[No dialogue].
>> Dana Barnard: 
Alright.
So, we're going to do
introductions, and then we're
going to talk to everybody about
their reason why they're here.
Then, we're going to get into
some of the nuts and bolts of
constitutions and you.
So we'll start with you.
Who are you?
\| female speaker: 
My name is Alex Finley
and I'm a graduate student
in the Student Life Offices.
\| female speaker: 
My name is Kinyeta Porter
and I'm a senior and
Psychology major.
>> Dana Barnard: 
What organization are
you here for Kinyeta?
\| Kinyeta Porter:
Alpha Phi Omega
National Service Fraternity
and Jolie Dance Troupe.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
And I'm Dana Barnard.
I'm the Assistant
Director of Student Life.
And I work with several
organizations on bettering
their constitutions
and making them more
effective for their
organizations.
So, that's part of the
reason why I'm presenting
this session tonight.
So, Kinyeta, why are you here?
\| Kinyeta Porter:
Constitutions are
important for RSO's to
remain on Eastern's
campus, so I came to
get an understanding
about the constitutions
[unclear dialogue].
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
Alright.
So, one of the things before we
start getting into actually
writing the constitutions, we
need to talk about what is the
purpose of the constitution and
who all, in your group, should
be aware of the constitution.
So, let's start
with the first one.
What is the purpose
of your constitution?
[Pause].
\| Alex Finley:
Set some guidelines
for the organization.
>> Dana Barnard:
Okay, guidelines for
your organization.
[No dialogue].
\| Kinyeta Porter: 
To give some information
on your organization's history.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay, organization's history.
Anything else from
either one of you?
\| Alex Finley: 
Rules and procedures.
>> Dana Barnard:
Rules and procedures,
there we go.
I like that one.
Alright.
Who in your organization should
be aware of your constitution?
\| female speaker: 
Everybody.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Everybody, okay.
And when you say everybody,
should everybody be detailed and
in-depth on the constitution?
\| Kinyeta Porter: I think when
you join an organization,
everybody should be briefed
deeply through a constitution at
least that first initial time.
After that, it's on you to
keep current with it.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
I think with your constitutions,
you guys hit it right on with
the purpose.
The purpose is the functionality
of your organization.
So, your constitution should
tell you how frequently you
should be meeting, who your
officers should be, how your
officers are elected, who you
members are, what your officers
do, what your advisors do, what
your organization does.
Your constitution is your
organization, how do we
function, how do we operate,
what is our purpose, why do we
exist, I mean everything.
The people who should be aware
of your constitution, Kinyeta
you were right when you said
that all of your members should
be aware.
Every member who joined your
organization should get a copy
of that constitution, because
they do need to know what's
going on.
The people who need to know your
constitution are your officers
and your advisor.
Any issue that comes up within
your organization should be able
to be addressed by
your constitution.
So, I'm working with a group
right now to find out how to
address a situation where
they had one person running
for an office and the way that
their organization voted, half
the group said yes
we want this person
and the other group
said no we don't
want this person.
No one abstained, it's a dead
heat tie, so like a 5 and 5.
Their constitution has no
layout for what a tie would be.
And so, that's something that
you would have to look at
in your elections.
Is one person being left out of
the vote, so that in the
instance that there is a tie,
you can address that by this
person gets to vote to break the
tie or we go this direction or
that direction.
So, your constitution really
should tell your organization
how you're operating.
So, as you're thinking about
that, you really need to be
aware of that piece.
Okay.
Now, on the Student Life
website, one of the things that
we have is a link to really help
organizations get their
constitutions going.
We have a template, hopefully
the computer will let us go
there, but on this template, it
really lays out what your
constitution needs to look like.
So, from the inclusion of your
name and we're going to walk
through that tonight, if
the link will let us.
You have to really
look at these items.
These are the things that your
organization really wants to
talk about in that aspect.
So, right here on the RSO
website, if you go to the
constitution template and you
click on it, it will open up to
a word document.
The nice thing about this word
document is you guys can edit it
for yourself.
So, you can essentially type
your constitution into this
document and it should put you
in a situation to be easily
approved by the Student Life
Office, if you're a new RSO or
if you're just updating.
So, this top piece is just
kind of an introduction.
This says that RSO's may use the
template, so on and so forth.
When you scroll down, it starts.
And you definitely have to give
your organization a name, so
you want to put that there.
