Jeannette Sullivan from Palm Beach Community College was looking for some examples and guidelines to creating a student club constituion. With the help of my infinitely knowledgeable friend, Mr. Google, I found this detailed outline of a student club constituion:

College of XYZ University

Constitution 

XYZ Club 

Article I: Name and Purpose 

Section 1: Name

State the name of the club – you may abbreviate the name after this section if you identify that abbreviation here. 

Section 2: Purpose/Mission

State the purpose/mission of your organization – the reasons why you exist. This can be in a list format, or in a paragraph. 

Section 3: Affiliation:

If your organization is affiliated with any regional/national organizations, please state those affiliations here.

Article II: Membership 

Section 1: Eligibility for Membership

CSB/SJU joint clubs must be open to any CSB/SJU student. Non-students [e.g., faculty/staff] are not allowed to be full members, but they can be non-voting, affiliate members. State all categories for membership – voting, affiliate, non-voting, etc.

Section 2: Voting Member Criteria

State how a student becomes a voting member [e.g., attends a certain % of meetings/events, pays dues, etc] and if there are any criteria for any other membership categories. This is an important issue for your organization – you want to make sure that students listed on your voting member list are active, interested students in your group.

Section 3: Removal of Members

State the process to remove any member who is not in good standing with the club. Due process must be followed. Things to consider are: reasonable notice to the person being considered for removal, opportunity to defend their position, quorum* needed to vote, timeline for the process, appeal process.

While you will hopefully not need this section, it is very important that you have a process in place. When you need it, this will clarify the procedure and take out some of the difficult personal issues….

Article III: Officers 

Section 1: Officer Qualifications

Identify what qualifications a student must have to be eligible to be an officer. This may include GPA, length of time in organization, previous experience, etc. All officers must be current CSB/SJU students. See Article IV for Election procedures.

Section 2: Elected Officers

List the positions in descending order (e.g., President, Vice-President, etc). If you choose to have a non-hierarchical structure -–that is great! Then just list the Department of Student Activities contact person first. Also clearly identify the Co-Funding Board (CFB) and Joint Club Board (JCB) contacts.

Section 3: Duties of Officers

List each officer position and their duties. You can include this information in Section 2 if you prefer. You may rename positions and form a non-hierarchical structure (we encourage this actually!). Term of office should also be addressed (e.g., academic year, April 1 – March 31)

Typical duties include: 

    

President: preside at meetings, call special meetings, primary contact with the institutions, appoint committee chairs, runs the election process, other Vice-President: assume President’s duties in his/her absence, schedule meeting/practice rooms/facilities, primary contact with the JCB, plans member/officer training programs, other Secretary: takes and distributes minutes of all club meetings, recorder keeper (current and past members, files minutes, etc), club historian, notify members of meetings, handles the official correspondence of the club, other Treasurer: keeps all financial records, submits monthly audit statements to CFB contact (this is a mandatory requirement if you receive CFB funds), notifies organization of financial issues, prepares budget/allocation requests,

Section 4: Vacancy in Office

In the event a vacancy should occur (resignation or removal), provisions must be made to fill the vacancy. Officer succession/"chain of command" should be addressed (e.g., in the event that the President leaves office, the Vice President will assume those duties until a special election is held. Then refer readers to the special election section of Article IV.

Section 5: Removal of Officers

Grounds for removal of an officer must be clearly identified. Similar to the removal of members, due process must be followed. (see above) Make sure you note the role of your club advisor.

One example:

A petition to remove the officer in question must be submitted to another officer. This 

petition must contain the signatures of x% of voting members. When such petition is 

received, the officer shall call a meeting of the club to determine whether or not the 

officer should be removed. 

Grounds for removal are to presented by the officer in charge at a regular or special club 

meeting. 

The officer in question shall be provided an opportunity to present a defense either in 

person or in writing. 

A quorum shall be present, and a (x%, 2/3, simply majority) vote of the voting members 

shall decide upon removal.

While you will hopefully not need this section, it is very important that you have a process in place. When you need it, this will clarify the procedure and take out some of the difficult personal issues….

Section 6: Appeal of Removal of Officers

This section clearly outlines what procedure a removed officer can take to appeal the club’s decision.

Article IV: Elections 

Section 1: Nomination Process

State how officer candidates will be nominated (by a current officer/member, self-nomination, etc.) and the timeline associated with the nomination process.

Section 2: Election

Election procedures, quorum present, method of voting (secret ballot, etc.), number of terms a person can serve, and when the elections will be held (the JCB mandates that by April 1, officer elections take place and that they and the Department of Student Activities are notified of the new officers).

Section 3: Special Elections

This section outlines what procedures will take place if an officer leaves/is removed from office. Clearly state the timeline for these procedures (e. g, within "x" weeks of vacancy occurring). You may use the same procedures from Section 2, with a revised timeline.

Article V: Advisor 

Section 1: Selection

Indicate how your club will choose an advisor. Note: All club advisors MUST be an employee of CSB or SJU. 

Section 2: Duties

What do you want your advisor to do? See advisor contract for ideas.

Article VI: Meetings 

Section 1: Regular Meeting/Club Activities

Address how often business meetings will occur, any regular club activities, etc., process to notify members of meetings/activities.

Section 2: Special Meetings

Identify why you would call special meetings, and the process used to call these meetings/notify members, etc. Will these meetings be run any differently than regular meetings?

Section 3: Parliamentary Authority

Will you use Robert’s Rules of Order? How will the meetings be run… 

Section 4: Quorum*

What % of your membership must be present for official club business to occur? 2/3 is a standard number. 

*A quorum is a certain percentage of voting members required to be present during a vote. It is VERY important to clearly indicate what your quorum will be (often, it is 2/3 of the voting members). You want to make sure that when a vote takes place, that you have a representative sample of your voting membership present.

Article VII: Committees 

Section 1: Committee Structure

Include what committees (if any) that your club will have. Include responsibilities of each committee and who is responsible for each committee. Examples include Membership, Programs, Elections, Fundraising, etc.

Section 2: Special/Ad-Hoc Committees

State that special/ad-hoc committees may be formed if needed…

Article VIII: Finances 

Section 1: Co-Funding Board

State whether or not your club will apply for CFB monies and that if allocated resources, your club will follow all CFB and institutional regulations.

Please note that recognized clubs MAY NOT have an off-campus account, even if it is from club generated funds. This is an institutional policy.

Section 2: Honorariums

State whether or not any officers or members will receive an honorarium/stipend from the organization. Note: if honorariums are given, they must come from club generated funds.

Section 3: Dues (optional)

State here if members are required to pay dues, and if so, how much that will be.

Article IX: Amendments 

Section 1: Ratification

Identify the process to be used regarding proposed constitutional amendments: voting procedures, timeline, etc. 

Section 2: Submittal to Department of Student Activities and Joint Club Board

Any changes made to this constitution must be submitted to the Department of Student Activities and the JCB.

Article X:

         The following is a required statement for all organizations:

       The (name of organization) admits students without regard to their race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation or national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and other activities, generally accorded or made available to members of the organization.

Article XI:

       The following is a required statement for all organizations:

       The (name of organization) considers hazing to be a degrading and destructive activity which is inconsistent with the standards of this student organization.  The (name of organization) recognizes the dignity of every person and opposes all forms of hazing.

 

Date of recognition/revision:

If you are still itching for some more examples here are a few more:

1. University of Notre Dame
2. Madison Area Technical College
3. Washington University in St. Louis
4. Campbell University

Does your university have anything special not included above? If so what is it and why? Or if you have a digital copy of a student constitution at your university, post the link in the comments to share with us.