New IFIS Constitution

You will probably by now have recieved the announcement that IFIS will be
having a short General Meeting on December 6th to ratify the new
Constitution as approved by the Students Union.

With this in mind we are providing each member with a copy of the
constitution so that they will be able to read it before the meeting so that
they might voice their opinions at it on the meeting.

So, here is the Constitution.

SURHUL Institute For Impure Science (IFIS) Constitution


1. Name
1.1The name of the Society shall be SURHUL Institute For Impure
Science, (IFIS), hereafter referred to as the Society

2.Aims and Objectives
2.1To promote discussion of, and organise events relating to, the
societies interests of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and other related
genres.
2.2To provide a library for members containing books relating to the
Society's interests.

3.Membership
3.1Membership of the Society shall be open to all members of SURHUL in
accordance with the SURHUL Constitution.
3.2The Society shall have at least 20 members who are all full members
of SURHUL.
3.3Other individuals who do not qualify for membership under 3.1 may be
awarded associate membership of the Society upon payment of an annual fee to
be determined by the Committee. The awarding of associate membership is at
the discretion of the Committee. Associate members shall have the same
rights as normal members unless stated or required otherwise by this
constitution or the SURHUL Constitution, Regulations or Policy.

4.Committee
4.1The role of the committee is to manage all aspects of the Societies'
administration and to organise the society's events. The committee shall
not work autonomously. The committee shall endeavour to satisfy the wishes
of all members.
4.2The committee shall consist of the following officers:
(a)Chairperson
(b)Secretary
(d)Treasurer
(e)Publicity Officer
(a)Librarian
4.3The Committee may co-opt further members onto Committee to
fulfil specific functions at their discretion.
4.4The Committee will meet regularly to administer the Societies'
activities. Any member of the Society is entitled to view any committee
meeting, unless a closed meeting. Only elected committee members may vote in
Committee decisions.
4.5Only full members of SURHUL may be committee members.
4.6The positions of Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer are executive
positions for the purposes of this constitution.
4.7The term of office for the Committee shall be until the next AGM.
4.8A 2/3 majority at a quorate General Meeting of the society may pass
a motion of no confidence in a committee member. Such motions must be
submitted to the Committee at least three working academic days before the
meeting. The committee member concerned shall be immediately notified and
supplied with the text of the motion, they shall also be allowed an adequate
opportunity to respond at the meeting. If the motion is passed it shall take
immediate effect.
4.9Should a post fall vacant for any reason, it shall be re-elected at
the first available opportunity.
4.10Honorary Society Positions may be created, however these shall not
be Committee positions

5.Duties of Committee Members:
5.1The Chairperson shall:
(a)be responsible for the constitutional running of the Society
(b)ensure proper chairing of the AGM and any other relevant meetings
(c)be responsible for the administration and co-ordination of all the
Society activities and to ensure that the club/society meets all SURHUL
requirements.
(d)ensure that the society is appropriately represented at SURHUL
bodies.

5.2The Secretary shall:
(a)keep a full list of membership that also records membership of
SURHUL and bring this to all meetings of the society.
(b)keep a record or all meetings held, which shall be available to all
members of the Society.
(c)be responsible for ensuring regular monitoring of correspondence
received and ensuring that all information is dealt with correctly by the
society officers.
(d)keep an up-to-date inventory of Society property.
(e)keep a file of all correspondence for the current year and the
previous two years.

5.3The Treasurer shall:
(a)keep a record of and oversee all financial transactions of the
Society.
(b)submit a financial report/budget application to SURHUL annually.
(c)present a report on the Societies finances to the AGM

5.4The Publicity Officer shall:
(a)produce publicity as required by the Society

5.5The Librarian shall:
(a)be responsible for the administration of the library
and ensure sufficient access for members.


