About ESCD

Purpose of the society is the promotion of research, evaluation and mediation of research results, the promotion of dental education in the area of cosmetic and esthetic procedures in the maxillo-facial, oral and dental field as well as the transfer of information and the promotion of the cooperation as to practical, scientific and ethical aspects. The aim is also to establish an europeanwide quality assurance in the area of cosmetic and esthetic procedures in the maxillo-facial, oral and dental field and the esthetic lab procedures through the certification to „Certified Member“ and „Fellow Member“. Details of the certification and credentialing will be described in a separate section of the certification. In addition the society shall develop concepts to guarantee a steady flow of information between representatives of the practical dentistry, in particular practitioners of cosmetic and esthetic procedures in dentistry, and the non-dental public. Further target of the activities of the ESCD is to teach cosmetic and esthetic procedures in the maxillo-facial, oral and dental field for the members of the medical and dental professions, their assistant professions and to the members of other professions in the health service in such way that the acquired capabilities can be put into immediate use in their professional activity within the legal limitations of their professional discretions. The collaboration with scientific societies and institutions is seeked internationally. The society shall publish periodically a journal in order to fulfil its purposes and to organize an annual congress. Thereby it shall respect the interests of both, the dental practitioners and the teaching professionals at the universities. The society can also apply for memberships in other societies if the general assembly should determine it. The society may also found chapters in different countries.

The society operates exclusively for non-profit purposes. The deductibility for tax purposes of donations towards the society depends upon the respective fiscal regulations of each country. The funds of the society will be used exclusively for the purposes described in the by-laws. No member will be elegible, in his/her function as member of the society, to receive funds or any other benefits from the society. It is not possible that any person may benefit from the society for services that are not in compliance with the by-laws.

The society consists of general, certified, fellow, honorary, corporate and international members. The application for admission as a member into the ESCD should be made in written form. The Executive Committee decides with single majority about the acceptance of the applicant. Membership starts with acceptance by the Executive Committee and payment of the annual membership fee. Dentists, dental technicians and physicians who provide evidence of special theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of cosmetic and esthetic procedures in the maxillo-facial, oral and dental field or dental laboratory techniques, can become certified and fellow members. The criteria for this evidence are determined in the guidelines for certification of the ESCD. The certification committee, formed by the elected chairman for education and his selected certified members decides upon demand in a constitutive session whether the prerequisites for obtaining the certified membership have been fulfilled by the applicant or not. The certification committee decides about the certification of general members with a simple majority. The decision demands no explanation and will be communicated in writing. No objections possible. To keep the levels of a “Certified Member” or a “Fellow Member” the annual membership fee must be paid to the ESCD (no compensation agreement with a partnership alliance society appliable) as well as the minimum attendance of 2 out of 4 consecutive annual meetings is required. If there is no reasonable excuse for missing these aspects the Executive Committee will decide about the revocation of the certification level with a simple majority. The decision demands no explanation and will be communicated in writing. No objections possible. General members can be dentists, physicians, students of medicine or dentistry or members of the medical and dental assisting professions, just as dental technicians and other representative of professions, which are related directly or indirectly with cosmetic or esthetic procedure on human beings. An international member is defined as a person from a country outside of Europe. Corporate members can be groups of the medical healthcare services, medical or dental representation groups such as governmental agencies or commercial companies. International and corporate members do not have voting rights. Honorary members can be a certified member, fellow member or other any other person that has contributed in a special way to the purposes of the society. If a certified or fellow member should become an honorary member, his legal status as a certified or fellow member will not be affected as far as these by-laws do not specify explicitly anything else. The honorary membership will be awarded by the general assembly by a simple majority due to a proposal decided by the executive committee in a secret voting with 2/3 majority.

