NOTICE: The GLOBAL Bylaws were reviewed and modified in 2013.

What's the point of this Page To keep members informed about current bylaws and to create space for updates and/or suggestions.

General Courtesy of this Page Deletions are not welcome, we would like suggestions placed in the comments section.

How to Draft Bylaws SPAC document for guidance

Past Bylaws 2007 Bylaws.docx

Club Identity

The GLOBAL: geography club is a registered student club at the University of California, Davis SPAC:Geography Club One Shields Ave. University of California, Davis USA

Mission Statement

GLOBAL is a student-run organization that supports students in the Geography Graduate Group (GGG) and seeks to build UC Davis community interest in geography. GLOBAL serves as the coordinating body for electing GGG student representatives for the Graduate Student Assembly and the GGG Executive Committee. In addition, GLOBAL organizes activities that support student success, foster community, and extend intellectual opportunities in the field of geography.

GLOBAL provides a fun space for all lovers of geography to gather for the pursuit of their common interests, including, but not limited to, enjoying peoples and places, promoting geographic literacy, and building the social networks and interpersonal skills necessary for making the world a better place.

Conduct

We uphold the UC Davis Principles of Community http://principles.ucdavis.edu/. If, after an attempt at conflict resolution and/or behavior intervention, any member or attender continues to regularly or egregiously violate the Principles, this person can be asked to leave. We don't expect this to have to happen, but we're serious about setting expectations for civil behavior and strive to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-oppressive, absolutely. We acknowledge that our club holds a position of privilege because it is located in the geo-political space of the USA. We strive to address, challenge, and confront power and privilege in our practices.

Membership

In compliance with CSI guidelines, we have two levels of membership: active and associate. Active membership is open only to registered and paid students. Only active members may vote, hold office, determine programs, control the group’s money, and represent the group to the University. Associate membership is open to students on PELP, UCD staff, faculty, alumni, and other geographic enthusiasts. Associate members may attend group meetings and events, participate in discussions, serve as guest speakers on an occasional basis, teach, and perform small tasks for the group. In compliance with CSI guidelines, at least 75% of the members must be active members, and all five of the official "leaders" (as listed on the CSI form) must be active students. Regardless of formal membership, participation is open to the general public. All active GGG students are automatically active members of GLOBAL.

Club Officers

Only active club members can have voting rights or be club officers. A majority of the officers must be GGG students, and the positions of President and Treasurer must be held by GGG students. To maintain their office, officers must attend meetings regularly. If they fail to attend at least 2/3 of the meetings during two quarters, their position may be revoked.

Officer Titles

• President(s): The role of the president is to ensure that all club-related paperwork is correctly filed, to facilitate and organize the club meetings, and to ensure that the day-to-day operations of the club are implemented. • Treasurer: The role of the Treasurer is to monitor all club funds and ensure the proper payment/receipt of all funds. • Officer 3, Officer 4, and Officer 5: Three other officer roles will be designated to assist with the responsibilities that maintain the organization’s activities for each year.

Dues

There shall be no mandatory dues. Donations are welcomed and will be deposited in the club’s agency account via the treasurer.

Meetings

Notice of Meeting

Members will be informed via email at least two days in advance of any official meeting.

Agenda

Agenda items should be communicated to the president before the next meeting. Items may be added at the beginning of the meeting if it is determined that there will be time to discuss late additions.

Decisions

Consensus and Voting

In general, we aim to make unanimous decisions upon consideration of input from those who are participating. We derive our process from Butler and Rothstein’s system, which outlines five steps to achieve consensus. However, in the interest of respecting the time and energy of participants, we introduce two modifications: first, an early “temperature test” to see if we can proceed immediately to a vote that will ideally be unanimous, and, secondly, an acknowledgement that full consensus is not always possible, and, in fact, having a record of dissent may be desirable.

Process

  1. Present information: A member presents and clarifies the problem at hand, and proposes a solution or strategy. The group enters broad, open discussion about the information. Concerns at this stage are noted but not discussed. The facilitator is responsible for insuring an even tone and being respectful of time.

  2. Test the temperature: The meeting facilitator calls a thumbs up, thumbs to the side, or thumbs down “temperature check” to see if we have consensus or dissent. All active members are required to participate in the consensus. Participants are asked to keep the interest of the whole group in mind, not just their personal interests. If the group appears to be in general agreement, then consensus can be called.

    3A. If we have consensus, we move forward immediately to Stage 6, a vote.

    3B. If not, we proceed using general structure of consensus.

  3. Identify concerns: At this level, all of the concerns that arose during level one are publicly stated and any other concerns about the issue are listed; related concerns are grouped.

  4. Resolve concerns: At this level members attempt to clarify concerns in clusters. If all concerns are addressed, then there is a call for consensus. At any point, the facilitator can call for a check on the temperature.

In respect for the time of participants, the decision will be moved to a vote or tabled if we do not reach consensus within a reasonable amount of time. “Reasonable” will be defined and determined within each specific discussion environment. During the course of the conversation, anyone present may propose that a topic be tabled (if they feel it either merits more time or is too controversial to come to a decision presently), or moved to a vote. The motion must be seconded and thirded.

  1. Vote: A proposal is passed if the majority of votes returned (not members) are in favor of the proposal.

Voting by email

In the event a consensus decision will be made via email (or by other means not in person), not voting is considered to be agreement (i.e., if you don't say you're against an idea, everyone will assume you're fine with it). By email, members will have three days to discuss an idea. If consensus can be reached (no dissenting voices) in those three days, then we go forward with the proposed idea. If someone objects, we will have five days of further discussion. If consensus still cannot be reached, we will have a vote (see below for terms and conditions).

