Apocrypha HrsfalogicaeChapter Four: The Constitution: Its Care and Feeding [Editor's note: Should you wish to view the text of the text of the Constitution as a whole, please click here. Should you wish to see the text of an article of the constitution which Mr. Nichols is discussing, click on the highlighted text at the beginning of that particular section of text.] [Author's note: This chapter of Apocrypha HRSFAlogicæ is both very long and, as it turns out, one of the most boring things I've ever written in my life. I therefore recommend that it be skipped, unless the reader is a) the managing secretary of the Association, b) deeply concerned with the HRSFA constitution, c) profoundly deranged, or d) all of the above. You have been warned...] HRSFA has operated under three separate constitutions too many, I suspect, for such a small, young organization in its five year history. The first of these was drafted by Chaz English and Alec Crawford when the Association was founded in the fall of 1987; a copy of the short, simple document can be found in the Office of the Dean of Students. It was amended twice: the first amendment, added in the spring of 1988, moved the Association's general elections to the middle of the academic year; the second, added in February of 1989, replaced the office of co-chair with those of president and vice-president and added the office of editor-in-chief. The first constitution died shortly after the second amendment was added and the first elections under that amendment were held. The proximate cause of the constitution's demise was the $800 the Association had earned by showing The Accused in mid-February. An officers' meeting on February 20th. This For now, I leave you with my best regards and my article of the HRSFA constitution has only been in became deadlocked over the disposition of that money how much was to be spent on Fusion (which had just acquired new importance-see Chapter V), how much was to be saved, and so on. Frustrated over the lack of authority that his office, as then-constituted, possessed, President Adam Sabra resigned shortly thereafter; he was replaced by a temporary triumvirate composed of Vice President Steve Sigel, former co-chair Chaz English, and former Secretary John Abbe. In discussing the crisis that had occurred within their ranks, the Association's officers decided (more or less) that a reworking of HRSFA's constitution was in order, and in March Chaz English drafted a second constitution. The general membership of HRSFA discussed the new document at two special meetings that month. The first of these, held at Adams House on March 7, 1989, was large (about twenty people attended), formal, and ponderous, and accomplished very little; the second, held at Chaz English's home on March 9th, was smaller (about a dozen people, including Chaz's cat, attended), much less formal the conversation took in crossbows, the Battle of Blood River, and other topics far removed from that at hand and accomplished a great deal. Nearly all of the key revisions to Mr. English's draft constitution were accomplished at the March 9th meeting, in fact. (Also, Chaz served strawberry daiquiris, which moved things right along.) The second constitution reiterated most of the clauses of the first, including the two amendments. It retained the new office of Editor-in-Chief, replaced the offices of President and Vice-President with the old position of co-chair, and added some minor provisions for budgeting. The key change in the second HRSFA constitution, however, was the introduction of a three-level decision-making structure a sort of inverted pyramid, with the co-chairs at the bottom, the officers (taken as a whole) in the middle, and the general membership of HRSFA (when assembled at general meetings) at the top. The co-chairs were given formal responsibility for the day-to-day affairs of the Association, while the officers and general membership were given overall responsibility for long-term planning and for the Association's larger events and expenditures. Each level was required to report its actions (within a reasonable period of time) to the level(s) above it, and each level was given the power, by majority vote, to override, where possible, the decisions of the level(s) below it. This second constitution, with its revisions, was ratified and signed at a general HRSFA meeting in April of 1989. Vice President Steven Sigel assumed the office of co-chair, and in May Editor-in-Chief Eric Hargan was elected to fill the other co-chair position. Unfortunately, the only copy of the new constitution was lost that summer one may draw whatever conclusions (about HRSFA) from this fact that one wishes so for the first few months of the new school year the Association operated under the officers' and members' memories of the document (and their general indifference, by this time, to constitutional issues). In February of 1990 this unsteady state of affairs was temporarily corrected when yours truly forged a copy of the HRSFA constitution (based on my memories of the original document, and of the two revision meetings held the previous March) for presentation to the new officers of the Association. However, it became apparent over the course of the following year that there were several flaws in this document, apart from the fact that it