Then, when was this constitution
adopted and that's one of the
things that's important is
sometimes in transitions of
organizations, you don't always
get when the last constitution
was updated or documented.
So, by putting the date on the
document, it allows you to see
what your most recent activity
was within your constitution.
Then, you have to give
your group a name.
So, for your organization,
Kinyeta, you said it was
Alpha Phi Omega, right?
So, you would formally want to
list it as Alpha Phi Omega but
then for your constitution to
make it a little bit shorter,
you made add a clause or a
statement that says, "Here and
after, referred to APO," so
that you don't have to type out
Alpha Phi Omega throughout
the constitution.
The other thing is for other
organizations, I actively work
with Black Student Union and
most of the time, they don't
refer to themselves as Black
Student Union, but BSU.
So, what the here and after also
indicates what your common name
is for campus.
So, that's kind of the nickname
of the group or whatever is your
here and after, and then makes
it appropriate to be used
throughout your constitution.
The next piece that you want to
work on is the Article II item
and that is your purpose.
Some people call
this an objective.
Some people will call it goals,
but for a constitution you want
more of a purpose or an
objective and that is what is
your purpose for existence?
So, my familiarity with APO,
some of the things under your
purpose need to include your
community service aspects and
your leadership aspects and
things of that nature that
really is what the national
organization is founded on is
what you would want to
include in your purpose
or objective statement.
And that section, even though
there's only section one, if you
have multiple you can add
additional sections under there.
You're not just limited to one,
because you probably want to
break it down by topic area.
So, service might be one for you
all and then leadership may be
another one.
Fellowship or brotherhood,
depending upon how your
organization is laid out, you
have those different aspects to
add in.
The next piece that we look at
is the compliance piece, and
this one is more a university
standard, as well as if you work
with a national or outside of
Eastern affiliated organization.
When you have the compliance
piece, it indicates that you're
going to follow all state,
federal rules, Eastern rules
and regulations.
And then, your section two is
that you're going to uphold any
of the rules or regulations of
your state or national piece.
So, you're covering yourself
under Eastern's rules and
federal law, and then you take
it to your local or national
whatever group is.
And then, you add your standing
rules and things of that nature.
If you guys follow Robert's
Rules of Order, that's where you
would put that in there-
those types of things on how
your organization operates.
So, these are whose rules are we
following and you put that in
this section.
In this part, and some of the
articles can be a little bit
shifted as we get a little bit
further in, but after you figure
out how you operate, I think
it's important to talk about who
is our membership.
So, you have an organization,
you have a purpose, we have
rules, who can be us?
How can we get people connected
with us and how does that flow?
So, some groups have active
members, and alumni members, and
part-time members, and
ex-officio members,
and whatever.
So, the amount of sections here
are really up to you but, again,
you want to include everyone in
that membership piece.
So, here then, after your
members, you want to have the
nondiscriminatory statement,
like we're not going to
discriminate based on race,
religion, sexual orientation,
gender, abilities,
blah-blah-blah.
And then, for all groups,
you want to have a
non-hazing statement.
A lot of people, when you think
of hazing, you look at just
Greek level organizations and
that's not necessarily what
you're wanting to do, because
any organization is capable of
hazing individuals by asking
them to do something that is out
of their comfort zone or out of
their norm that they may not
want to do.
And so, you want to have a
non-hazing statement in there to
say our members aren't going to
be hazed or have any of those
types of things done to them.
And then, that's where some of
your additional categories come
in, so we can have all of our
different types of members and
if you need 50 types of
members, you can have 50.
If you need 3, you can have
3- kind of up to the group.
Here's where I differ a little
bit based on the template.
This goes next into the
Executive Officers.
I tend to go, when I'm writing a
constitution, next into the
selection of officers, because I
want to know what my criteria
for my officers is before I
tell who my officers are.
How do my officers come about,
when do they come about, where
do they come from, do they have
to be a member of the
organization for a certain
amount of time and all those
types of things?
So, this is where some of
your sections can alternate
a little bit.
So, I would next, do
selection of officers.
But in your selection of
officers, I usually do
selection of officers like your
term limits, your resignation,
impeachment and this piece tells
you what happens, so how do we
elect them, who can be
elected, how do we
elect them, if they
resign, what happens,
are there need for special
elections, if we don't
like how somebody's doing
something, how do we impeach
them or get rid of them,
so on and so forth.
So, all your rules for how
your elected people come about.
This is also an area where
you're going to want to have
information on
special committees.