Proxy Voting

Yes, in extenuating circumstances.

Quorum

Decisions may be made whenever at least three of the five officers are present.

Events

  • Formal GLOBAL-sponsored events must be approved a majority of club officers.
  • Recurring events can be blanket-approved.
  • All members are allowed to submit events for consideration.
  • All club events are open to all members. Some may be open to the public.

Proposals for Funding from GLOBAL

Funding proposals may be made by active members only (see Membership section for requirements). The proposal then becomes an agenda item for the next meeting or may be discussed by the club officers. Members in attendance of the meeting or officers in the discussion will then try to come to a consensus either in favor or not in favor of the proposal.

Officer Elections

Elections will always be by ballot (paper, email or web voting) distributed to all student members. Votes will be tallied by the designated election coordinator (not a person running for office). • Officers are elected by active members. • Voting will be open for a period of at least seven days. • Voting will be done in a simple majority rule, with all votes submitted by active members counted. • If there is a tie, the tie will be broken by a run-off vote by all active members.

Nominations

To become an officer, one must be an active member and volunteer for a given position. Only GGG students may be nominated for the position of President and Treasurer.

Term

• Officers are elected for a period of one year, starting July 1. • Positions filled midterm will be up for election in Spring as normal. • There are no term limits.

Removal

To remove an officer, all of the other officers must vote unanimously for the removal, and gather votes from active student members with 2/3 of votes in the affirmative confirming the removal. This uses the yes/no vote method.

Amending the Bylaws

Bylaw amendments are approved via unanimous vote of the officers, or consensus of the active members present at the meeting where Bylaws are discussed.

Comments:

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2007-11-14 13:31:36   Comments / Suggestions / Tomatoes are appreciated. mtreichler

2007-11-14 13:51:12   I would also like to suggest we specifically delineate the role of the AAG in the club. Those who were passionate about that being the inception of club should take the mission statement into consideration as while this is agreement with "learn[ing]," we can't exclude the people who aren't going. There has to be a purpose for the club for those who can't attend the AAG.—mtreichler

I got from the meeting that we support all academic geography endevours, it just happens to be our 1st fund raising effort is for the AAG. Not to say that some of those funds can't become general club funds.—AlexMandel

2007-11-17 08:27:42   My thoughts exactly. I just want to make sure of transparency and the rational allocation of club funds. —mtreichler

2007-11-14 15:16:42   It seems that the president really doesn't have any duties.. I mean usually they are the only ones to do anything, they are kinda executive, so perhaps their role would be to execute something about the club, preside over meetings, I dunno, it sounds like a big time commit. Do you even need such positions? I would suggest making the VP into the press officer, simply in charge of informing the outside world about the club, and perhaps make the 'president' a sort of internal information officer, he needs to keep everyone else informed, and be at most all events, he is essentially the representative of each club member. —DavidPoole

So far we have a co-presidency, you have to pick one person for the paperwork but we decided that 2 was better than one. In more real terms our officers are defined by what they do not by positions they were elected to. Meaning we have a Board of Directors style instead of top down.—AlexMandel

2007-11-14 15:18:37   Also, why are only ucd student's allowed to be members of the club? does this include GSA? what about staff? or just plain folk? define this peripheral membership, is a peripheral member still a member? where and when? etc. —DavidPoole

Point of confusion, anyone can be a member, but only students can be officers and vote for officers. I believe this is a rule from SPAC On that note I encourage anyone interested in the club goals to come to an event.—AlexMandel

2007-12-14 00:54:04   i am wondering what it means to be an international student or participant in global, while the aims seem to be inclusive, the decision-making is really not, since UCDavis students will always form the "controlling body"?...what does this mean for American nationalism??? —Benitamoolman

- I believe for their time here at UCD, international students are considered UCD students(requirement is enrollment at UCD) and are therefore the same as any other member. The decision making process has been discussed to be as inclusive as possible under the SPAC rules. Hence consensus of all people who want to participate is the first resort execpt where SPAC prohibits, we can't change that unless we decide to not be a student club which would mean we forgo GSA funds, non-profit status and the ability to book campus resources for free.

How would you suggest we change the decision-making process to be more inclusive? since you've lodged an issue we have 7 days to work out a solution.

I'm a little unclear on what the problem is too, it's a voluntary group concerned with geography at UCD, if you share the interest you're welcome to participate and enjoy all the same benefits as all the other members. Therefore it makes sense that it would be run by UCD students. "think global act local" —AlexMandel

- GLOBAL is a UCD graduate student organization. Because we are a UCD club and we get funding and some administrative support from the university, UCD students have to be the controlling body. The reason for this is that students' fees go to support these clubs. The university, I believe, wants to avoid having non-students be able to decide how university funds are spent and to have access to university resources that they do not pay for. That being said, the only prividges that student members have that non-students members don't have is the ability to hold office and vote for officers (these are SPAC's rules which we must comply with, not our rules), otherwise, all members can do the same things. If we want to change this aspect of our bylaws, we have to take this up with the university administration. —MicheleTobias

2007-12-19 01:20:59   I think there are a couple of things we might want to amend to the bylaws.

1. Objections in the consensus process must include or be followed by identification of particular issue and an alternative to the option. Null alternative is valid but must be stated.

2. There will be no campaign financing. —AlexMandel

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