was, more or less, illegitimate. The substitute constitution lacked, first of all, provisions for notifying HRSFA members of upcoming officerial elections (which provisions were included in the original second constitution, but forgotten by me); secondly, there was no formal definition of a quorum for action at Association meetings (apart from Darcy Gibbons's whimsical definition of a quorum as "two-thirds of members present"); and thirdly, there was no explication of the status of alumni, graduate students, and persons not affiliated with Harvard within HRSFA. Bringing attention to these defects at the HRSFA general election of February 3, 1991, alumnus John Abbe proposed that the Association make appropriate changes to its working constitution post-haste; after some discussion the Association voted to put together a constitutional committee to address the problem after its upcoming Masquerade Ball. This was done. The new constitutional committee met for the first time in the HRSFA office on March 18th, though as the only HRSFAns present were myself and Elena O'Malley little was accomplished. The discussion held at that meeting, however, while totally unrelated to the constitution, nevertheless proved entertaining to all present. The second meeting of the committee, on April 3rd, was somewhat more successful; those in attendance decided to scrap and rewrite the existing constitution rather than simply propose a package of amendments to it. The third meeting, held on the steps of Widener Library on April 5, worked out most of the important changes that were to be made, including a reshuffling of the Association's officerial positions and a redefinition of their responsibilities. The original draft of the third HRSFA constitution was read to the general membership of HRSFA by the committee chairman on April 7, 1991. It was amended and ratified on the 21st of that month, and has remained in place, unchanged, for more than a year and a half. The salient details of the document are discussed at some length below. The purpose, finally, of this somewhat lengthy and dry constitutional history of HRSFA is not to provide a blueprint for future rewrites of the Association's constitution. Quite the contrary; my intention was, in fact, to describe the unusual circumstances which led HRSFA to twice rewrite its fundamental rules. It is my hope that future constitutional changes will be effected through the amendment process, since total rewrites of the constitution, while they may strengthen the Association in some ways, tend also to lead to arguments (sometimes bitter ones) and to consume, if not actually waste, HRSFA's time. Since the Association only has six or seven months out of every calendar year in which to conduct its business, that time is somewhat more precious than its members usually realize. Onward... A Commentary on text of the HRSFA Constitution:Article One Intent: This fairly straightforward article tries to answer the most basic question about the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association: "What are you?" Or, failing that, it at least tries to answer the question "What on earth do you guys do, anyway?" Lately, I have concluded that the most important function of the Association is "to aid and abet the gathering and activity of those interested in...[the speculative fictional] genre" that is, to provide a safe haven for science fiction and fantasy fans and for general strangeness within the Harvard community. The Association's other constitutional mission, raising general awareness of sf at Harvard and elsewhere, is, in my judgment, somewhat less important, at least as a short-term goal. Promoting sf on campus is best accomplished through Fusion magazine and through large events like the Masquerade or movie screenings (see Chapter 6 for my opinions on HRSFA movies), rather than through any sort of active proselytizing. I expect that many of HRSFA's founders would concur with this opinion. In his editorial "And now...a word from CHAZ," published in Volume II of Fusion Magazine (August, 1989), former co-chair Chaz English wrote the following about the Association: "We are bent on educating ourselves, and expanding our own minds, before we presume to do the same for others. We change context, we relate the unrelated, we entertain the unentertainable. We are creative, fun-loving, and generally amiable." And if that isn't actually true, it should be. Article Two Membership: This is a rather tricky issue, since it concerns the question "Who are you?" In the past, HRSFA has been loath to turn away anyone interested in attending meetings or participating in events, and it is my hope that the Association will not start doing so any time soon. However, HRSFA does have to meet certain membership requirements imposed upon it by the University, which may be considered as a part of this constitution. (Actually, they supersede it.) HRSFA is an undergraduate organization (hence the "Harvard Radcliffe" in the title), and is therefore required by the University to maintain a membership that is at least 50% undergraduate. To date this has not been a problem. Furthermore, all of HRSFA's officers must be undergraduates; to date, no graduate student, alumnus/alumna, or non-Harvard person has sought a HRSFA office (with good reason, too). Finally, the Association