| The Constitution of the UMBC Parliamentary Debate Society Preamble The UMBC Parliamentary Debate Society (UMBC PDS) actively encourages all University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) students to participate in debate. The UMBC PDS seeks to better the logical argumentation and public speaking abilities of the UMBC community through parliamentary debate and to promote interest in debate competition. The UMBC PDS thrives on competition, and to this end its members compete weekly throughout the academic year on the circuit of the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). The UMBC PDS shall be subject to the jurisdiction of federal, state and local laws, UMBC's Student Life Committee and the Student Government Association, as well as to the president of UMBC and his or her designees. 1. Name The name of this organization shall be the UMBC Parliamentary Debate Society. 2. Purpose The UMBC PDS was established in 1985 for the purpose of competing within APDA and in myriad other national and international tournaments. 3. Qualifications and Membership 3.1. Membership Eligibility Membership is open to any student enrolled in at least one class at UMBC. 3.2. Statement of Non-Discrimination Membership may not be denied because of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, national origin, or religion. 3.3. Membership Through Affiliation All individuals who are eligible to become members and are affiliated with the team may be considered members. Affiliation includes attending practices, helping with UMBC PDS sponsored events, or attending tournaments through the UMBC PDS. 3.4. Voting Eligibility To be considered a voting member, a person must meet the qualifications for membership as established in section 3.1, as well as have attended a tournament as a debater or as a judge during either the current or the prior semester. Attendance at the annual UMBC debate tournament will not count for the purpose of obtaining or retaining voting membership in the UMBC PDS. To retain eligibility as a voting member, a person also must have attended one practice during the semester in which the vote is being held. Attendance at the practice at which the vote is held shall be sufficient to meet this requirement. 3.5. Voluntary Withdrawal of Membership Members and voting members may terminate their own membership in the UMBC PDS at any time upon notification to the president or team captain. Reestablishment of membership or voting membership subsequent to voluntary withdrawal shall be allowed, however, the individual must meet the requirements of membership anew, as stipulated in sections 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 for voting membership. Any participation in the UMBC PDS prior to voluntary withdrawal will not be considered in reestablishment of membership. 4. Officers and Elections 4.1. Officer Eligibility To be eligible to become an officer, one must be a voting member of the UMBC PDS. 4.2. Offices The officers of the UMBC PDS shall be the President, Team Captain, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. These officers shall comprise the Executive Committee. 4.3. Officers' Duties 4.3.1. President The president shall be responsible for setting officer meetings and running both officer and general meetings. The president is also responsible for fund raising and for keeping communication with the university and APDA. In this capacity, the president is responsible for voting or appointing someone to vote at each APDA meeting. The president is also responsible for registering people for tournaments, for arranging transportation to tournaments, and for running elections and other votes for the UMBC PDS. 4.3.2. Team Captain The team captain is responsible for training and keeping up the morale of the members of the UMBC PDS as well as settling disputes among those same members. At the beginning of the fall semester each year, the team captain shall set the times and location for general meetings, which shall be subject to change as described in section 5.1. The team captain is also in charge of the recruitment of new members. At tournaments, the team captain takes on the responsibilities of procuring housing, setting times for the team to regroup and taking care of other tournament necessities. The team captain shall appoint someone to take on these tournament duties in his or her absence. 4.3.3. Vice President The duties of the vice president are to assist the president and the team captain in their duties as required or to assume those duties temporarily should either officer be unable to fulfil the obligations of his or her office for a short time. Under such circumstances, the vice president shall not officially assume the position of president or team captain, however, but shall act in the place of the absent officer until that officer returns. In cases of resignation by or impeachment of either the president or the team captain, the duties of the absent officer will not be absorbed by the vice president, but will instead be divided among all remaining officers as outlined in sections 4.7 and 6.5. The vice president also shares the responsibility of recruitment. 4.3.4. Treasurer The duties of the treasurer are as follows: the processing of all travel expenses, the processing of all registration fees, the collection of all tournament fees owed to UMBC, the keeping of a detailed record of the UMBC PDS funds and helping the president in raising funds as needed. 4.3.5. Secretary The duties of the secretary are as follows: the maintaining of a weekly attendance and membership role, notifying the team of any announcements that the President or Team Captain need made, reminding the team of events and practices, and assisting the vice president, team captain and president as needed. 4.4. Elections The election procedure shall be designed so that a candidate must have a majority of the total votes cast to win an office, and unsuccessful candidates may run for lower offices. 4.4.1. Election Scheduling Two weeks notice must be given to all voting members before officer elections are held. Officer elections will be held no less than one week before the first day of finals in the spring semester of each year. 4.4.2. Requirements Only those defined as voting members shall be eligible to vote. Quorum must be reached in order for the vote to take place. Proxy votes shall be allowed as described in section 6.2. 4.4.3. Ties In the event of a tie for an office for which more than two candidates are running, there shall be a runoff election for those tied for the highest number of votes. In the event of a tie between candidates when those candidates tied are the only people running for that office, a second vote will be taken. In the event of a tie in the second vote, the decision of the winner will be made by the those who were part of the Executive Committee prior to the set of elections in which the dispute has occurred. If there is an even number of officers at the time of the election and their vote also results in a tie, votes will be canceled in the order of first secretary, followed by treasurer, then vice president and finally team captain, until the tie is broken. 