mattfbacon / aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution

ASWVC Bylaws and Constitution. Amendments tracked with PRs.

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aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution's Issues

Vote of No Confidence veto

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 282 in e5898dc

+ A Vote of No Confidence is not subject to a presidential veto.

But can the advisor veto?

Senator excused absence

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 209 in e5898dc

+ For an excused absence, the ASWVC Senator or ASWVC Executive Board member must give adequate notice of being absent or be absent for an emergency or medical reason.

Why would a senator need an excused absence for an event? Clarify

Ballot Entry Content Restrictions

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 232 in e5898dc

+ The Election Committee shall be composed of the President (or designee if the current President is running for a position), the ASWVC Advisor, Director of Marketing, Director of Records, Director of Student Engagement, Director of External Operations, Director of Club Relations, and two Senate members who are not running for elected office.

add a section to restrict and codify the allowed language in election ballot entries. For example, should candidates be allowed to include endorsements from previous Executive Board members?

Approved, not just voted on

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 369 in e5898dc

+ All funding requests must be discussed and voted on in this standing Senate item to be considered allocated.

They must be approved, not just voted on.

Sanctioned student organization

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 383 in e5898dc

+ If it becomes apparent that any sanctioned student organization is failing to fulfill its stated objectives or obligations, a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the Senate present and voting may revoke the funding.

What does "Sanctioned" mean here?

Election Committee designees

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 232 in e5898dc

+ The Election Committee shall be composed of the President (or designee if the current President is running for a position), the ASWVC Advisor, Director of Marketing, Director of Records, Director of Student Engagement, Director of External Operations, Director of Club Relations, and two Senate members who are not running for elected office.

Do the other members require designees if they are also running for positions?

Malfeasance et al

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 422 in e5898dc

+ Hold all Executive Board Members accountable to their responsibilities and recommend appropriate disciplinary action for any malfeasance.

How about misfeasance and nonfeasance?

Redundancy with Robert's Rules

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 161 in e5898dc

+ All legislation presented to the Senate shall be presented on the floor of the Senate, with the reading of the legislation to be followed by a motion and a second for the adoption of the legislation.

Is this redundant with Robert's Rules?

"Quorum" section

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 167 in e5898dc

+ Quorum must be established to take vote on any items, which is defined as 51% of active members with voting rights.

make into a section called Quorum with one subsection for definition and another for requirement

Migrate Timely Start Requirement

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 322 in e5898dc

+ For the purpose of calculating absences, tardiness is defined as arriving five (5) minutes after the predetermined meeting time. Call to order must take place at most five (5) minutes after the predetermined meeting time.

The part about starting at most five minutes late should be moved to a different location.

Voting Rights Removal due to Inactivity

https://github.com/mattfbacon/aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/blob/e5898dc324b95835175f9ec68cb9363e46a14dbf/doc.typ#L335C38-L335C38

Are these the voting rights in the specific committee or in the senate or both? Also, reconsider this in general.

Not grammatical

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 405 in e5898dc

+ Give monthly reports of SSCCC of the California Community College meetings and business.

This sentence is not grammatical but it's too unclear to be corrected automatically.

May or must?

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 195 in e5898dc

+ If an Executive Board member is in violation of the West Valley College Student Code of Conduct, they may be immediately removed from office.

May or must?

VP bringing amendments to the senate

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 436 in e5898dc

+ Bring forth amendments to the ASWVC Constitution and Bylaws to the attention of the ASWVC Senate as needed.

Clarify that this is in their capacity as the chair of the bylaws committee.

"Club funding requests" -> "Funding requests"

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 364 in e5898dc

+ The Senate shall have the final deciding vote to approve or reject club funding requests and will vote on any funding requests approved by the Budget and Finance committee at a regular meeting of the Senate.

Too specific about just club funding requests. This is a problem with the section in general.

Attendance List

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 372 in e5898dc

+ Campus entities must share a student attendance list with the ASWVC Director of Finance following each endeavor at which ASWVC funds shall be used specifically for reimbursements.

Do people do this? Seems impractical

Require meeting with the Director of Club Engagement to create clubs

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 367 in e5898dc

+ A representative of the campus entity must attend and give a detailed report of proposed spending for each endeavor at a regular meeting of the Senate under the standing action item, Club Funding Requests, prior to spending the funds requested.

Add a section which requires people who want to create clubs to meet with the Director of Club Engagement. This might replace the requirement for clubs to have an advisor, or we could say that the Director of Club Engagement would be the "pseudo-advisor" of that club.

Why post work hours?

