ISBA Rules, Regulations and Ethics

Rules of the International Society of Business Astrologers
• Registered address of the Association (§ 1)
• Purpose of the Association (§ 2)
• Membership Criterion (§ 3)

The International Society of Business Astrologers – Rules and Regulations
• ISBA Statement of Ethics
• ISBA Membership Criteria
• ISBA Editorial Policy

§ 1: Registered address of the Association:
Frederiksundsvej 128 C, DK-2700 Brønshøj, Denmark.
§ 2: Purpose of the Association is to disseminate knowledge of the serious business astrology and to bring about information, internationally, between business astrologers. In all aspects, work should be executed to represent the executors of the profession in relation to the press as well as to disseminate the knowledge about business astrology through articles, books, interviews, etc. On the long view efforts should be made to establish a closer co-operation of exchanging experiences, establishing discussions clubs, holding conferences, etc.
§ 3: Membership criterion: All astrologers having a part of their activity field within business astrology and who concur with the rules of the Association. To this comes the paramount importance that nobody between the members procure business analyses exclusively based on automated EDP interpretations as these, based on their tendency of devaluating complicated circumstances, to a large degree will cause a discredit of the business astrology.
§ 4: The Association is daily managed by a 3-member committee.
§ 5: The committee is appointed for one year’s duration at the ordinary general meeting which is held once a year, April 1 at the latest, in Copenhagen. Extraordinary general meeting can be summoned at any time by one committee member. Furthermore, 25% of the approved members can demand the committee to convene an extraordinary general meeting. The general meeting makes all decisions by simple majority among those attending. However, if the rules of the Association are to be changed, 2/3 of those present on a general meeting should concur. This general meeting is summoned with this point on the agenda, at the same time stipulating the modifications of the rules proposed. Proposals to be considered at the general meeting should be submitted in writing to the president 14 days prior to the general meeting.
§ 6: Since the Association is newly established, no membership fee will be collected until January 1, 1998. The half-yearly membership fee, USD 20.00, will be collected in advance.
§ 7: Being in arrears for more than 3 months, a member will be deleted from the member list. The rights obtained as member are only applicable if not being in arrears.
§ 8: The agenda of the general meeting should, as a minimum, contain the following items:
1) Election of Chairman
2) Statement from the President
3) For adoption of the general meeting the Treasurer presents accounts for the preceding year as well as annual budget for the coming year
4) Assessment of membership fee for the coming year
5) Discussion of proposals received
6) Presentation of candidates (can be made in writing)
7) Election of President
8) Election of Treasurer
9) Election of Deputy Members
10) Election of Board Members
11) Election of Auditor
12) Other business
13) Experiences to be presented from members participating in the committee work.
§ 9: The accounting year of the Association runs from January 1 to December 31. The accounts of the Association are scrutinised by an auditor who is elected by the general meeting. Auditor is to investigate whether the procedure is satisfactory, and he will have admission to scrutinise all the accounting records. In connection with tallying the annual accounts the Auditor should indicate whether the procedure is satisfactory.
The setting up of the following committees are being planned:
1) Ethnic
2) Public relation
3) Research
4) Strategy plan - Year 2000
For the moment the communication channel will mostly be the Internet.
Copenhagen, June 9, 1997

Back to top

The International Society of Business Astrologers – Rules and Regulations
Drafted: April 22, 1998. Approved by the ISBA Board after Board comments and revisions: April 26, 1998.

ISBA Statement of Ethics
The following minimum ethical standards shall apply for all ISBA members:
 
• Members are expected to maintain an honest and forthright approach to all interactions with others. Any misrepresentation of material facts, or the use of ISBA affiliations, honors, membership, or acknowledgments for dishonorable purposes can result in a loss of membership.
• Members who are convicted of any criminal actions above the level of a misdemeanor can have their membership revoked.
• Members are expected to comply with the following minimum ethical standards of conduct in their daily and personal affairs:
• Only provide expertise or advice within their areas of competence;
• Respect the rights of others, including opinions different from their own;
• Shall not offer advice to others when they have other business or personal involvements which can affect this interaction;
• Shall not use a client's private information to generate profits for self or others without that client's specific permission and knowledge;
• Shall maintain client and business confidentiality;
• Shall not make false, misleading, exaggerative, defamatory, belittling, or deceptive statements, orally or in writing;
• Shall not engage in hinted or actual sexual behavior with clients or students unless such behavior is clearly outside of any professional or business work;
• Shall maintain professional boundaries with their clients and students;
• Shall not misrepresent their academic or professional accreditations;
• Shall give full and proper credit to others when working with other people's data or results;
• Shall not make statements, predictions, or forecasts that are misleading, frightening, intimidating, or based on information which is not derived from acceptable business or professional practices;
• Shall strive for objectivity and accuracy in all of their work;
• Shall take responsibility for their actions;
• Shall cooperate with any ethics or other investigations.
Members are required to abide by these minimum standards in order to maintain their active membership.
Failure to comply with these minimum standards, or a breach of faithor trust involving any areas of minimum ethical conduct, can result in the loss of membership, as well as other civil and / or criminal actions.

