I. Name & Purpose
A. This organization shall be known as the Beloit
Science-Fiction/Fantasy Association (BSFFA).
B. The purpose of BSFFA shall be to provide Science Fiction and
Fantasy
entertainment in all forms.
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II. Membership
A. Membership of BSFFA
is open to all, regardless of age, race, gender,
color, ethnic
origin, sexual orientation, religion, or
status.
B. The members of BSFFA
are responsible for attending meetings, and
maintaining a
fun environment within the club.
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III.
Officers and Duties
A. All Officers of
BSFFA shall be full-time students at
Beloit
College
.
B. No person may hold
office in their graduating semester at
Beloit
College
.
C. The officers of
BSFFA shall be; President, Secretary, Treasurer, In-house Representative, Out-Of-House
Representative, Science Fiction Section Head, Role-Playing Section Head, Wargaming Section Head,
and Live Action
Section Head.
D. All officers shall
have the power to give any of their duties to another person as an
appointed position, which is a non-voting
member of Executive
Council. These
appointees shall be approved by a 2/3 majority of Executive Council.
Officers are
responsible for their appointees and can remove them with 2/3 majority of Executive
Council
approval.
E. The duties of the
Officers shall be:
1. President – (Non-Voting Member)
a. Represent BSFFA to the
campus staff and students.
b. Assure that BSFFA house and
club requirements are met.
c. Chair Executive Council.
d. Run and keep order in
meetings.
e. Assure that during each semester,
section heads are reviewed by the
General Body.
f. Vote on Executive Council votes in
case of a tie.
2. Secretary
– (Voting Member)
a. Keep BSFFA records.
b. Take minutes of meetings.
c. Make
necessary copies for the club.
d. Send
out weekly announcements to the General Body.
e. Keep
a list of alumni and their contact information.
3. Treasurer – (Voting Member)
a. Keep expenditure records.
b. Assure that BSFFA doesn’t
overspend.
c. Assure that receipts and
moneys are duly accounted for in
Student
Activities and Accounting
d. Present the BSFFA Budget to
the BelCon Budget Committee.
e. Freeze BSFFA Accounts in the
case of any misappropriation of
funds or
overspending, or with the approval
of Executive Council.
4. In-House Representative – (Voting Member)
a. Represent the needs of the
in house members to Executive Council.
b. Live in BSFFA House.
c. Keep harmony in BSFFA house where
possible.
d. Assure that house members
take care of public house space.
5. Out-Of-House
Representative – (Voting Member)
a. Represent
the needs of out of house members to Exec Council
b. Be
responsible for providing events to make BSFFA more accessible to the campus at large.
6. Science Fiction Section Head – (Voting
Member)
a. Purchase things pertaining to
Science Fiction/Fantasy.
b. Run campus-wide book talks and/or
movie nights at least four times
per semester.
c. Maintain the BSFFA Library.
7. Role Playing Section Head – (Voting
Member)
a. Keep a record of current
role-playing games being run.
b. Purchase Role-Playing
related items.
c. Run at least four campus-wide
role-playing events per semester.
8. Wargaming Section Head – (Voting Member)
a. Keep a record of current wargames being run.
b. Purchase items related to wargaming.
c. Run at least four
campus-wide wargaming events per semester.
9. Live
Action Section Head – (Voting Member)
a. Keep a record of current
Live Action events being run.
b. Run at least four
campus-wide Live Action related events per
semester.
c. Purchase Live Action related
items.
F. Elections and
Appointing of Officers:
1. Nominations
for the next semester will open at least 1 week before elections
are to be held.
2. Elections
shall be done by Secret Ballot.
3. The
President, Secretary, In-House Representative, and Out of House
Representative shall be
elected to office by a simple majority
vote of the
General Body at the end of every semester for the next semester.
Their
terms of office shall be one semester long.
4. The
Treasurer shall be elected by a simple majority vote of the General
Body at the end of every
academic year for a term of office lasting
the next
academic year.
5. Section
Heads shall be elected to office by a simple majority vote of the
General Body at the end of every semester for the next semester. No one
person shall hold one section head for
more than two
semesters
consecutively
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IV. Finances
A. The Treasurer will
keep records of the allocation of funds between the Executive
Council. Funding shall be divided between Section
Heads, Executive
Council, and
Secretary.