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 223 in e5898dc

+ All ASWVC officers shall post and hold a minimum of three (3) “Work Hours” per week that must be spent on West Valley College’s Campus.

Why should officers post their work hours?

Voting in your own Vote of No Confidence

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 279 in e5898dc

+ Should the Vote of No Confidence be put forth against a voting member of the ASWVC Senate or the ASWVC Executive Board, that individual does not retain the right to vote in their own Vote of No Confidence.

This wording is a bit too specific. I would suggest changing it to just say "Individiuals cannot vote in a Vote of No Confidence against themselves".

Vote of No Confidence Request

https://github.com/mattfbacon/aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/blob/e5898dc324b95835175f9ec68cb9363e46a14dbf/doc.typ#L273C44-L273C44

The requirement about voting member is already stated. No need to repeat it. Also, what if that section was removed?

Campus entity attendance optional

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 367 in e5898dc

+ A representative of the campus entity must attend and give a detailed report of proposed spending for each endeavor at a regular meeting of the Senate under the standing action item, Club Funding Requests, prior to spending the funds requested.

Change "must" to "may", and possibly add a section which would require club officers to meet with the Director of Club Engagement at least once a month for funding. The DoCE recommended this in a Bylaws meeting a while ago.

Sign-In Sheet

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 316 in e5898dc

+ Any student who is currently registered for credit at West Valley College, has passed the Parliamentary Procedure test, and has attended and signed in as a guest on the Senate Meeting Guest Sign-In Sheet for two (2) Senate Meetings will be granted voting rights at the beginning of the student’s third Senate meeting. <to-become-senator>

We need to require that such a sheet is provided to begin with.

Conditions to form committees

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 438 in e5898dc

+ Form and dissolve committees, organizations, and associations for specific purposes to conform to the bylaws contained herein.

The restriction and wording seems strange. Maybe remove everything at "for" and after.

Senator Tardiness

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 321 in e5898dc

+ Two (2) instances of tardiness shall equal (1) unexcused absence.

Do we ever track tardiness? And should we?

Voting Systems

I would like to codify a specific preferred voting system. I would prefer Ranked Choice.

Combine Bylaws articles 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 14 into 3

The articles about the executive board are spread out too much. We should combine them into one.

Can Election Committee members vote?

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 232 in e5898dc

+ The Election Committee shall be composed of the President (or designee if the current President is running for a position), the ASWVC Advisor, Director of Marketing, Director of Records, Director of Student Engagement, Director of External Operations, Director of Club Relations, and two Senate members who are not running for elected office.

Can the members of this committee vote in the election?

List of senators with voting rights

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 433 in e5898dc

+ Maintain a record of all Senators with active voting rights.

Isn't this more of the responsibility of the Director of Records?

Ad Hoc Committees

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 288 in e5898dc

+ The Vice President shall have the ability to appoint individuals to any Ad Hoc committees.

This item is misplaced at the start. It should be at the end of the article and say something like "In addition to the aforementioned standing committees, the Vice President ..."

"Personnel matters"

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 159 in e5898dc

+ Meetings of the ASWVC shall be open to the general public. Meetings shall be closed to the public only when personnel matters are being considered.

What are "personnel matters"? Clarify this. Also, does this mean the meeting MUST be closed if considering personnel matters, or just that it MUST be open if not? We could possibly use "if and only if" to clarify.

Confusing phrasing

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 277 in e5898dc

+ A two-thirds (2/3) vote of the Senate members present and voting shall be necessary to qualify as a "Vote of No Confidence."

This phrasing is awkward and confusing.

Board Application Deadline Extension

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 237 in e5898dc

+ In the event that there are no applications submitted, the Election Committee may extend the application deadline for that position.

Should we limit by how long? And does this delay the election of the other officials, if multiple are being elected?

"Active member"

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 332 in e5898dc

+ Senators shall be an active member of their committee.

This wording is nebulous and impossible to enforce.

Note that the equivalent section for the Senate at large is much clearer and more specific:

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Lines 339 to 340 in e5898dc

	+ Senators shall be an active member at ASWVC regular Senate meetings for the duration of the semester.
	+ To qualify as an active Senator at the end of a semester, a Senator must attend at least 51% of ASWVC Senate meetings.

Maybe we should adopt something similar, or these sections could be merged.

Where do entities put their fundraising proceeds

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 376 in e5898dc

+ Each entity capable of receiving funding shall start each semester with zero dollars (\$0) in allotted funding, with funds to be added on a rolling basis based on ASWVC approval or fundraising endeavors.

This section implies that fundraising proceeds must go into the account. Is that correct?

Do committee meetings count as "regular meetings"?

