi Chi National Office recommends that each Psi Chi chapter complete its own Chapter Bylaws so that each chapter will be fair and uniform in the way it handles situations. Psi Chi provides Model Chapter Bylaws as a guideline for many of the items your chapter needs to address for itself. The Model Chapter Bylaws may be found at www.psichi.org/pdf/modbylaw.pdf.

Psi Chi's national organization is governed by the Psi Chi Constitution. The Psi Chi Constitution addresses the framework of the national organization as a whole, but leaves the maintenance and operations of the chapters to each individual chapter. Psi Chi's Constitution does not address the particular needs of individual chapters, because each chapter is different than the other 1,000+ chapters, and it would not be possible to write a policy that is best for all.

Psi Chi encourages chapters to create their own Psi Chi Chapter Bylaws with several Articles (as suggested by Robert's Rules of Order) that address the following:

• Name
• Purpose
• Members
• Officers
• Meetings
• Executive Committee
• Chapter Advisor
• Committees
• Parliamentary Authority
• Amendment of Bylaws

Chapters may also add other Articles to their bylaws as needed by the chapter. Those listed above are only suggestions. Additionally, chapters should consider adding a section on Chapter Officer Removal. Typically, chapters have the most concerns about this procedure. Each year, chapters call the National Office and need guidance on removing a chapter officer for many reasons. The simplest way to deal with this issue is to already have a course of action laid out in your chapter's bylaws.

In the chapter officer portion of the Model Chapter Bylaws, the suggestions do not address removal of all officers, only the vacancy of the President position. So your Executive Committee (Chapter President, Chapter Vice-President, Chapter Treasurer, Chapter Secretary, and Faculty Advisor) should decide how to handle the matter and complete this portion of your Chapter Bylaws.

As a reference, the Psi Chi Constitution does address the removal of National Officers in Article IV, Section 8 of the Constitution. You may use this as a reference while your chapter prepares its own policy for removal of chapter officers.

Once your chapter has completed your Chapter Bylaws, please send a copy to the National Office to place in your chapter's permanent records. Please also remember that even though the bylaws contain the most important single set of rules for defining your chapter and its governance, the content of the bylaws must not conflict with the Psi Chi National Constitution. No matter what, no rules of order or standing rules can ever be enforced if they conflict in any way with the Psi Chi National Constitution.