If your organization might,
sometimes, have part-time
committees, you may want to look
into the section and say this is
how a special committee would be
established and how it would
function and run, just so that
you don't get in trouble for
having extra pieces pop
up that aren't there.
Then, you go back up, for me, to
this Executive Officer piece.
In your section one, you list
out who your Executive Officers
are going to be.
So, are you going to have a
President, are you going to
have a Chair, are you going to
have a Vice-President, are you
going to have a Vice-Chair?
Are you going to have Officer
one, Officer two, whatever?
But you list them out there.
Then, typically, in section one,
what I do is I list any of the
requirements of these officers
that all of them share.
So, if your organization
requires a G.P.A.
requirement for your Executive
Board, I would indicate in this
section that all officers would
need to meet the minimum G.P.A.
of whatever it is.
This is where I also put that
they all need to attend
Executive Board meetings or that
they all need to attend general
body meetings.
All of that stuff that just the
Executive Board has in common of
their job duties.
So, here's who we are, here are
our general job duties.
Some people might list
that in section two.
Then, your next section
is breaking down each of
your officers.
And this form is not--
The way they have it set
up is not how I prefer it.
And this is where, again, you
can tweak your constitution to
be to your preference.
I prefer to say President and
then have a bullet list.
So, President is maybe number
one and they're going to do A-J
and each thing is a bullet,
where this is more paragraph
style/reading heavy.
This is--
Bullet-pointed sometimes is a
little bit of an easier flow and
not as hard to miss to make
sure everybody is meeting
their duties.
So, that's a personal
preference thing.
But you want to list out every
Executive Officer and what
you're going to have them doing.
One of the things that I always
try to do on a constitution that
I'm working with students has,
and that a lot of times falls
into job descriptions, but is
that famous line of all other
duties as assigned by President,
or advisor, or organization,
just that kind of cover you
because every once and a
while there are things that an
organization needs to do that,
well, you just
couldn't plan for.
Maybe you decided to take on a
new event and so somebody has
to have a new role or
something of that nature.
So, you're covering yourselves
to say we didn't say that this
was all that you had to do.
Remember the laugh letter said
you need to do anything else
that's assigned to you.
Alex likes that role in her job
description, in particular,
because we just give her
random extra things to do.
So, it's that protective clause.
Your constitution is your
organization protector
and guidance.
So, prepare yourself for that.
We talked about the
selection of officers.
All of this really
lays out some stuff.
It even talks to you about if
the position of President
becomes vacant, how do
you want that filled.
Just because there's some
content here doesn't mean you
have to use verbatim what's
in the template, but more of a
guide as do we have provisions
for this and how do we want to
lay it out because, ultimately,
it's up to the organization how
they want things to happen.
Most organizations on a campus
need to have some type of
meeting to function and to
really make the organization go.
What do you want these
meetings to be like?
Are you going to hold general
body meetings, is there a need
for general body meetings,
is there a need for
Executive Board meetings?
All your meetings
are laid out here.
The other thing that you lay out
here is if there's a need to
call an emergency meeting, how
is that done and how many people
have to be present for an
emergency meeting to be called.
Other things that you want to
include here is what is quorum
for your group.
So, if you're trying to vote on
something like maybe spend money
and your group has 15 people in
it and only 3 people show up at
the meeting, can you, by
constitution, vote on spending
that amount of money?
Well, that depends on how you
define quorum and, quorum would
need to be determined for
probably your Executive Board
and for your general body,
depending upon how things go
for you all and
what's important.
Quorum and voting doesn't just
have to relate to money.
It also relates to making
decisions for the group or for
your officers.
The other thing that your
constitution, and I just thought
of this and usually, mostly,
pertains to the election of your
officers, but your constitution
should also outline what votes
are secret ballot votes versus
hand-raising votes and those
types of things.
Sometimes, people may not want
to share who or what they're
voting for or if they're
approving or disapproving
a budget.
So, this would be an area like
your meetings and your selection
area where you talk about how
the voting is counted.
Something else, too, that I
didn't see in the officer's
section, but is coming up
here is your advisors.
How are your advisors selected
for your organization, how many
advisors do you want, and
what is their purpose?
What are they doing
for your group?
The other thing that a lot of
groups don't realize is
sometimes groups don't always
necessarily get along with their
advisor and there's a need to
get rid of their advisor.
You need to have a process in
your constitution to tell you
how you can do that.
Then, when you sign an advisor
on, they need to be aware of
that protocol as well.
