[ProgSoc] Constitutional Convention

Tomislav Bozic tomchristmas at progsoc.org
Wed Mar 9 00:33:30 EST 2011


tl;dr -- my proposal to amend ProgSoc's constitution at the AGM.
It might be worth your time to continue reading. Then again, it
may not. Up to you.



With the AGM coming up in just over three weeks, I thought now would be
a good time to take a long, hard look at our club's founding document
-- the Constitution -- go through it with a fine tooth comb and see what,
if anything, in the Constitution needs changing.

This is exactly what I have done, and in the process, have come up with
eleven (11) amendments for your consideration below. Prior to outlining each
amendment, I have written a short paragraph on each amendment, explaining
and justifying the reasons behind their formulation.

I guess what motivated me to come up with these amendments was a feeling
that a significant portion of the Constitution has dated somewhat and
hence
needs to be modified to reflect the realities of modern-day modes of
communication. At the same time such modifications need to be flexible as
well, so that they too do not fall into irrelevance too soon into the
future.

I have made my proposals public so that they can be discussed, refined,
modified, appended, subtracted, etc. by the membership before they are put
to a vote at the AGM (if it is desirous of the membership as a whole to do
so). Also, in formulating these amendments, I have raised several questions
about the current constitution to which I seek answers, especially from
its previous authors.

So have a read through the proposal and tell me what you think.

Handy reference: http://progsoc.org/wiki/index.php/Constitution

************

Proposed Amendment 1 (Correction of minor errors)

The following proposed amendments are just minor corrections of various
errors throughout the Constitution which, if approved, will not change the
meaning of any clauses. A lot of it is nitpicking, but modifying even a
single punctuation mark or letter is still modifying the Constitution and
thus requires the approval of the voting populace for modification to be
recognised....and if we don't get this out of the way now then we never
will. I've bundled the following as a single amendment for convenience.

  * Remove full-stops from the following section and clause headings for
  consistency:

  4.3
  5.4
  5.5
  7.3
  7.4
  7.5
  8
  9.2
  10

  * Correct typographical errors:

  4.2.3 form => for
  5.5.3 keep a register all members => keep a register of all members

  * Promote subclauses to clauses, as there are no other subclauses that
  share the same respective superclause:

  4.4.1 => 4.4
  5.4.1 => 5.4

  * Rename Section 7 (how did *this* one slip by the radar for 22 years!?)

  ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS => MEETINGS


Proposed Amendment 2 (Interpretation of the Constitution)

Just a slight re-ordering and embellishment of Section 2, so that it flows
more logically. Essentially, more nitpicking.

  * Alter Section 2 to read:

  2. INTERPRETATION

  The following terms, unless indicated to the contrary shall mean:

    * Society: Programmers' Society.

    * University, UTS: The University of Technology, Sydney.

    * Union: UTS Union.


Proposed Amendment 3 (Objects)

I believe all of the objects of ProgSoc should be ongoing rather than a
series of finite goals to be achieved. Objects 1, 3 and 4 meet this
criteria, yet
Object 2 does not because aren't we *already* affiliated with the Union!?
Maybe we weren't in 1989, but we are now. Accordingly, this needs to be
changed. I personally prefer the first option (to *remain*) but the second
one (to *become and remain*) is OK, too.

  * Alter Section 3.2 to read either (1) or (2)

  (1) Remain affiliated with the Union.

  (2) Become and remain affiliated with the Union.


Proposed Amendment 4 (Membership registration)

At the moment, we do not accept registrations via e-mail (we use a
web-based form instead), yet we are technically violating the terms of
4.2.2 by not offering e-mail registrations, so we should change this to the
all-encompassing "online facilties" to reflect our current practice better
and to allow us more flexibility now and into the future i.e. we could
offer e-mail registrations if we wanted to, but we wouldn't be required to.

  * Alter Section 4.2.2:

  via electronic mailing facilities => via online facilities


Proposed Amendment 5 (Terms of expulsion from the Society)

I was scratching my head over this one. There appears to be a blatant
contradiction and redundancy here. Currently, we allow those members
subject to expulsion to resign, yet we do not allow those resigners to
rejoin the club unless approved by the voting populace (and "payment of a
fresh subscription"). I simply don't see the distinction in this case
between someone who has been expelled outright and those subject to
expulsion who exercised their resignation right. They are one and the same
to me. Ergo, the following amendment.

  * Repeal from Section 4.3.2 (1) and (2) due to contradiction with 4.4

  (1) Persons expelled from the Society under this rule will be given the
  option of resigning.

  (2) (whether by expulsion or opted resignation)


Proposed Amendment 6 (Definition of Executive Committee Vacancies)

This was inspired, in part, by our CSO's recent permanent interstate
relocation and how it would affect his ability to carry out his duties and
whether, as a result of the relocation, the office could be considered
vacant. It is somewhat unfortunate that the Constitution does not
explicitly define under what circumstances an Executive vacancy can take
place, so I've listed the five cases that I could think of. I stress the
importance of a vote of no confidence to be *unanimous*. Also, we as a club
do not conduct OGMs any more (just the one annual AGM is enough, it seems),
so it would be more appropriate to call an SGM to elect a new Executive
member.