Back to top

ISBA Membership Criteria
The following minimums shall apply for ISBA membership standards:
• There shall be two classes of membership: Professional and Associate.
• A minimum of five years professional business or financial astrological experience is required for professional membership status. Professional members must keep their dues paid, agree to abide by the Statement of Ethics, and are asked to support all ISBA activities.
• Three members in good standing are needed to recommend a new member for full professional membership.
• All professional members are required to submit at least one newly written article to the Journal every three years. Repetitions of previous articles, or articles previously rejected do not qualify for this requirement. Members who do not conform to this requirement may be denied membership renewal.
• Any person not meeting the requirements for "Professional Member," may apply to become an "Associate Member." Associate members must keep their dues paid, agree to abide by the Statement of Ethics, and are asked to support all ISBA activities as well as submit articles of interest to ISBA members for publication. One member in good standing is needed to recommend a new member for Associate membership.
• There will be a probationary period for all new members of two years after initial acceptance during which time the membership can be revoked by the Board. No action is required by ISBA for a change in status from probationary to permanent member.
• All members are expected to maintain their dues in a "dues paid" status. Membership dues which are more than thirty days overdue can result in a dropped membership. Members ho are dropped must petition the Board in writing for re-instatement.
• All members are required to abide by an ISBA "Code of Ethics." Members are expected to demonstrate professional level standards in their interactions with others inside or outside of ISBA activities.
• Members whose actions embarrass or cause harm to ISBA can be immediately dropped from the membership roles by a vote of the ISBA Board without reimbursement for dues paid.
• Representation of ISBA support for personal or business activities is not allowed without specific written authorization from the ISBA Board.
• The ISBA Board shall determine what does, or what does not, constitute acceptable member practice or representation.
• The use of ISBA affiliation to promote self-interests is prohibited without specific Board approval.

Back to top
 
ISBA Editorial Policy
The ISBA Journal shall be the primary means of communication from ISBA to both its members and to non-members. It shall be the goal of ISBA to publish at least one edition each calendar year. The primary goal of the ISBA Journal is to keep ISBA members informed of events, research, and communication which the ISBA Board and the Journal staff feel are of importance to ISBA members. A secondary consideration for the Journal is
to provide a historical record of contemporary thinking and comment. Another goal is to advance or clarify knowledge within the community of members and readers.
Articles intended for the Journal shall be submitted to the Journal Editor for consideration for publication. Articles which are submitted shall be considered in this order. If "members" is mentioned this implies that these people are in a current dues paid status:
• Articles about ISBA goals from ISBA members;
• Articles from ISBA members concerning areas of research and / or investigation deemed interesting to ISBA members;
• Articles related to ISBA peripheral interests from ISBA members;
• News events and editorials deemed by the staff to be of importance;
• Commentaries or responses to items of news about ISBA;
• Articles about ISBA goals from non-ISBA members;
• Articles from non-ISBA members concerning areas of research and / or investigation deemed interesting to ISBA members;
• Other items of interest.The size of Journal editions shall be set in general terms by the ISBA Board, and in particular by the Journal staff. Advertising from individuals or firms which is in alignment with ISBA goals may be accepted for the Journal. The Journal Editors shall approve all article and advertising format, wording, and layout.
The language of submission for all articles, as well as the language of the Journal, shall be English. The preferred mode for items submitted shall be e-mail files, or electronic files sent it text, ".doc", or ".wp1" formats. Accompanying diagrams not imbedded in such files shall be sent in ".gpf" format. Items for publication not submitted in these formats may be rejected, depending on the time available to the staff for conversion, etc. Articles can be submitted in hard copy form for consideration, but must be submitted in electronic form for publication.
Each article submitted for publication shall contain a 30 to 100 word abstract describing the contents of the article in a succinct way.
Submissions which the Journal Editors feel attack or defame others, or which present information in a misleading way, can be rejected.
Articles as submitted become the property of ISBA, and ISBA shall retain the copyright title to this material unless the author and ISBA agree otherwise in writing before the initial submission. There is no guarantee that articles submitted and accepted by the Journal staff will be published in any particular Journal issue, or even that they will eventually be published at all. Articles submitted to ISBA become the property of ISBA, and shall not be returned to the author unless the author agrees to pay for the return postage and office costs of doing this return. There is no author royalty or compensation offered for article submissions at this time, although the author may write up to a one hundred word biography of himself or herself in which some tasteful advertising is allowed.
Journal editors retain the right to change the wording or text sequences in articles or biographies without the author's permission if they feel that the wording does not conform to accepted grammatical, spelling, or social conventions. Articles shall be at least 1000 words long, but in general no longer than 5000 words; or ten single spaced pages, including diagrams.
/Michael Munkasey

Back to top