6.Meetings:
6.1An AGM of the society must take place each academic year;
the AGM shall be considered a General Meeting of the society.
6.2A General Meeting of the society may be called by the
committee at any time or by the written request of twenty members or 10% of
membership whichever is the fewer.
6.3Quoracy at all General Meetings of the society shall be 25%
of membership or 25 members which ever is the fewer; and must include a
quorate committee.
6.4A quorate committee shall be three committee members,
including at least one executive member.
6.5Meetings of the society may only take place during term
time, and must be publicised as widely as possible, one full academic
working week in advance.
6.6During the AGM the following will take place:
a)The Society Constitution will be approved by
all members.
b)Elections for the following Year's Committee
will take place in accordance with SURHUL guidelines and this constitution.
6.7Weekly film screenings and social events shall not
constitute meetings of the society for the purposes of the constitution,
unless explicitly stated and publicised otherwise.



7. Elections:
7.1Only and all members of the society shall be eligible to vote or
stand as candidates in an election. Except as limited by clause 4.4 and the
SURHUL Constitution, Regulations and Policy.
7.2The committee shall appoint an officer of the society to be
returning officer, if unable or unwilling, a returning officer shall be
appointed from the membership. The returning officer will not be able to
stand in any of the elections.
7.3Nominations shall be accepted from the floor prior to the election
of each committee position.
7.4The method of election shall be by show of hands, with all
candidates not present.
7.5All candidates will be invited to make a 1 minute hustings speech.
The conclusion of hustings speeches should be immediately followed by the
vote.
7.6Officers of the society will be elected in the order given in clause
4.2.
7.7In the event of a tie, and with the consent of the meeting, the
returning officer may resolve the tie by hold further rounds of hustings
speeches for a full re-vote or a re-vote between the highest polling
candidates. Optionally voting may be held over until a future meeting. If
unable to resolve the tie, the ultimate method of resolution shall be by a
random method.
7.8An observer from SURHUL shall be invited to all elections to ensure
that they are conducted fairly.

8. Amendments:
8.1 A two-thirds majority at a quorate General Meeting of the Society shall
be required to pass amendments to the Constitution.
8.2 Motions to change the constitution must be submitted to the Committee at
least three working academic days before the meeting.

9.Finance:
9.1The Society shall follow all SURHUL financial guidelines, and shall
ensure that all monies are handled through the respective SURHUL accounts.
9.2The Society will complete an annual budget form detailing the year's
income and expenditure, and predicted income and expenditure for the
following year.

10.Safety:
10.1The Society will follow all safety guidelines laid down by SURHUL,
and the College Safety Office.
10.2The Society will complete risk assessments, and consider the risks
for all activities, responding according to the guidelines laid down by
SURHUL, the College Safety Officers, and the Sports Safety Framework
10.3The Society will inform the Sports and Societies Office of all
accidents and incidents.


11.Discipline:
11.1Failure of the Society or its members to comply with the SURHUL
Constitution, Regulations or Policy may result in disciplinary action
against the Society.
11.2Failure of committee members to fulfil their responsibilities under
the SURHUL Constitution, Regulations or Policy may result in disciplinary
action being taken by SURHUL against the member. Such action may include
requiring them to step down from their position.
11.3Failure of a Society member to adhere to the Society Constitution,
regulations, code of Practice or Guidelines may with the agreement of the VP
Communications and Societies result in one of the following actions being
taken by the committee:
(a)A written caution
(b)Exclusion from Society Activities
(c)Expulsion from the Society Committee
(d)SU Disciplinary Action

12Declaration
12.1The Society committee and all its members shall abide by the SU
Constitution, and any rules laid down by SURHUL at all times.
12.2All activities conducted by the Society are a reflection upon SURHUL
and consequently RHUL. The Society will not therefore conduct any activity
that has not been approved by SURHUL.

13Interpretation:
13.1Should the constitution require interpretation this shall normally
be done by the committee although ultimate interpretation lies with the
membership by means of a General Meeting of the society.
13.2Nothing may be interpreted to contradict the SURHUL Constitution
Regulations or Policy, which shall always be binding.

14 Revokation:
14.1All previous constitutions are hereby expressly revoked.

This constitution is missing committee person "c" and contains several other
obvious "deliberate mistakes" including dodgy spelling.

Have you sent out the right one? If so, can I give advance notice that I'll
be proposing a handful of corrections? To make things as quick as possible,
I can initially propose them as one bundle of corrections so we need only
vote once rather than approving each piddly change.