B. Each person to whom
funds are allocated is responsible for keeping records
of
expenditures and giving receipts to the Treasurer.
C. Each person to whom
funds are allocated is responsible for writing a budget and
providing it to the BSFFA
Treasurer before the BelCon mandated budget deadline.
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V. Amending the Constitution and Bylaws
A. A 2/3-majority is defined
as twice as many votes for than against.
B. Any Executive
Council decision can be overruled by a 2/3-majority vote of the
General
Body.
C. The General Body may
temporarily suspend any portion of the constitution
with a 2/3 majority vote.
D. The Constitution may be permanently amended through the following process:
1. Amendments
to the constitution shall be brought before Executive Council
prior to their presentation to
the General Body. It shall be the role of
Executive
Council to advise on issues of clarity and formatting.
2. After
Executive Council has seen the amendment, it may be presented to the
General Body
for discussion. The presenter shall receive last speaker
privileges.
3. All amendments to the constitution
shall wait for a period of not less
than
one week after presentation before being voted on by the General Body.
4. Amendments
shall be permanently added to the constitution by a 2/3
majority vote of the
General Body.
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VI.
Meetings & Voting
A. General meetings shall be held at least bi-monthly, except for
in extenuating
circumstances.
B. Executive
Council meetings shall be held weekly except on school breaks, and in
extenuating
circumstances.
C. Meetings shall be run by the President and/or Executive Council, in
order of rank.
D. Emergency
General or Executive Council meetings may be called by 2/3 of
Executive
Council.
E. Proxy
voting at meetings shall be done in one of the following ways:
1. Personal: Any member can give the
right to any other member to personally
carry their proxy vote to
any meeting. In such a case, the member
who is
voting forfeits their own vote. No member may hold
more than one proxy
vote at a time.
2. Written: Any member can submit a written
vote to any member of Executive
Council before a meeting where votes are to be held. This vote must be
submitted in a
sealed envelope with the voter’s signature
across the seal.
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VII.
Removal and Ranking of Officers
A. Should any Executive
Council officer do anything that compromises the purpose of
their section, the club,
or their duties as members of BSFFA, they
can be removed
by a 2/3-majority vote of the General Body.
B. Ranking of officers
from highest to lowest is: President, Secretary, Treasurer, In-
House Representative,
Out-Of-House Representative, Section Heads.
C. Should any position
be vacated, the highest-ranking officer is responsible for holding
emergency elections within two weeks.
D. The proposal to remove
any officer must be presented to the Executive Council
one
week prior to the vote. The officer
in question must be notified
at the same time.
E. The officer who is
in question has the right to speak for themselves for the same
amount of time that the
person accusing them speaks, or three minutes,
whichever is longer.
F. The
officer in question has a right to a proxy defense.
G. Announcements will
be sent to the General body informing them that a vote to
remove an officer will be
held, one week prior to the meeting in which
the vote will
be taken. The announcement
will include which officer
is in question and the specific
grievances against that officer.
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VIII.
Housing Policy
A. The spirit of this
Housing Policy is to ensure that all BSFFAs have a
fair chance
of
getting a room in Wood Tower D.
B. Housing Committee encourages everyone applying to live in house
to talk to each
other
regarding which floor they want to live on and which rooms they want to live
in.
C. Housing
Committee
1. Housing Committee shall be formed no
later than the second BSFFA
general meeting of the spring semester.
2. Five
(5) members shall be elected by a simple plurality of the BSFFA
General Body.
3. The In-House Representative and Out-Of-House
Representative shall
be members of Housing Committee.
4. The Chair of the Housing Committee
shall be the BSFFA President.
D. It shall be the job
of Housing Committee to review applications and assemble a
housing list from
those applications
1. Housing Committee is responsible for
assuring that each housing application
is filled out
completely. Any discrepancies in an application
must be clarified
by means of a polite, efficient discourse between the applicant
and Housing
Committee.
2. Members of Housing Committee shall
exempt themselves from the meeting where their room choice is being discussed. In the event where
a majority of
Housing Committee is applying to live in the same
rooms, Housing
Committee shall appoint graduating seniors, preferably
those with Housing
Committee experience, to assist in the process of assigning
those rooms.