So, how do we select the
advisors and if for some reason
we want to get rid of an
advisor, how do we do that?
Then, the other thing, too, is
sometimes on college campuses
people will sign on to be your
advisor and then they get busy
and they want to step down.
What is the protocol for
them stepping down?
So, say your advisor takes on
three new classes or is going
back to school or doing
something else and they want to
step down, you need to have some
provisions like how much time do
they still need to remain as
your advisor to give you time to
find someone else to replace
them and those types of things.
Then, when you ask them to be
your advisor, you need to share
with them this is how we have
this set up, these are the types
of duties that we want you to
fulfill with our organization
and if there's a time where you
want to step down from advising
us, here's how we would like
that to happen so that we can
remain in good standing
with the institution.
At the same time, you're like
wow, this advisor is not
supporting us, they're not
coming to our stuff, they're
not doing things, you also need
to have a way of being able to
ask them to step down and what
does that process look like.
All of that would
go in this section.
Executive committee, to me,
this one is repetitive to your
election of officers.
So, this one I don't feel is
necessarily an area that you
have to have if you cover it
in your officer's section.
You may want to outline
some of these materials.
In the meeting section, how
often do you want the Executive
Board or Executive
group meeting?
Terminology, again, is up to
your organization.
Some groups may have an
Executive Committee, some groups
may have an Executive Board,
an Executive Council,
Administrative Council.
All of the terminology is up to
your organization.
You don't have to go with
what you see in this
template document.
Standing in special committees,
that can go under your officer's
portion or you can set up
your own article for it.
I think it depends on how many
committees you're going to have
and how you treat them.
Some of the organizations that I
work with, their standing
committees are considered part
of their Executive Board, so you
would want that with your
Executive group.
If they're just standing
committees and committee chairs
and they're not functioning with
the Executive Board in any
manner, then you may
pull it out and make it
it's own separate entity.
So, it's really going to depend
on what you're doing for your
organization and how you're
setting that up and building it.
Okay?
Then, finances and dues, that's
another piece that needs to be
in your constitution
as a regulatory piece.
One of the things that I
encourage organizations to do is
look at how much money you're
charging in your dues right now,
and then expand that by
probably about 25%.
Some of you are like wow, if I
had to increase my organization
dues by 25%, I don't know that I
could afford to be in it.
True for you now, but when
you're writing a constitution,
you're thinking about--
you're kind of forecasting the
future of your organization.
So, what are our dues not to
exceed, and then you give
yourself flexibility to do
things with your dues.
If you put in your constitution
that dues are $10, then that
doesn't give you any flexibility
to run a special like if you pay
your dues today, you can get $2
off or those types of things.
It also doesn't allow, if your
organization provides a t-shirt,
when you sign up or things like
that, if the costs of t-shirts
go up and your constitution
says dues are $10 and t-shirts
cost you $10, you
have to make a
constitutional amendment to be
able to raise your dues and all
of those kinds of things.
So, I work with organizations to
set a not-to-exceed amount and I
try to get them to increase it
by about 25% to give you that
flexibility to go up or down.
When I work with most groups, we
put our dues component in the
membership area, because most of
the time, you need them to pay
dues in order for
them to be a member.
A lot of the finances and the
things of that nature go under
your treasury and
your advisory duties.
Again, it's up to each group on
how detailed out you feel that
needs to be.
Some groups that I work
with, by the nature of their
organization, I'm working with
one group and their dues amount
is not to exceed $2500 because
of the nature of what their
group does.
So, with that, they have payment
plans and things of that nature.
So, if you feel like your
organization might need to have
further financial details, then
you would want to include it in
your constitution.
Then, disciplinary
procedures of members.
Again, this can be it's own
separate article or it can be in
your membership piece-
up to the organization.
You definitely want to tell
members if you don't do the
following things, this is what's
going to happen to you, this is
how these procedures go, this is
what the appeals process looks
like, or we don't have an
appeals process, but 72 hours
after you feel like you've been
wronged, you have to have
completed x, y, and z
or notified whoever.
Disciplinary measures, things
of that nature, it gives you a
way that if you have a member
who's not being cooperative with
you, you have a way to dismiss
them from your organization.
So, you definitely want to look
at this piece and make sure you
have something
regarding that in it.
Amendments, this is
amendments, bi-laws,
and ratifications section.
It talks about how your
constitution is passed, how a
person would add a bi-law or how
they would make an amendment.
Bi-laws are things that get
added that are not a part of the
original document.