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 148 in e5898dc

+ All regular meetings of the ASWVC, excluding committee meetings, shall be held at 3:45 p.m. throughout the academic year and given ample (72 hours) notification in accordance with the Brown Act.

This implies that committee meetings count as "regular meetings", which entails a lot of other requirements throughout the bylaws. We should make sure that these entailed requirements are all intended to apply to committee meetings rather than just the main Senate meetings. Also, the wording is a bit unclear because we mention "Regular meetings of the ASWVC excluding committee meetings" but then we also say "Regular meetings of the ASWVC Senate". Is there a difference? If not, we should use one for all uses here.

Bylaws Committee interpreting the Bylaws

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Lines 306 to 309 in e5898dc

	+ In the event of a dispute, the Bylaws Committee shall determine the interpretation of the ASWVC Constitution and Bylaws.
	+ If the Bylaws Committee is not set to convene for a regularly scheduled committee meeting within five (5) business days, then the committee shall be required to convene for an emergency meeting within that period in order to resolve the dispute.
	// TODO clarify what the final resolution is and how that is tied back to the senate.
	+ The Bylaws Committee shall define the premise for the directive in question and consider suggestions made by attending members at said meeting to resolve the dispute.

This is a good idea, but we need to clarify what the committee can/should actually do. I assume we would have to take action to decide on an official decision. But the specifics are unclear and should be clarified.

Senate Chair designee

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 429 in e5898dc

+ Serve as the Chairperson of the ASWVC Senate.

What about a designee?

"Permanent ASWVC Position" limitation

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 202 in e5898dc

+ No student may hold more than one permanent ASWVC position, unless circumstances deem it "urgent and necessary," with a two-thirds (2/3) favorable vote of the Senate.

It's unclear what a permanent ASWVC position is. This causes confusion because it seems like executive board members are not also senators.

Reference Brown Act

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 164 in e5898dc

+ Items to be placed on the agenda shall be submitted to the appropriate Chairperson at least 72 hours prior to the meeting.

We should reference Brown Act here

Designee requirements

We allow people with responsibilities to appoint designees as necessary, but we should probably be clear about the qualifications required for those designees.

Flat numbering

Consider changing the numbering scheme for sections, clauses, subsections, etc, to just be flat numbering, or maybe something like (1.a.i.)+. For the moment this change is active, but we do need to consider whether we want it.

Reorganize E-Board Requirements article (article 6)

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 186 in e5898dc

#article(6, "Requirements for Executive Board Officers")

Reorganize. Most of this should not be under the GPA section.

College Conduct Officer

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 267 in e5898dc

+ If a Senator or Executive Board officer has been found in violation of the Student Code of Conduct, they may be immediately removed by the College Conduct Officer without a Vote of No Confidence.

Who is the College Conduct Officer? Is this an official at West Valley?

Pre-existing commitments

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 171 in e5898dc

+ If an Officer or Senator has class at the time of the special or emergency meeting, the student will be excused with no repercussion for attendance for regularly scheduled meetings.

Only class? What about other pre-existing commitments?

Senator Appointment

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 316 in e5898dc

+ Any student who is currently registered for credit at West Valley College, has passed the Parliamentary Procedure test, and has attended and signed in as a guest on the Senate Meeting Guest Sign-In Sheet for two (2) Senate Meetings will be granted voting rights at the beginning of the student’s third Senate meeting. <to-become-senator>

"At the beginning" is unclear. If it was truly at the beginning, they would be able to participate in the approval of agenda and minutes. Maybe this section is unnecessary.

Vote of No Confidence Scheduling

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 275 in e5898dc

+ The Vote of No Confidence shall be taken at the next scheduled meeting after the initial request.

Clarify that this is in order to comply with Brown Act.

Elections Committee chair designee

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 420 in e5898dc

+ Serve as Chairperson for the Elections Committee or assign a designee to do so if running for office for the following academic year.

Are they only allowed to assign a designee if they are running for office?

Debate time extension

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 157 in e5898dc

+ Debate shall be extended ten (10) minutes at a time.

This is never done. Remove?

VP absent at Senate Meeting, etc

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 213 in e5898dc

+ If an Executive Board Officer is unable to attend an event for a non-emergency related matter such as a schedule conflict, the Executive Board Officer shall communicate that absence to the ASWVC President 72 hours in advance. This shall be considered an excused absence.

Clarify what happens if the VP cannot attend the Senate meeting or the President cannot attend the Executive Board meeting.

Formal recognition

aswvc-bylaws-and-constitution/doc.typ

Line 154 in e5898dc

+ Each speaker shall be formally recognized by the acting Chairperson.

Clarify what "formally" means here