3. Each
applicant has the right to request an interview with Housing
Committee. Housing Committee reserves the right to
request an interview
with an applicant
E. Determining
Qualifications of Applicants
1. An individual who has failed to
achieve a GPA of 2.0 or higher for two
or
more consecutive semesters will not be considered eligible to live in house,
but
will be eligible for the waiting list.
2. To determine which applicants are most
qualified to live in house, Housing
Committee shall consider the amount of proactive involvement in BSFFA
over
the past four semesters present on the
Beloit
campus. A noticeable
increase or decrease in
involvement over time will be taken into
account.
3. The following shall be considered
proactive involvement in BSSFA:
a. High
Priority, in no particular order,
-Time
on, or service to, Executive Council (voting & non-voting
positions)
-Service
to campus government and funding boards on behalf of BSFFA
-Running
Events for BSFFA
-Recruitment
to BSFFA
b. Lower
Priority, in no particular order,
-Attendance
at BSFFA General meetings
-Serving
on BSFFA committees
-Other
proactive involvement in BSFFA
4. Applicants
with the best combination of proactive involvement will be given
priority for housing.
F. The Housing Application
1. The Housing Application shall be no
more than 2 pages (Front and Back)
with plenty of room to answer questions.
2 . The Housing Application must
include a place for each applicant to
list at
least 3 rooms the applicant prefers to live in, rated by preference,
and space
to list his or her desired roommate should the applicant wish to live
in a
double. If possible, the applicant should list rooms on more than
one
floor.
3. The
Housing Application will include the following questions: “Are you
willing to live elsewhere in the house?” and “What have you done for
BSFFA?”
4. The applicant is responsible for
including as much information as they can
regarding what
they’ve done for the club for the past four semesters
on the
Beloit
campus.
5. There
shall be 2 sections, one in which applicants may list those individuals
they cannot live on the same floor with, and
one in which
applicants may
list individuals which they prefer not to live on
the same floor with. An
applicant may not be denied housing eligibility
based solely upon other
applicants’ answers to those sections.
6. The
Housing Application shall not include any questions which are
purposefully
harmful or insulting.
7. The
Housing Application will not include suggestions about where people
should
live.
G. In the case of a
close running between candidates applying for the Dungeon (G22),
Housing Committee is
advised to give preference to a candidate
who did not formerly hold the room.
H. If
more than one person requests the same room(s), Housing Committee encourages
applicants to settle the dispute among themselves before submitting
their
applications. If a solution cannot be achieved, then Housing
Committee will assign
the room(s) based on the merits of the applicants.
I. The Housing List
will be approved by a simple majority of the General Body. The
Housing List is Official as soon as this
simple majority is achieved.
1. In
order to police Housing Committee, the Housing List will be made
public
at least one week before the General Body is to vote on the
Housing List.
2. The
General Body must vote on the Housing List at least two weeks before
the
list is due to the Residential Life Office.
3. Should
the Residential Life Office not release the due date early enough
for
Housing Committee to plan efficiently, sections H-1 and H-2 of this policy
may be waived.
4. A
2/3 majority of voting Housing Committee members is needed to
reconsider the
Housing List after it is official. The Reconsidered List (if
different from
the Official List) will be presented to the General
Body at an
emergency general body meeting. Should the reconsidered
list not be
approved, the Official
Housing List will remain in effect.
J. If the General Body
does not pass the Housing List, Housing Committee shall call an
emergency Housing
Committee meeting and assemble a new Housing
list, followed
the next evening by an emergency General Bodymeeting to vote on
the new Housing
List.
K. Individuals can
protest the Housing List by bringing their concerns to Housing
Committee within one week of the
Housing List being made public. Housing
Committee decides if this is a valid
reason and then changes
the room assignments to
accommodate the concerns. Confidentiality
will be maintained by all those
individuals.
1. Proxies
can speak on behalf of an individual, bringing the complaint to
Housing Committee.
L. In the event that
any problem arises that affects the filling of BSFFA House at any
time between active
semesters, the BSFFA President has the sole
power and
responsibility to implement the waiting list and/or do anything else
necessary to
ensure a full house.
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