must annually submit a membership list to the Office of the Dean of Students, containing at least ten undergraduate names. This requirement is a bit more complicated. During my term as Secretary of HRSFA (1989-90), and presumably since that time as well, HRSFA placed on its official list of members any Harvard undergraduate or graduate student who had attended at least one meeting (general or SIG) and had filled out a membership form. Membership lists from previous years were retained and incorporated into the new roster; graduated seniors and other former students were placed onto a separate but equal list of alumni. The people on these lists usually numbering between 150 and 200 (HRSFA has collected a lot of membership forms over the years) were collectively referred to as the general membership of HRSFA. This seems as good a definition of this rather nebulous term as can be found. The term associate member was coined by HRSFA's officers in the fall of 1989, when two Boston-area residents who were not Harvard students mailed annual dues payments to HRSFA and asked to become members. (They were responding to a membership ad placed by HRSFA in Volume Two of Fusion, which was intended primarily for Harvard students but which was read by a number of people at Worldcon.) During a later discussion with co-chair. Eric Hargan, Dean of Students Archie Epps advised that HRSFA allow people not affiliated to Harvard to join the Association as "associate members" upon purchasing a HRSFA membership card (see below), and to grant these associates the right to attend meetings and the material privileges afforded "card-carrying" HRSFA members. Epps also suggested that associate members not be allowed to vote at general meetings. In practice, HRSFA did not exclude non-dues-paying persons from its meetings, nor did it actively try to prevent the one associate member (a UMass/Boston student named Mark Gentile) who regularly attended meetings that year from voting. In fact, associate members were and are effectively excluded from only two things: serving as officers (which is a blessing, not a hardship), and being included on HRSFA's general membership list. The term voting member, while it is only mentioned later in the constitution, is nevertheless largely dependent on the second clause of Article II, which concerns the levying of dues. HRSFA first began offering "card-carrying membership" shortly after its founding; HRSFA members could purchase, for a $3 annual fee, a spiffy black-and-white membership card which entitled them to a 15% discount at the old Science Fantasy Bookstore and a $1 discount at all HRSFA events. As the Association grew and the number of benefits it could offer (a library, more discounts, etc.) also increased, this fee was raised to $5 (in 1989), then to $7 (in 1991). Furthermore, in the spring of 1989, during the first rewrite of the HRSFA constitution, HRSFA members decided that the Association should have the right to limit voting at general meetings to dues-paying members. I am not sure why this was done. It may have been a half-hearted attempt by HRSFA's more conservative members to concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and privileged, or it may have been an attempt to create a welldefined core of (reasonably) dedicated HRSFAns within the otherwise nebulous and uncohesive "general membership" of the Association. In any case, this limitation went into effect during the 1989-90 academic year, and became the basis for the term voting membership, which was developed during the second rewrite of the constitution in the spring of 1991. "Voting membership," in turn, became the basis for the long-sought-after definition of a "quorum," discussed in Article IV. The third clause of Article II, which states that HRSFA "may not discriminate against any current or potential member on the basis of race, sex, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, or handicap," is fairly self-explanatory. HRSFA should also refrain from discriminating against a member on the basis of his or her political views (see Article III), or his or her specific sf interests. HRSFA should be home to all members of the speculative fiction community, whether they are Star Trek fans, unicorn-huggers, hard-sf cybergeeks, or "literary sf" fans who dress in black and dismiss as puerile all science fiction except for "some of Stanislaw Lem's criticism." Not that I am naming names. Article Three Affiliation: HRSFA is not a political organization, and throughout its history has sought (as most small, young organizations do) to be as inclusive as possible. Its membership has thus spanned the political spectrum, including Peninsula Council members (Fred DeCaro), liberal activists (John Abbe, Darcy Gibbons), reformed communists (myself), and many others. HRSFA has managed to accomplish this by remaining steadfastly apolitical or as disengaged from politics as is possible in Harvard's intense and volatile political environment. The first two versions of the HRSFA constitution prohibited the association from taking a stance on any political issue whatsoever. The qualifying phrase "not directly related to the speculative fictional genre" was added to the third version of the constitution in recognition of the fact that there are a very few political and social issues freedom of