Constitution of the William & Mary Outdoors Club

Constitution of the William & Mary Outdoors Club

1. Name

This organization will be known as the William and Mary Outdoors Club.

2. Purpose

The purpose of the William and Mary Outdoors Club is to foster an appreciation of the beauty and recreational opportunities of the outdoors. This Club wishes to encourage its members to explore and develop new skills while challenging them to set high goals in thought and action. This will be accomplished through organized trips, activities, workshops, and community outreach activities conducted by club officers or other designated trip leaders.

3. Membership

Membership is open to all of the college community. All members are on equal footing whether they are students, faculty, or administrative personnel.

A member is considered in good standing only after paying dues.

4. Officers

The officers of the organization shall be a president, a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, a historian, and a community outreach chair.

Duties of the officers:

The president shall preside at all meetings. He/She will be responsible for overseeing the coordination of all activities. He/She is also in charge of all business affairs and will designate needed committee representatives and keep track of trip leader training and availability.

The vice-president is an underling to the president and must respond, “How high?” when the president says, “Jump!” In other words, he/she will assist the president and will assume his duties upon the president’s absence. If the president should resign before election time, the vice-president will be acting president until elections can be held. Should the treasurer or secretary be absent from a meeting, the vice-president will temporarily assume their duties.

The secretary will keep the minutes of all club meetings, handle correspondence, and maintain all club literature (including equipment inventory).

The treasurer will be in charge of collecting dues and maintaining the club’s finances, including the handling of all reimbursement. All requests for club money should be brought to the attention of the president and the treasurer. Annual budgets will be drawn up by the president and the treasurer to be approved by the club at large.

The historian will take photographs on club trips and present them in a format accessible to the rest of the club, through the production of an album or by making them available on the web. The historian is also responsible for updating and maintaining the club website.

The community outreach chair will coordinate all club service activities and promote the club around campus.

5. Election of Officers

Elections will be held at a special electoral meeting soon after the beginning of the semester, so that the new officers have the opportunity of benefiting from the experience of the old officers. This event must be announced one week in advance by sending e-mails to club members in good standing.

Nominations for new officers will be taken from the floor and must be seconded. A quorum of 30% of the membership, in good standing, must be present. A majority vote of such members will determine the winners. In the event of a tie, the candidate with the fewest votes will be dropped and the vote retaken. Voting is done by secret ballot. The new officers will begin performing their duties two weeks after the election.

If the removal of an officer is deemed necessary by 50% of the membership, they may indicate this by all signing a petition to that effect. This petition must be presented to an officer not in question at least a week prior to the next meeting so that members can be informed and the recall may be debated and decided then. Voting will follow the same rules as before.

Committee members and trip leaders are not elected. Trip leaders are created through participation in a trip leader training session.

6. Meetings

There will be at least one meeting in each full semester of classes. These meetings will be held mainly to discuss upcoming activities and/or to provide an introduction to the club for new members. There will also be a meeting before each trip lead by the trip leader(s) for trip participants.

7. Dues

To be a member in good standing, each person must pay $12.00 per semester, or $5.00 per trip, to the treasurer before they participate in their first event.

8. Amendments

Amendments to this constitution may be proposed by the petition of any three members of the club and must be endorsed by three-fourths vote of a quorum of 50% of the club’s membership.

9. Ratification

The endorsement of three-fourths of those present at the first business meeting of the 2001 spring semester will be sufficient to establish this constitution for the William and Mary Outdoors Club

This constitution upon ratification voids all previous constitutions or by-laws for the Outdoors Club at William and Mary.