North America Civic Platform (NACP) is a loose umbrella unincorporated association serving as a hub for consultation and collaboration for civic, cultural, and service organizations around the U.S. and Canada dedicated to promoting community service, education, and interfaith dialogue. 

 

Mission

 

The mission of NACP is to provide a platform for its members to facilitate networking, share best practices, and inspire ideas to better serve local communities in education, interfaith dialogue, and social welfare.

 

Participation and Representation at the Platform

 

Categories of Participants at the NACP: 

1. Representatives of regional platforms that are signatories to the formational MOU of NACP. Each platform will be represented by a number of members as determined by the NACP. 

2. Representatives of National non-profit organizations (NPOs) that are signatories to the formational MOU of NACP. Each NPO will be represented by one person. 

3. Coordinators of main Hizmet activity areas at the national level. 

4. Guest Participants: People with expertise in fields relevant to NACP’s work (i.e. law, finance/accounting, non-profit governance, community relations, communications), may participate at the platform meetings upon invitation by the platform chair, but cannot vote in platform decisions. 

 

New membership is granted as described in the MOU. 

 

Deputies

Organizations and platforms can designate a proxy to represent them when the current representative cannot attend the meetings for reasons approved by the executive committee. 

 

 

Term Limits

 

• Representatives of regional platforms serve 3-year terms, with one year extension, upon approval by the regional platform. 

• If a representative’s term in regional platforms ends before his/her 4 year term at the national level, the representative’s term at the national platform will expire. The region will appoint a new representative. 

 

• Representatives who reach their term limit can return, if elected to represent, after 2 years. No representative can serve on the national platform for more than two terms.

 

• Regional platforms are expected to change their representatives in a staggered manner so that only at most half of the representatives are changed at the same time.

 

• Platform officers, national coordinators and representatives of national nonprofits participate in the platform as long as they hold their role/office. Term limit guidelines for these roles are specified by the human resources committee.

 

Officers

NACP has the following officers: Chairperson, vice-chair, secretary, and two assistant secretaries.

 

Appointment/Election and Terms of Officers:

-       NACP Chairperson and vice-chair will be nominated and elected by the chairs of the regional platforms among themselves.

-       The secretary and assistant secretaries are nominated by the members of the platform from among the members and approved by the full platform.

-       NACP chair and vice-chair serve for a term of one year. 

• The Secretary serves for a term of 3 + 1 years or until the successor is elected.

• Assistant secretaries serve for a term of 3+1 years or until the successors are elected.

 

Duties/Roles of Officers

 

Chairperson:

A)   Presides at all meetings of the platform.

B)   Has general and active management of the business of the Platform. 

C)   Shall have general superintendence and direction of all other officers of the platform and see that their duties are properly performed. 

D)   Shall be Ex-officio member of all standing committees.

1. The chairperson will perform the additional roles assigned to him/her by the guidelines prepared by the committees of NACP.

 

The chair-elect will serve as the vice-chair who shall be vested with all the powers and shall perform all the duties of the Chairperson during the absence of the latter.

 

Secretary:

A)   Shall record all votes and minutes of platform meetings and keep these records. 

B)   Shall make the arrangements for all meetings of the platform in concert with the Chairperson.

C)   Shall send notices of all meetings to the members of the platform at least two weeks in advance and shall collect agenda items for the meetings.

D)   Shall perform all official correspondence from the platform as may be prescribed by the platform or the Chairperson.

E)    Shall keep track of the start dates and term limits of members in conjunction with the Governance Committee.

F)    Shall keep a copy of all policy documents approved by the platform. 

The assistant secretaries shall assist the secretary in his/her duties, and act in his/her behalf in the absence of the secretary.

 

Committees 

 

NACP will form committees as needed. Any member can propose to form a committee. Discussions about forming a committee follows the regular decision-making procedure of the platform. Committees shall include at least one platform member. Non-members can be invited to serve on committees based on their qualifications.  

 

NACP shall have the following standing committees at all times. Additional committees can be formed: 

 

Executive Committee:

Consists of the Chairperson, the Vice Chair, and the Secretary.

 

Non-profit Governance Committee:

Non-Profit Governance Guidance & Support Committee (a) helps member platforms and organizations operate according to NACP’s mission and vision; (b) informs and guides NACP member organizations in legal and ethical norms, and best practices in non-profit governance; (c) Develops reference guides, educational material, and training activities for participant NPOs and platforms.

 

Finance Committee:

Finance Committee informs and guides NACP members on 

(a) budgeting and financial planning, 

(b) internal controls and safeguards, and 

(c) timely and accurate reporting.

 

Human Resources Committee:

Human Resources Committee informs and guides NACP members on various aspects of human resource management such as planning, recruitment, training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits, and career development.

 

 NACP Meetings

 

Regular Meetings:

Regular meetings of the platform are held four times a year, as announced by the secretary at least two weeks in advance.

Meetings begin with a roll call and the presence of a simple majority of the platform.

Meetings end upon the exhaustion of the agenda items or a vote by the majority of the platform.

 

Meeting Agenda:

Any member can propose an agenda item with an associated discussion time through the means/methods provided by the secretary. 

The secretary can include the proposed item either as stand-alone agenda item or under the agenda of the relevant committee and adjust the requested time based on the other requests and available time.

The agenda and the meeting schedule will normally be distributed three days before the meeting. 

 

Special Meetings:

A special meeting of the platform can be called for by two ways: (A) Directly by the platform chairperson. (B) By the secretary upon a request by one member, seconded by another. In this case, the meeting is scheduled when approved by the majority.

 

Meetings of Regional Platform Chairs

NACP chairperson, vice chair, secretary, regional platform chairs and national activity area coordinators meet as needed.

 

Quorum 

Two thirds of the members of the platform shall constitute a quorum (i.e. the minimum number of members that must be present at any of the platform meetings to make the proceedings of the meeting valid.)

 

Voting

Only participants listed under the categories (A), (B) and (C) described under the section of Participation and Representation at the Platform can vote in platform meetings.

 

• Any member can make a motion. The platform considers the motion after 5 additional supporting votes.

 

• Decisions are made by the simple majority of the members present at the meeting, unless specified otherwise in these regulations. 

 

Approval and Amendments to Regulations

These bylaws are adopted and can be amended by a 2/3 majority vote of the full platform. 

 

Termination

• A member who fails to attend (3)-three platform meetings in a year becomes a candidate for replacement. Such incidents will be brought to the relevant regional platform by the secretary. 

• Members who are suspected of violating the code of ethics of the platform will be investigated according to the NACP Grievance Policy.  

 

 

• This NACP Regulations document was adopted by the NACP at its regular meeting on January 11, 2025.