So, it's a new law.
An amendment is I'm changing
something that's currently in
the constitution.
So, if at some point 10 years
down the road they need to
increase the dues amount, it
would be an amendment to the
constitution, because you're
amending a current statement.
A bi-law is something that may
have been forgotten or omitted
somehow from the
constitution to be added.
Then, at the end of the
constitution, again, as you
would on the front page, you
want to put the date, the name
of the organization, and the
date in which the constitution
was amended or ratified
or by-laws were updated.
Any questions on any of this
before I close it out and we
go on?
Neither one of you?
Okay.
Again, this can be found on
the Student Life website, in
the RSO section.
This is the main Student Life
website and just click on this
and then, there is all the
different RSO pieces there
for you to use.
So, it is there.
Alright.
So, hopefully, Kinyeta, are you
guys working on your
constitution?
>> Kinyeta Porter: 
We're nationally both from
organizations [unclear
dialogue] constitution.
It's just, I guess the struggle
is that what was passed down, in
both organizations, is not
complete or up-to-date.
It was just a lot of loose ends.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
>> Kinyeta Porter:
So, we have to tighten
up our loose ends.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
Who's working on tightening up
those loose ends?
>> Kinyeta Porter:
Well, in APO, we're
all putting in our two
cents but on my dance
team, it's only the
executive board that's
working on the constitution.
It's hard to get everybody
together outside of practice, so
it's selective or whoever wants
to help can, but it's mainly the
executive board.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay.
Constitution writing can be a
struggle and one of the things
that I found is the more people
that you tend to involve in that
endeavor, the harder the
struggle becomes, because
you're trying to intake
everyone's opinions
and things of that nature.
Constitutions are long.
If you were starting brand new
and from scratch, that's a
little bit easier, but when
you're trying to edit or tweak
something that's there,
multiple opinions sometimes
can be a challenge.
So, one of the things that I
encourage groups to do is to try
to get a small core group of
people that you feel best
represent the overall mindset of
your organization to really work
on the constitution, because
then you are getting focused
people to spend dedicated
amounts of time on making
those edits and additions
to the constitution.
Ultimately, what you have to
remember is what I try to tell
groups when you're trying to
ratify a new constitution is you
have to present it one week,
give people at least a week or
more to review the constitution,
and then vote on it and make any
potential changes.
What has to happen is when you
present it, the next week when
you come back, you have to
ask if people have questions
or concerns.
If they have questions or
concerns, you can't vote on it
at that point.
You have to figure out how you
want to address those questions
and concerns, and then
you would table it again
for another--
You make those changes, send it
out and look at it again.
If there is no additional
questions and concerns, you can
vote on it essentially in that
third meeting, but you want to
make sure that if you do go
committee style and not a whole
group working on the
constitution, that you're giving
everybody their turn to put
things in but it's in a little
bit more of an organized,
cleaner fashion with what
you're working on.
Kinyeta, for you, both of your
groups are currently looking at
their constitution.
As you're part of a group, most
of you are in a college
institution for four years.
So, if you're part of a group
the entire time you're here,
your constitution should be
reviewed at least twice while
you're here.
A constitution should be
reviewed about every two years,
even if there are no
changes made to it.
You need to add, by that part
where it says it was voted on
and implemented on this day,
reviewed and then insert your
year, so that people know that
the constitution has been
reviewed and that the
organization is maintaining
keeping that document where they
need it to be, so that in 10
years they're not having to
really start from scratch,
because people have kept up with
making changes as the
constitution has evolved.
As some organizations grow,
there's a need to add new
executive board positions, or if
groups shrink, there's a need to
take them away and
things of that nature.
So, about every two years is
what you want to do on the
changing of your constitution,
updating, those types of things.
They should be getting read
every year at the organization's
retreat, especially by the
officers, so they know what
they're working with, but then
really reviewed and updated
is every two years.
I believe my last slide, if
it'll come visit us, is are
there any questions, comments or
concerns that we can help you
with in your organization's
endeavors to update
their constitution?
>> female speaker:
Template, I didn't know
there was a template so that
is [unclear dialogue], so I
appreciate that.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Okay, not a problem.
Alex, do you have any questions?
>> Alex Finley:
No, I think that
summarized constitutions
very well Mrs. Barnard.
Thank you.
>> Dana Barnard: 
Sure.
Alright, well, if you don't have
any questions, I'm good.
Thank you.
[No dialogue].
