Please use this page as a sandbox for creating our constitution. The following structure is based loosely on the FSLC Constitution as an inspiration for ours. Please see the ‘discussion’ at the bottom of the page to collaborate ideas.
Date Proposed: December 2, 2006
Date Ratified:
Date Amended:
We, the members of the Ogden Area Linux Users Group, hereby establish this constitution to provide support to the users of the operating system Linux, and to give direction and purpose for the group.
The official name shall be known as the Ogden Area Linux Users Group with the acronym OALUG.
The Ogden Area Linux Users Group exists to bring Linux to the people of Weber and Davis counties in the State of Utah. Aside from informing those who are unaware of Linux, we strive to educate those who are already using Linux to further their computing experience. We aim to achieve our efforts by doing the following:
Group meetings, whether held in person or online, with topic presentations covering Linux and Free and Open Source Software.
Mailing lists to reach those who cannot attend meetings, but still are interested in OALUG.
Engage in Linux-related activities.
Advocate the use of Linux by socializing with users and non-users alike.
Appropriate advertising for meetings and activities.
Membership shall be open and available to all people who want to join without regard to race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, personal appearance, age, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, or on the basis of the exercise of rights secured by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. To be a recognized member of the group, and applicant must adhere to the following:
Be in good standing with OALUG, its officers and members.
Sign the
CodeOfConduct with a GPG/OpenPGP key, then mailing it to the group mailing list for approval.
Once a member is recognized as an official member of OALUG, the following rights and benefits are granted effective immediately:
An OALUG member may vote in upcoming elections.
An OALUG member may run for office after one year of good standing in the group.
A Freenode cloak in the form <nick>@oalug/member/<nick> will be authorized, where <nick> is the nickname of the Freenode user.
Official members have the opportunity to check out books from the OALUG Book Program.
As a recognized member of OALUG, certain expectations shall be placed on the member to keep his membership in the group:
The member shall maintain a minimum of 50% attendance at meetings per 4 month consecutive term, whether the meetings occur online, or in person.
Participation in the mailing list and
IRC channel is at the discretion of the user, but should be in accordance with the
CodeOfConduct that the member signed.
After one year of inactivity, the member will be notified that his membership will be terminated, and will have two weeks to show participation in the group. If no effort is shown, the member will be removed from the membership list, and will lose all rights and benefits of membership.
The official representative of OALUG.
Shall preside over all meetings.
Responsible for scheduling meetings.
Responsible for the planning and direction of OALUG.
The official representative of OALUG when the President is not available.
Preside over meetings which the President cannot attend.
Assist the President in all duties where necessary.
Responsible for securing official group sponsors.
Responsible for maintaining order in the meetings.
Shall keep accurate minutes of the meetings.
Responsible for all documentation for the group, including:
mailing lists
websites
fliers
other publications
Responsible for the book program offered by many book publishers.
Responsible for activities at the Davis County location, including:
install fests
parties
other activities
Responsible for scheduling and securing locations for our meetings.
Assist the Vice President in all necessary duties as needed.
Responsible for activities at the Weber County location, including:
install fests
parties
other activities
Responsible for scheduling and securing locations for our meetings.
Assist the Vice President in all necessary duties as needed.
Aside from the official duties, officers shall be expected to maintain a level of activity for the group. This level of activity consists of:
Showing up to the meetings at least twice a month.
Responding to at least half of the posts made on the mailing list.
Promoting the use of Linux.
Elections are held once a year in the spring at a time decided by the President for the new officers in the fall.
A candidate for office must be an official member of OALUG.
Officers are put in by a majority vote from the body of OALUG.
In case of a tie, a coin toss will determine the new elected officer.
A candidate may only accept one nomination at a time.
The term of office runs from the fall of elections to the next fall, or until resignation or termination.
If an officer resigns or is terminated, the President may deem what is necessary to fill the position.
Any officer wishing to resign is asked to give a minimum of two weeks notice.
An officer may be removed if his conduct is not appropriate for his position or the group or due to neglect. In order for an officer to be removed:
He must receive a majority vote of at least two-thirds.
The date, time and place for voting on the removal of the officer in question will be determined by the remaining officers, and announced to the OALUG group.
Upon removal, a new officer will be elected to fill his position with his new duties effective immediately.
All rights of the position are revoked from the new officer upon removal effective immediately.
Advisors of the Ogden Area Linux Users Group must meet the following criteria:
Must be in an Academic, Administrative or Managerial position at Weber State University.
Will be picked by the officers of OALUG by a majority vote.
Will not have a limited term of service.
Discussion
I’m wondering if a “Mascot” is really needed. What does everyone think?
I’m taking the “Mascot” off. It’s a little corny. However, I’m curious what people think about the roles and duties of the members, officers and advisors.
Do you want be as explicit as you are about meetings ie “Online meetings held on IRC to plan and shape the future of the group.” or do you mean for every set of officers to be able to change this? With FSLC we tried to be flexible so it wouldn’t have to be changed.
Also does Weber have rules on who your officers can be? How about rules on voting members?
(All the antidiscrimination stuff is in ours because ASUSU requires it)
Kyle- yeah, I haven’t thought about being so detail oriented. I can see how it’s not being flexible enough. However, I want there to be no question about the Constitution and where we stand as a group abiding by it. I guess I’ll have to look over it, and see what would be the best way to make it more flexible, yet still keep the detail in tact.
Also, I am not sure about what Weber State requires for officers and voting members. I’ll have to look into it. As far as I am aware, although I could be completely wrong, there are no restrictions as long as you have an advisor. But, it is important to note, that although we are now a “school group”, we existed long before. If we are restricted to what we can and cannot do as a group, because we decided to take advantage of some of the benefits that the school offers, we may want to reconsider our school status. I don’t want our group to be limited to what we can and can’t do because we became a school group.
I don’t see anything that immediately stands out to me. I think it is very detailed and outlines the roles and responsibilities of each level of membership.
I think, at this point, my next step is to convert it for ubuntu utah. Do you still want to propose a constitution in the Jan meet?
We could have a logo or logo with motto instead of a mascot. Maybe we could make it something that would let people know while enough to want to know more.
Corrected: We could have a logo or logo with motto instead of a mascot. Maybe we could make it something that would let people know what we are about generally while enough to want to know more.