---

The Borg assimilated my planet and all I got was email conveniently
delivered to my head instead of my pocket.
www.blackberry.net

GAH! The stupid machine has done it again and mucked up all the
lettering!! It keeps on doing this. Committe person D should be C, E
should be D and the second A should be E. Dammit
Yes, i'm sure I did.
Feel free to do so.

Adam

So you can see any meeting except those you can't.
Excellent.
Presumably keep a record OF all meetings held.
Doesn't say if minutes are kept though - just the fact that there was a
meeting.
Only you don't seem to define "executive member".
Gee - did you ask their permission to go shopping?

Dominic Pedant Thomas

"4.6 The positions of Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer are executive
positions for the purposes of this constitution."

There is your definition.

Love,
Lizz



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PKF International is an association of legally independent national firms.

Oops. Quite so.

Incidentally - I think it's a very good constitution, and congratulations to
the people who put it together.

Dominic

Whilst that may, when viewed on its own, appear weird ....
when viewed with the other society constitutions (all devleped from an
SURHUL template), it is infact the appropriate variant for IFIS.
The new IFIS one uses lots of *terminology* from the SURHUL template, but
gives what ifis wants.

A lot of pressure has been placed upon socs to follow a template, hence,
whilst we may wish to write things more clearly for ourselves, using
template terminology has allowed IFIS to deviate as much as it can in the
area of 'self government'.
A record is normally understood to be minutes. Although not necessarily of
the form: "He said that, she said that...." but more of the form "This was
raised/discussed. This was agreed."
Try section 4.6!
Firstly, that is straight from the template. Secondly it has an understood
context.

The bit before about following all rules laid down by surhul annoys me more,
BUT it is a requirment from our parent body....
David Adamson.

R-E-V-O-C-A-T-I-O-N.
R-E-V-O-K-E-D.

Sorry, English is not regular. I hope this title doesn't come from
the template, though. If it does, then it will have been propagated
into every society's constitution. Which is a bit poor, when you
consider that RHUL is supposed to be a centre of learning.


But most current students will not be aware that the Union diddling
with the Constitution is a regular event - probably on average every
2-3 years, the Union overhauls the IFIS constitution. It doesn't
change anything, and it doesn't get remembered when the current
sabs leave.

So don't worry about it. They can do nothing, because their enemy
is not IFIS, it is Time - they will be away from here, pursuing dull
positions in local council elections, and long forgotten by IFIS: which
by having ex-student members, has a much longer memory than
RHULSU.

This constitution just goes in the Big Box O'Constitutions, to be
forgotten with all the others.








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R-E-V-O-C-A-T-I-O-N.
R-E-V-O-K-E-D.

Sorry, English is not regular. I hope this title doesn't come from
the template, though. If it does, then it will have been propagated
into every society's constitution. Which is a bit poor, when you
consider that RHUL is supposed to be a centre of learning.


But most current students will not be aware that the Union diddling
with the Constitution is a regular event - probably on average every
2-3 years, the Union overhauls the IFIS constitution. It doesn't
change anything, and it doesn't get remembered when the current
sabs leave.

So don't worry about it. They can do nothing, because their enemy
is not IFIS, it is Time - they will be away from here, pursuing dull
positions in local council elections, and long forgotten by IFIS: which
by having ex-student members, has a much longer memory than
RHULSU.

This constitution just goes in the Big Box O'Constitutions, to be
forgotten with all the others.








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On Wed, 28 Nov 2001, storyteller@ wrote:
I thought they filed them in the round open topped file cabinet? Or is it a
paper shredded in these modern days? *8)

that's just a rumour....
its SURHUL, ..... well for the next few years anyway...
Tis true, incase anyone isn't aware, there was a LOT of internal opposition
to both:
i. being forced to change everything to match templates,
ii. the actual template design being used.

I for one would not say the template is anything near perfect (what ever
that may be),
but I don't think the new IFIS one will cause any problems for IFIS
(once we fix the typo's)

Neither do I - but I have a slightly different reason. I have seen at
least half a dozen IFIS constitutions, and none of them have made
the slightest difference.




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least half a dozen IFIS constitutions,
Have you got copies of any of the older ones? I ought to have more than 2.5
on the website.

---

The Borg assimilated my planet and all I got was email conveniently
delivered to my head instead of my pocket.
www.blackberry.net

Yes, sorry about that. I wrote the constitution and i am
unfortunately a moron.

