The following compact, to be known as the Alabama Compact for Leadership and Citizenship Education, is hereby expressly authorized, enacted, and adopted:

(1) The purpose of this compact is to promote realization of the leadership development goals of the 1986 and 1992 Commissions on the Future of the South by cooperative efforts to enhance and expand leadership and citizenship education in Alabama.

(2) It is the intent of this compact that membership, programs, operations, and services of the compact should be inclusive and reflect the racial, geographic, urban/rural, and economic diversity of the state.

(3) Member parties to the compact shall be any organization, agency, or institution of the public, non-profit, or private sector which voluntarily chooses to subscribe to the purposes of the compact.

Ex officio members shall include: the Governor of Alabama, the Presiding Officer of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the members of the Legislature of Alabama, the State Superintendent of Education, the Alabama member representatives to the Southern Growth Policies Board, and the individuals elected as compact officers and members of the board of directors.

(4) Membership in the compact is voluntary, and any member may withdraw from membership at any time. Members may choose to participate or not to participate in any programs of the compact, and membership shall in no way restrict, diminish, impinge upon, create obligations of, or limit the autonomy of the respective compact members.