speech, literacy, the space program, and (in a general way) environmental affairs in which most sf fans can be reasonably expected to have an interest. However, HRSFA should refrain from playing an active role in campus or off-campus politics unless its existence as an organization is somehow jeopardized thereby in which case, all bets are off. This article of the HRSFA constitution has only been invoked one time in my memory, at a general meeting in December of 1989. After co-chair Eric Hargan expressed some concern that HRSFA was donating its Gameathon proceeds to Philips Brooks House, which was (in his opinion) becoming an increasingly political institution, Association members agreed to restrict HRSFA's donations to specific "neutral" PBH programs: a literacy volunteer program, a refugee youth enrichment program, and so forth. Whether we actually raised more than $100 or so through our first three Gameathons (1989-91) is, I think, beside the point. Article Four Authority and Procedure: This is the longest and most important article in the HRSFA constitution. It also happens to be fairly straightforward, and therefore I will limit my comments on it to a few textual glosses. Sure I will. Article IV of the current HRSFA constitution basically dispenses with the authority structure created by the second HRSFA constitution, and reserves all he officers and order the sergeant-at-arms to work them over, or (most likely) greet the news with glazed indifference. Article IV obliges both HRSFA's officers and its general membership to meet at least once a month; in the past HRSFA's officers often met over dinner directly before the Association's biweekly general meetings, which seems a reasonable practice. The purpose of this constitutional rule is to keep HRSFA's officers and members focused, to a minimal extent, on the affairs and needs of the Association, lest these affairs and needs slip their minds completely, and HRSFA go down the drain (due to unpaid bills, unfired forms, etc.) as a result. HRSFA need not meet over the summer, obviously, and usually does not meet during the month of January, save for the occasional study break. The fourth and fifth paragraphs of Article IV define a quorum for action at HRSFA meetings, though they do not specifically refer to it as such. A quorum is defined as "a majority of voting members, [present] either in person or by proxy"; unless HRSFA wishes to change its voting requirements, "voting members" means those general members (i.e. undergraduates, members is present. Such a determination is necessary whenever an officerial election is to be held, or when a constitutional amendment or the removal of an officer from office is to be voted on, at the general meeting in question. At all other general meetings, the only condition that must exist in order for official business to be conducted is the prior notification (one week in advance of the actual event) of the Association's voting members. Such notification can take many forms a letter, electronic mail, astral projection, etc. though the best is probably a telephone call. Persons wishing to buy HRSFA membership cards or otherwise become voting members should be warned beforehand that they will receive frequent annoying telephone calls from HRSFA members, reminding them of upcoming meetings and events, if they choose to do so. Article IV states that whenever a constitutional amendment or the removal of an officer from office is proposed, voting on the matter in question shall be delayed until the general meeting following that at which the proposal is made. This is intended to ensure that HRSFA's officers have time to notify all the voting members of the Association that an important decision is to be made; it also gives HRSFA's members time to think about that decision before making it. This delay is also applied to officerial elections (see Article V). Furthermore, any two HRSFA officers may elect to "suspend a vote" at a general meeting until the following general meeting; this should be interpreted as "suspend discussion of a vote," as well as the vote itself. The purpose of this rule is to allow HRSFA's officers to bring a temporary halt to a deadlocked, excessively drawn-out, or overly quarrelsome discussion of a particular issue, resolution, or expenditure, and to give the parties involved time to cool down and reconsider their positions. The vote in question may only be delayed once that is, HRSFA's officers cannot suspend it a second time at the next general meeting but there is nothing to stop HRSFA's general membership from voting to table the decision themselves. (I use the American interpretation of the verb "to table," of course.) The power to suspend votes should be used sparingly by HRSFA's officers, particularly in the case of amendments and removals from office, and should, in my opinion, never be used to delay an election. Also, a vote should not be suspended if it occurs during the last general meeting of a given school year, as this is unfair to those students about to graduate. To date, the power to suspend votes has never been used by HRSFA's officers. Finally, the constitution provides that the text of certain proposed decisions (amendments, removals from office, and suspended decisions), and lists of officer nominees, be "displayed in an accessible