Statutes

Art. 1
The "Merician Centre" Association has been established with its home office in Brescia, at 23 via F. Crispi.

Art. 2
The Centre has as its purposes to:

1. Research, identify, collect, protect, and conserve the documentary, religious and cultural patrimony that can be related to the work of St. Angela Merici;
2. Promote the establishment and organization of a specialized library and, where possible, of a museum to be open to the public according to the appropriate regulation;
3. Promote cultural projects which foster the study and awareness of such patrimony, with suitable scientific collaboration, also through occasional publications or periodicals, as well as with seminars, conferences and meetings;
4. To assist also in support of existing scholastic institutions, the development of projects particularly directed to youth, through handing on the teachings of St. Angela Merici.

The aims are fivefold:

• historic
  establishment of an archive, library, and eventual cultural museum ;
  promotion of studies, conferences, meetings and publications about St. Angela, the Company, Ursulines, etc.
• educational-pastoral
  promotion of gatherings about spirituality emphasizing the realization of St. Angela's thought and the example of her life for the world today, and particularly the promotion of projects for the Christian education of youth, especially young women, through the promotion of woman.

Art. 3
The members of the Association can be physical persons or public or private entities, that with the pledge to render voluntary services or with monetary payments contribute to reaching the aims of this association.
The acceptance of new associates is decided by the Directive Council with the applicants' promise to accept the statues and the purpose of the Centre.

Art. 4
The standing of an associate is lost

• By dismissal
• By expiration
• By expulsion
  

Dismissals must be presented in writing.

Expiration is decided by the Directive Council on the basis of the failure, without a justified motive, to fulfill the services that the associate had pledged to render in the sphere of the aforesaid programs or through lack of the installments of the promised contributions or shares.

Expulsion is decided by the Directive Council on the basis of behaviours contrary to the programs and to the objectives of the Association.

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Art. 5
The Association provides for its proper aims:

• With the contributions, distributions, and donations in kind of associates, private individuals and institutions;
• With the services voluntarily pledged by the associates;
• Through the rendering of promised services

Art. 6
The organs of the Association are : The Assembly of the associates ; the Directive Council ; the President ; the Board of Advisors.

Art. 7
The Assembly is made up of all the associates and is the fundamental deliberative body of the Association.

The powers of the Assembly are

• The election of the Directive Council and of the Board of Advisors
• The approval of the annual budget and financial report
• The approval of the President's annual report and of the most important directives for the conduct of the Centre
• The approval of revisions or changes in the statues
• The discussion of every other question or topic that the Directive Council intends to submit to the Assembly.

The Assembly gathers ordinarily at least once a year to approve the budget and financial report and the President's report and when it is necessary to name the Directive Council and the Board of Advisors.

It gathers extraordinarily every time that the Directive Council decides to convoke it or to change the statues or when a request is made in writing by at least a third of the associates.
Every associate has the right to a vote.

The Assembly is valid in its first session if the majority of the associates are present; in the second held on the same day, whatever may be the number of the participants. Decisions are always taken by the affirmative vote of the majority of associates present.

Art 8
The Directive Council is composed of 7 (seven) members among whom is the President; they remain in office five years and are eligible for re-election.
The Council will decide every affair concerning the Centre except for the matters reserved to the Assembly of associates or assigned or delegated to the President. To the Council belong particularly the administration of the patrimony of the Centre and the editing of the annual budget and financial report. The Council is also responsible for determining and bringing about programs under the general purposes established by the Assembly, and for adopting all the provisions necessary or useful for the development and the smooth functioning of the Centre, and for the realisation of the association's aims.
The Council names from among its number a Secretary or designates a person outside the Council to function as a secretary.

Art. 9
The President legally represents the Association in every way : convokes and presides over the Assembly and the Council, drawing up the order of the meeting and the topics to treat.
The Directive Council can delegate certain powers and faculties to the President both for ordinary business and for emergencies; it can also delegate the President for certain actions of extraordinary business previously decided upon.

Art. 10
The Directive Council can name a Director to whom to entrust the material execution of its decisions, the creation and conducting and maintaining of the library, of the documentation (archive) and eventually of the museum, the handling of correspondence, the compilation of guides and catalogues, the supervision of employees, the orderliness of public visits and research among the materials by students and interested persons.
The Director is responsible to the Council for her work and carries out her activity under the supervision of the President. The Director is named for a period of 3 to 5 years at a time according to the judgment of the Directive Council.

Art. 11
The Board of Advisors is composed of three members named by the Assembly. They are eligible for re-election and remain in office 5 years. Also, they are chosen from outside the associates from among persons held in high regard and of proven experience. They must not be part of the Council. To the Advisors belongs the verification of the statements or annual budget management. It will belong to them to settle with a judgement that cannot be appealed every question that may arise among the associates in their own disagreements or disagreements of the Directive Council.

Art. 12
The association's year closes December 31 each year.

Art. 13
The length of the Association's existence is not determined. In case of the dissolution of the Centre, anything remaining when all debts have been satisfied will be disposed of by the Assembly according to the Council's proposal when the advisors have attested that it appears to conforms to the purpose and the statues.

Art. 14
The Centre, which is a non-profit organization, until the time when it may withdraw from seeking legal recognition, will operate as an association not recognized in the sense of articles 36-38 of the Civil Code.

Brescia, May 9, 1984