  * Alter Section 5.2 to read:

  5.2 Executive Committee Vacancies

  5.2.1 A position on the Executive Committee shall not be considered
  vacant unless one of the following takes place:

  5.2.1.1 An Executive Committee member has submitted a formal
  resignation from their position on the Executive Committee, in writing,
  to the Executive Committee and it is accepted by the remaining members
  of the Executive Committee.

  5.2.1.2 An Executive Committee member has resigned, subject
  to 4.4.

  5.2.1.3 An Executive Committee member has been expelled, subject to
  4.3.2.

  5.2.1.4 A unanimous vote of no confidence in an Executive Committee
  member, by the remaining members of the Executive Committee, has been made.

  5.2.1.5 An Executive Committee member has died or is otherwise
  incapacitated.

  5.2.2 Any vacancy occurring on the Executive Committee shall be filled
  at a Special General Meeting to be held as soon as possible after the
  vacancy occurs.


Proposed Amendment 7 (Secretary's duties)

Today, most correspondence between the Executive members and to external
parties on behalf of the Executive takes place via email. We simply do not
send paper-based correspondence any longer, which was undoubtedly more
commonplace in 1989 (even if everyone in ProgSoc used email back then). So
I think it would be appropriate to diminish the Secretary's responsibility
in this regard and charge them with the responsibility of conducting just
our paper-based correspondence, should the need ever arise. All other
correspondence can be (and is being) conducted by individual Executive
members (including the Secretary) on behalf of the Executive.

  * Alter Section 5.5.3:

  conduct all correspondence => conduct all paper-based correspondence


Proposed Amendment 8 (CSO's duties)

This is what the CSO does already -- I know I did -- so it should be
codified, just as the President's and Treasurer's AGM reports are
required.

  * Append to Section 5.5.5:

  and on behalf of the Executive Committee submit a report on the state of
  the Society's computer related resources at the Annual General Meeting.


Proposed Amendment 9 (Organs of mass communication)

In practice, all important club-related announcements are published online
and/or on posters in front of the club room. Rarely, if ever, do we post
announcements in paper form on the Union noticeboard (so again we are
technically violating our Constitution by not doing so). However, we should
leave that as an option and officially endorse our "online services" (i.e.
ProgSoc's website and this mailing list) as some of the
club's official "organs of mass communication". After this amendment is
approved, a notice or announcement would be considered officially
published or announced if it was published/announced on *either* the notice
board *or* the website/mailing list *or* both.

  * Insert phrase "and/or the Society's online services" to the following
  clauses, as follows:

  4.3.2 after "on the Union Notice Board at Broadway".

  7.5.1 after "on the union notice board at Broadway".

  8.2 after "on the union notice board at Broadway".

  9.1 after "on the union notice board at Broadway".


Proposed Amendment 10 (Satisfying Union requirements)

As of 2010, the Union in their infinite wisdom, have imposed a rule upon
affiliated societies that requires at least three Executive members to be
members of the Union's Advantage Programme. There is no pretty solution to
this problem, although one potential solution would be to require all
candidates to be Union members before accepting their nomination. Not an
ideal solution, not an idea I'm a fan of -- and no less awkward than asking
a newly-elected Executive member to volunteer to join the AP when it has
transpired that less than three Executive members are Union members as
well, nor less audacious than the proposition last year to create up to
three new Executive positions known as GAPs (Gratuitous Advantage
Programme members), for the sole purpose of AP compliance -- but it should
future-proof us should the Union at a whim decide to require more club
Executive members to financially support them. Definitely *not* an issue in
pre-VSU days!

  * Append to Section 5.4:

  Candidates for election must be financial members of the Union.


Proposed Amendment 11 (Representative roles)

Of all the deficiencies of the Constitution, this one has bothered me the
most, so I have placed it last. I simply do not understand why the other
five Executive members' roles are defined, yet the representative roles are
not. Was this due to an oversight at the time of the previous
amendment (2005) or was this intentional i.e. let the Executive decide from
year to year what the representatives are supposed to be doing? So I've
come up with my own draft definition of the two roles, which I believe are
generic and flexible enough to be codified.

  * Define representative duties in Sections 5.5.6 and 5.5.7

  5.5.6 First Year Representative. The First Year Representative shall
  promote the Society and its activities, primarily to students of the
  University who are undertaking their first year of undergraduate studies
  ("first years"), and shall act as an intermediary between first years and
  the Executive Committee and shall be of assistance to the Executive
  Committee.

  5.5.7 Alumni Representative. The Alumni Representative shall promote the
  Society and its activities, primarily to former and current members of
  the Society who have completed studies at the University ("alumni"), and
  shall act as an intermediary between alumni and the Executive Committee,
  and shall be of assistance to the Executive Committee.

************

Tom




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