location" seven days prior to the meeting at which they will be voted on. "Accessible location" has come to mean the door or exterior wall of the Association's office (the interior of the current office is freely accessible only to someone who has keys to it); if HRSFA should ever lose its office (perish the thought) another generally agreed-upon location, such as one of the Science Center bulletin boards, may be used. The posting should be made by HRSFA's managing secretary, who is generally responsible for the Association's written records. Article Five Officers: HRSFA originally had five officer positions: two co-chairs, a treasurer, a secretary, and a SIG coordinator. All of these positions, save that of treasurer, have gone through significant changes since 1987. The Association has nearly always had two co-chairs at its head; these offices were briefly (in February of 1989) replaced with separate president and vice president positions, though after President Adam Sabra's resignation these innovations were somewhat tarnished and were eliminated in the second HRSFA constitution. I am uncertain why Chaz English and Alec Crawford, who wrote the original constitution, decided that HRSFA should be led by two co-chairs instead of one president; perhaps they wanted to avoid imposing a hierarchical structure on the new organization. (Personally, I believe they just thought the idea of having two co-chairs was neat.) Under the second HRSFA constitution, the Association's co-chairs occupied a distinct (if somewhat inferior) level within HRSFA's (subsequently discarded) authority structure, and were charged with overseeing the HRSFA's day-to-day affairs. Co-chair Eric Hargan (who held that office from the fall of 1989 until February of 1990) interpreted "day-to-day affairs" as "dealing with the campus bureaucracy" that is, talking with the Dean of Students, filing membership forms, acquiring a meeting place for HRSFA general meetings, arranging for HRSFA to receive Centrex service, etc. This became the chief official duty of the co-chairs under the third constitution. The co-chairs' are also charged with "[dealing] with other organizations affiliated with Harvard," which translates as "Phillips Brooks House, the campus press and other student organizations, and any group which can be considered a part of the official Harvard community, whatever that means." The exception to this list is the Undergraduate Council, which-along with the Radcliffe Union of Students and other money-dispensing organizations lies within the jurisdiction of the Treasurer' as per Article VII. Finally, the co-chairs are "generally responsible for leading HRSFA," which they may interpret any way they please; in the past it has meant calling meetings to order and keeping them orderly (or inducing enough chaos to make them interesting), overseeing (though not necessarily running) HRSFA's larger activities, such as movies and the Masquerade, and promoting a high (or at least fair) level of morale among Association members, chiefly by intimidating them into having fun. The office of treasurer has, as previously noted, remained virtually unchanged since HRSFA's founding. Credit for this should probably go to Amy Chused, who has (at the time of this writing) held the office for nearly three years and kept it sound. A minor change was introduced into this office by the third HRSFA constitution: the amount of the "discretionary fund" possessed by the treasurer that is, the amount of money the treasurer could spend at his or her own discretion was changed from $20 to an amount to be determined at HRSFA budget meetings. (The old $20 limit, incidentally, applied to the amount of money the treasurer could spend at one go without consulting other officers or members, rather than to the total amount of money the treasurer could spend at his or her discretion.) HRSFA's treasurer is responsible (by tradition rather than constitutionally) for the sale of Association membership cards, and should maintain and make available to other officers a list of HRSFA's "card-carrying members," which, given the Association's current voting restrictions and quorum rules, they need to consult from time to time. Also, the treasurer should endeavor to attend the business meetings of Fusion, the masquerade committee, and other large HRSFA enterprises, or to at least send a proxy. The two secretarial positions can be considered the mutant offspring of the old offices of secretary and SIG coordinator. Originally, all of the duties of the current coordinating and managing secretary offices (save only for SIG-related duties) were assigned to one HRSFA secretary, who was thus fairly powerful and very overworked. Meanwhile, an officer whose position no longer exists, the SIG coordinator, was responsible for keeping track of the Association's Special Interest Groups and maintaining their records, if any. This office was generally regarded as a sinecure, and Lee Valentine, who became SIG Coordinator in February of 1990, found his duties sufficiently undemanding that he began casting about for additional jobs to do, and eventually became business and production manager of Fusion magazine. Thus, in the spring of 1991 HRSFA's constitutional committee decided, after some debate, to eliminate the position of SIG Coordinator (Carl Anderson, who was