Article 1. Name of Organization

1. The name of the organization shall be the Academic Competition Federation.

Article 2. Purpose and Tournaments

1. The purpose for which the Academic Competition Federation exists is to provide regional and national tournaments for collegiate academic competition and oversee the continued development of the ACF format as defined in the official ACF rules.
2. ACF shall hold three events per year: Fall, Regionals, and Nationals.

Article 3. Membership

1. There shall be three types of members--Full, Provisional, and Emeritus--as delineated in sections 3.2-3.4.
2. A Full member is defined as an individual who has satisfactorily edited two or more ACF tournaments.
3. A Provisional member is defined as an individual who has satisfactorily edited only one ACF tournament.
4. An Emeritus member is defined as an individual who was once a full member but is no longer active. Members become emeritus either after three years of inactivity or after declaring themselves as such. Emeritus members can return to full status if they choose to do so.
5. All new members must be approved by 75% of the Full members. Any Provisional member who has edited his or her second tournament must be approved by 75% of the Full members to become a Full member.

Article 4. Officers and Duties

1. The Officers of the Organization shall consist of an Editor-in-Chief, a Webmaster, and one or more Outreach officers.
2. The Editor-in-Chief is the individual who is serving as head editor for ACF nationals in a given year. He is responsible for speaking for ACF when ACF needs speaking for.
3. The Outreach officer is responsible for reaching out to teams who have never been to an ACF tournament. As many full members as are willing can serve as outreach officers at a given time.
4. The Webmaster shall be in charge of the ACF website.

Article 5. Quorum, Meetings, and Voting

1. A quorum shall exist at any meeting of the membership where at least 50% of the full members are in attendance.
2. Meetings of the Academic Competition Federation will be called by the Editor-in-Chief as needed, and members are expected to attend if at all possible. They will be held in a chat room or some other convenient venue.
3. Reasons for holding a meeting include: member approval, editor assignment, discussion of amendments to the constitution and/or the rules, and Carper voting.
4. Full members are eligible to attend and vote at all meetings. Provisional members may not attend member approval meetings, may attend but not vote at editor assignment and amendment meetings, and may attend and vote at Carper meetings. Emeritus members may attend any meeting but may only vote at Carper meetings.

Article 6. The Carper Award

1. The Dr. N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award will be given annually at ACF Nationals to a member of the quizbowl community who exhibits dedication to and long-term support of academic competitions as exemplified by the career of Dr. Carper.
2. Winners of the Carper Award needn't be directly affiliated with ACF.
3. Only members of ACF may nominate or vote for any candidate for the Carper Award, and the Editor-in-Chief shall preside over the Carper voting.
4. Carper award voting shall commence with each member of ACF nominating two individuals. The top three individuals as determined by number of nominations will be selected, and a meeting will be called to discuss the candidates. If a general consensus cannot be reached, a vote will be taken, and the numerical winner shall receive the award.
5. If ACF nationals attracts more than 26 teams in a given year, then up to $300 of the revenue collected by the Nationals editors shall be given that year to the Carper award winner as needed for travel expenses to collect the award. If the Carper award winner is playing at the tournament, no funding shall be provided.

Article 7. Amendments

1. Any and all amendments to the ACF rules or to this constitution shall be discussed in a meeting at which all members can be present .
2. Amendments are passed when 2/3 of the full members vote in their favor. No other members shall be allowed to vote on any amendment.

This constitution was written by Eric Kwartler and ratified by him and the other full members of ACF at the time of its composition: Matthew Weiner, Jerry Vinokurov, Mike Sorice, and Seth Teitler.