4.5. Term of Office The term of office shall last one year. This term shall be from the day after the last day of finals in the spring semester in which the elections were held to the last day of finals in the spring semester of the following year. 4.6. Adjunct Positions The Executive Committee shall have the power to create and fill such yearly positions as are necessary to facilitate the running of the UMBC PDS, subject to the review of the body, which may call such appointments to a general vote. The UMBC PDS voting membership shall also be able to create yearly positions that will serve as adjuncts to the Executive Committee, also by general vote. Such positions may include (but are not limited to) liaisons to various UMBC PDS events and committee heads. Individuals in adjunct positions may attend officer meetings in cases when the Executive Committee deems such attendance would be required or beneficial to the work of that position, but individuals in adjunct positions shall not have an officer vote. 4.7. Resignation In the event that an officer resigns from his or her position, his or her duties shall be divided among the remaining officers until a someone is elected to that office. An election in such circumstances shall be scheduled as soon as possible and shall be run according to the guidelines in section 4.4. 5. Meetings 5.1. Meeting Schedule The times and places for regularly scheduled meetings (practices) shall be determined by the team captain and announced at the beginning of each semester. The location and times for meetings may be changed at any time by the Executive Committee with notice of such a change given to the members of the team two weeks prior to the institution of the change. Additionally, extra meetings may be scheduled by the Executive Committee with the same notice. 5.2. Officer Meetings Officer meetings shall be held at least once a month and shall be scheduled at least one week in advance by the president. 6. Procedure 6.1. Quorum A quorum is defined as two-thirds of the voting members of the team. If a voting member wishes, he or she may be excluded from the total count of voting members on which the calculation of quorum is based for the purpose of a particular vote. 6.2. Proxy Voting Proxy votes may be counted in general votes, elections and votes on the constitution. Only those who qualify as voting members may vote by proxy. For these types of votes, quorum includes eligible voting members present as well as those who have voted by proxy. The Executive Committee must determine at least one week prior to each vote the method(s) by which proxy votes must be submitted. Proxy votes must be given prior to the meeting at which the vote is to take place. 6.3. General Vote A general vote is defined as a vote taken by the eligible voting membership of the team to make a decision about a major issue that affects the body. General votes may be taken during regularly scheduled meetings where quorum is reached. In a general vote, a motion shall be passed only when a simple majority of the votes are in favor of the motion. General votes shall be run by the president and votes shall be taken by a show of hands, by acclamation or by secret ballot. An issue may be brought to a vote by any voting member of the team as long as another voting member of the team seconds that motion. A general vote may overrule any officer's decision, any officer vote or any decision by the Executive Committee. General votes shall also be used to strike or modify by-laws as well as to make new by-laws. 6.4. Officer Vote Officer votes shall be taken by the Executive Committee to deal with routine matters. Officer votes may also be taken on urgent matters when it is not possible to get two-thirds of the voting membership together to have a general vote. Officer votes on such urgent matters should only deal with what must be taken care of immediately, and any issues remaining should be taken to a general vote at the earliest possible time. Officer vote shall be held at scheduled officer meetings. Any officer may bring an issue to an officer vote. For an officer vote to be held, four of the five officers must be present. In cases where one or more officer positions are not currently held, all of the current officers must be present for an officer vote. Officer votes shall be by a show of hands, by acclamation or by secret ballot and require a majority of the officers present to pass. 6.5. Impeachment Vote An impeachment vote is to be taken as the method of removing an elected officer from the office which he or she holds but such a vote shall not terminate his or her membership in the UMBC PDS. A quorum must be present to have an impeachment vote. The impeachment vote must be conducted by secret ballot. An impeachment vote may be called for by any voting member of the UMBC PDS whose motion is seconded by another voting member of the team. An officer may only be impeached if two-thirds of the votes affirm that said officer be impeached. In the case of impeachment, an election will be held to fill the vacancy as soon as possible and shall be run according to the guidelines in section 4.5. During the interim, the duties of the impeached officer(s) shall be divided among the remaining officers. 6.6. Termination of Membership Vote A termination of membership vote shall be taken for the purpose of canceling the membership of a member of the UMBC PDS. This vote may not be conducted by secret ballot. This vote may be called for by any voting member of the UMBC PDS whose motion is seconded by another voting member of the team. Judicial sanctions by the university may be grounds for a termination of membership vote being held. Judicial sanctions that prevent a student from registering for and attending classes will make that person ineligible for membership in the UMBC PDS. The individual whose membership is in question must be told the reason for the motion and must be given a chance to defend him or herself in front of all those voting on the matter. A person's membership may only be terminated if two-thirds of all eligible voting members vote to affirm that said person's membership should be terminated. A termination of membership vote is not to be taken lightly. 6.7. Announcement of Vote Results Final vote tallies shall be announced only after all votes from those present and all proxy votes have been counted by both the president and the team captain. 6.8. Parliamentary Authority Robert's Rules of Order shall be followed by the UMBC PDS in all cases involving parliamentary procedure when it does not conflict with this constitution. 7. Amendments and Revision of By-Laws 7.1. Constitutional Revision The constitution of the UMBC PDS can only be revised or amended at a general meeting where two-thirds of all of the voting members vote affirmatively to effect the desired change in the constitution. 7.2. By-Laws By-laws will be passed, modified or deleted by a General Vote as described in section 6.3. 7.3. Constitutional Authority This constitution is the official constitution of the UMBC PDS. All other previous constitutions of the UMBC PDS are null and void as of the passage of this document. By-Laws of the UMBC Parliamentary Debate Society 1. Each individual must inform the president, or the appointed individual, of his or her intent to attend a tournament by the Monday before the tournament or at a time designated by the president. If the individual fails to do this, the president is not obligated to register that individual for that tournament. 2. All forms of transportation to debate team events, including debate tournaments, which require the use of team funds must be approved by the president, the team captain or the treasurer before proceeding with procuring that transport. 3. Lettering system 4. Worlds Qualification Guidelines 5. Nationals Qualification Guidelines 6. Oxford Qualification Guidelines |
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