The membership fee will be charged annually . The general assembly decides about the height of the fee. The executive committee has a proposal right. An admission fee will not be charged. Each member has to contribute his fee for each year on or before the 31st of March. The executive committee has the right to lower, postpone or exempt a member from his fees upon demand in exceptional cases. Certified and fellow members, which have reached the age of 65, can be exempted from the payment of the membership fees from the executive committee upon request if the member has been at least 5 years a certified member of the ESED. Honorary members are exempted from of the payment of fees. This is also valid when the honorary member is also a certified or fellow member at the same time. The fees will only be used for purposes defined in the by-laws, monetary benefits for a member are not allowed.

The membership ends with the death of the member as well as by notice of termination to the end of the calendar year if the notice of termination has been sent to the Executive Committee on or before September 30th in writing. The membership also ends by exclusion of the member according to a decision by the Executive Committee. An immediate exclusion is admissible in exceptional cases if the Executive Committee finds a particularly hard case of a society-damaging behaviour. Members, that may not have paid their fees after the deadline of payment may be reminded to pay. Unwillingness of payment will lead to an automatic exclusion from the society if the Executive Committee determines so. Illiquidity because of an emergency leads to a postponement of the payment, in exceptions also to the exemption. The decision is made by the Executive Committee.

The members are authorized to use the facilities of the society such as to attend the events of the society. Only certified members (“Certified Member” and “Fellow Member”) have a voting right in the General Assembly, vote-transmission to a commissioner is not possible. Only the “Fellow Members” will be allowed to decide about changes of the by-laws with a ¾ majority of the present “Fellow Members”. Until the first certifications of ”Fellow Members” the ”Certified Members” have voting rights concerning by-laws changes also. After the first initiation of ”Fellow Members” this exceptional ruling expires automatically. The ”Certified Members” and ”Fellow Members” vote on the Executive Committee and the Expanded Executive Committee with a single majority of the present certified members. Only the certified members will be able to be elected into the Executive Committee or Expanded Executive Committee. In case of the situation that for the positions of the Chairman for International Education, the Chairman for Internet/Webmaster, the Chairman for Interdisciplinary Aspects and the Chairman for Administration Affairs no candidates for those positions will be elected out of the certified members the alternative has to be the election of a member out of the other members of the ESCD for the respective position excluding voting rights at the Executive Committee and Expanded Executive Committee. Only certified members (”Certified Member” and ”Fellow Member”) have the right to use the symbol of the ESCD, its name and the certification level in their correspondence. If they have another position or appointments within the society, this also can be stated.

Each member should be committed to promote the goals of the society, and to refrain from doing things, that might damage the society, and also avoid violations against the statutes and against decisions of its bodies. Each certified member has the duty to make at least one written contribution each year to the journal of the society, unless he himself is engaged otherwise for the society.

The bodies of the society are the General Assembly, the Executive Committee and the Expanded Executive Committee.

The General Assembly is held yearly, announced by the Executive Committee at least four weeks in advance by means of letters or e-mail. Thereby the Executive Committee should announce the location, the meeting time and the agenda. Applications to change or supplement the agenda should be submitted at the latest three weeks prior to the General Assembly to the Executive Committee in writing which will make the appropriate changes or additions to the agenda. The Executive Committee together with its Expanded Executive Committee can convoke a General Assembly as described. It has to do so, when at least 1/4 of the members apply for a convocation in writing with indication of the purpose and of the causes. The General Assembly forms a quorum regardless of the number of attendees. Resolutions of the General Assembly take place with simple majority of the votes, as far as there is no other determination by law or through these by-laws. A protocol of the meeting should contain the negotiations and resolutions of the General Assembly and it should be signed by the President and the recording secretary who has been selected by the General Assembly. The General Assembly decides about the approval of the annual account, the release of the Executive Committee and about the applications of changes of the by-laws.

The General Assembly has in particular following tasks: 1. Approval of the protocol of the last General Assembly; 2. Accept and approve of the annual and the budget report of the Executive Committee as well as the cash report; 3. Release of the Executive Committee; 4. Election and retrieval of the Executive Committee; 5. Election and retrieval of the Expanded Executive Committee; 6. Approval of the business plan for the next financial year; 7. Confirmation of the propositions of the Executive Committee about the annual fees for the next year; 8. Decision about the award of the honorary membership; 9. Consent to activities of the Executive Committee which value exceed in the individual case 30.000.- Euro; 10. Application of memberships in other societies and organizations; the General Assembly can set up committees to fulfil its tasks.