Adam

I've collected together a few other people's thoughts and also a few of my
own. Please consider this to be my "3 day's notice of amendments to the
constitution" or whatever. The top bunch are open to discussion, and I'd
like some committee people to clarify - sorry, this may take a bit of work,
but it's probably worth doing. The second lot are all FAIRLY obvious, but if
I'm wrong on any of them, let me know. I'm hoping to just read through them
all quickly at the GM and get them all passed en-masse and get everything
over with PDQ. If that doesn't work, I'll address them one at a time.

Please note, I'm not having a go at anyone or anything, but would just like
to see this, our most official document, being as close as possible to 100%
"correct" this time... not that it'll make the slightest bit of difference
in 3 years, but hey! :-)

clarification needed:

4.1 Satisfy ALL the wishes of ALL the members, or what? Even
non-IFIS-related wishes? Can we link this to 2.1 a bit better?
"... as defined in clause 2.1" maybe?
4.4 "closed meeting"? Wassat?
4.8 Could a grammar pedant tell me whether the comma is correct
after "text of the motion", and/or how it could be corrected?
5.n Another grammar pedant query - how should these sentences be
capitalised? E.G. "5.1 (a) be..." or "5.1 (a) Be..."?
5.2 (b) "record of all meetings"? does this mean minutes, more, or less?
6.2 Is "The committee may call a general meeting" better grammar?
6.6 (a) What if the constitution hasn't changed? What if all members
don't approve? What if some members don't approve even when
it hasn't changed? How many is "all" members anyway? What if 1
member doesn't? Does this approval take the form of a vote, or
what?
7.5 Grammar pedant: hyphenate "1-minute"? ...or "one-minute" even?
7.* How about taking this opportunity to arrange these into a more
logical order? Maybe:
7.1 An observer from SURHUL...
7.2 The committee shall appoint ... a returning officer
7.3 Officers ... shall be elected in the order...
7.4 Nominations shall be accepted from the floor
7.5 All candidates will be invited ... 1 minute ... speech
7.6 Any and all members ... shall be eligible to vote
7.7 the method of election shall be...
7.8 in the event of a tie...
11.3 Do we have any Regulations, Code of Practice, or Guidelines?
Should we make some, or are there standard SU-wide ones?
12.2 "not therefore conduct any activity that has not been
approved by SURHUL" - where does this begin and where does
it end?
global Can we standardise capitalisation of "Society" or "society"?
What about "the society", "the Society" (as per 1.1), or
"The Society"? What about "committee" or "Committee"?

More "obvious" corrections:

2.1 Correct possessive form: "the societies" to "the society's"
2.2 Curiously enough, 2.2 already uses the correct form as above :-)
4.1 "the Societies'" to "the Society's"?
4.2 Correct alphabetical ordering of officers a,b,c,d,e
5.2 (b) "record OF all meetings"
4.4 "the Societies" to "the Society's"? This is the constitution
of only ONE Society, isn't it?
5.3 (c) Correct to "...report on the Society's finances"
6.6 Change a) and b) to (a) and (b) for consistency with rest of
constitution
6.6 (b) lower-case "year's"?
7.1 Correct "clause 4.4" to "clause 4.5"
7.2 Change first comma to a full-stop? Yes, this was wrong on the
old con too :-)
14 Correct spelling of "Revocation"

Anything else anyone would care to add?

---

Nick Waterman, Blackberry Unix Systems Administrator, Research In Motion

Another nit-pick.
I don't see how clause 4.4 relates to clause 7.1. The only effect I can see
is to stop anyone except the committee from voting in elections. I assume
this is not intentional. If it is, the society should consider amending
clause 4.1 to remove the part that says "The committee shall not work
autonomously.".

7.1 is 14(a) in the current constitution.

In the current version it refers generally to clause 4
(although it is part 4(c) that is the operative part).

4.5 is the replacement for the current 4(c), hence it should refer to clause
4.5 (rather than 4.4) to refer explicitly and correctly.
(doh!, well public scrutiny is doing its job.....)

"4.5 Only full members of SURHUL may be committee members."

[The new 4.4 is straight insertion required by the SURHUL template.]