The Executive Committee of the society consists of :

• the President
• the Vice President
• the General Secretary
• the Chairman for Education
• the Chairman for International Postgraduate Education
• the Chairman for Laboratory Techniques
• the Treasurer

The Executive Committee decides about the detailed distribution of tasks. The Executive Committee is competent when at least 3 of its members are present. The society will be represented forensically and extrajuridically by the President or the General Secretary. Each one of them has the right to represent the society alone. The General Secretary may only make use of this possibility in the inner relationship if the President is actually or legally prevented. Any commitment whose value exceeds 30.000.- Euro in the individual case need the approval of the General Assembly. This limitation is only valid in the inner relationship. The members of the Executive Committee are elected in a secret election by the certified members only within the General Assembly for the duration of three years. The retrieval before the end of this period is only admissible for serious causes. If a member of the Executive Committee retires or drops out during this period a substitute will be chosen by the Executive Committee for the rest of the period. This election needs to be approved by the next General Assembly. The members of the Executive Committee remain in their positions until the new elections have been executed. A re-election is valid. All positions are honorary positions. The meetings of the Executive Committee will be called up by the President through presentation of the agenda 4 weeks in advance. This is also valid if at least 2 members of the board of directors ask for a meeting. The meetings of the Executive Committee are directed by the President. A protocol of the meeting should contain the negotiations and resolutions of the Executive Committee and it should be signed by the President and the recording secretary who has been selected by the Executive Committee. The protocol has to be sent to all the members of the Executive Committee at the latest 4 weeks before the next meeting by letter or e-mail. The decisions of the Executive Committee are valid with a simple majority. In case of equality of the votes the vote of the President decides.

The Executive Committee leads the affairs of the society and reports to the General Assembly yearly about it. It executes the decisions of the General Assembly and administers the funds of the society. The Executive Committee performs a yearly budget for the next financial year which will be presented to the General Assembly for approval. It reports yearly to the General Assembly about the budgetary position of the society.

The Expanded Executive Committee of the society consists of:

• the Chairman for Scientific Aspects
• the Chairman for Media and Public Relations
• the Chairman for International Affairs
• the Chairman for Interdisciplinary Aspects
• the Chairman for Internet (Webmaster)
• the Chairman for Administration Affairs

The members of the Expanded Executive Committee are elected in a secret election by the certified members only within the General Assembly for the duration of three years. The Expanded Executive Committee decides over the distribution of tasks together with the Executive Committee. Therefore must be at present at least 3 members of the named organs. The Executive Committee can propose to the General Assembly to set up further positions in the Expanded Executive Committee and elect the chairmen from the pool of the certified members or exceptionally other members of the ESCD. The special ruling for the general members who are exceptionally not certified as well as international and corporate members is described in §7. The Expanded Executive Committee doesn’t have any power of agency.

The dissolution of the society may only be decided by the general assembly with a majority of 2/3 of the votes but at least by the simple majority of all the members with voting rights. If not at least half of the members with the right to vote attend a general assembly which has been organized to dissolve the society, a new meeting has to be organized by the executive committee within the next 3 months, but soonest after 6 weeks. In that general assembly the resolution of the dissolution of the society can be approved by a simple majority of the attendees with voting rights.

Business year is the calendar year.

The used personal and legal designations are effective of both, in male and female version.

It is established that legally the German version of the by-laws is the one to rely on because the society is registered in Germany (Society Register Court Munich VR 200642) with the relating restrictions. Any translation into another language is just informal and the society is not responsible for misunderstandings hereby.

These by-laws came into effect by registering on January 15, 2007 at the Society Register Court in Munich, Germany with register number VR 200642 and the changes of the by-laws decided by the Extraordinary General Assembly on March 23, 2007 in Cologne/Germany. European Society of Cosmetic Dentistry (ESCD) e.V. Graefelfing / Germany , March 23, 2007