Valentine's successor to that office, became an "officer-at-large" until he was elected co-chair in October) and to transfer its duties to the HRSFA secretary. The now-severely-overextended office of secretary was divided into two positions, popularly known as the "internal secretary" and the "external secretary." (The constitutional names of these positions, "managing secretary" and "coordinating secretary," were my own invention; as they are not very descriptive and are seldom used by HRSFAns these terms should, perhaps, be discarded.) HRSFA's internal secretary is responsible for keeping the Association's non-financial records: membership and alumni lists, minutes of meetings, records of bylaws and proposed amendments, random doodles and scribbles, and the like. This is, in itself, a fairly large task. In addition, the internal secretary must keep copies of whatever records the Special Interest Groups maintain, and ensure that the SIGs stay within the membership guidelines prescribed by Article VI. He or she is also responsible for the upkeep of the Association's "physical plant," which is a pretentious way of referring to HRSFA's office and lending libraries. All in all, the internal secretary has the lion's share of secretarial duties. The job of external secretary, however, is no sinecure. This officer is responsible for HRSFA's correspondence and "external relations," which, practically speaking, makes him or her responsible for alumni mailings and fund drives, acquiring alumni advisors, keeping good relations with local businesses (by leading book-buying and game-buying expeditions to acquire material for HRSFA's lending libraries, encouraging Fusion's business manager to offer advertising space to stores in exchange for member discounts, and so forth), and staying in touch with that vast and diffuse entity known as "science fiction fandom." (HRSFA's past contacts have included sf organizations in Mount Holyoke, Kentucky, and Gdansk.) The external secretary should also keep HRSFA's members apprised of upcoming science fiction conventions and events of interest outside of Harvard, or at least appoint someone to do so. (Incidentally, the formal title of this officer, "coordinating secretary," is a fossil remnant of the old position of SIG coordinator. This fact has little to do with the actual duties of the external secretary, however.) The office of editor-in-chief was created in February of 1989 to breathe some life into Fusion magazine, which was then somewhat dormant. Previously, the magazine had been a SIG; the creation of this new office made it an Association-wide concern, and (incidentally) gave HRSFA's general members some power regulate its format and internal affairs. The editor-in-chief has jurisdiction over all of HRSFA's publications, though in the past he has only been held responsible for Fusion magazine, and has delegated authority over the Association's newsletters (if any) to other persons (generally the internal secretary). If should be noted that the editor is also responsible for filing copies of Fusion and any newsletters HRSFA produces with the University Archives and the Office of the Dean of Students, as required by university regulations. Obviously, the officers' duties overlap in a number of areas, which provides another reason for regular officer meetings: to allow the officers to discuss upcoming activities and events and divide the tasks associated with those events between them, either along constitutional lines or (more likely) according to each officer's skills and preferences. The language on elections in Article V is fairly straightforward. It should be made clear that all officers' terms expire at the time of a general election, regardless of how long they have been holding their offices. If, due to nuclear war, failure to achieve a quorum, or some other disaster, the general election must be delayed past the constitutionally prescribed time, the sitting officers' terms shall be extended until the time of that election; exception should be made, of course, for seniors with impending thesis deadlines. While Article V of the HRSFA constitution includes provisions for the removal of an officer from office (as did past versions of the constitution, though they improperly referred to it as "impeachment"), this has never been done before in the Association's history, nor (in my opinion) should it be done except in dire circumstances. There are numerous ways for HRSFA's members to express disapproval with officers and urge them to mend their ways short of removal; if all else fails, HRSFAns can always wait until an officer's term expires and elect someone else to that office. Article Six Special Interest Groups: Traditionally, HRSFA's SIGs have been considered semi-autonomous groups within the Association almost (but not quite) separate clubs. They "possess the same privileges as the Association itself," which is to say they can put up their own posters' apply to Harvard's bureaucracy for meeting space, and, via the HRSFA treasurer and budget meetings, beg the UC for money. Additionally, SIGs have control over their own internal affairs electing or dumping SIG leaders, setting the times of meetings, deciding on specific purchases to be made with the money HRSFA has allotted them, etc. While the constitution has nothing specific to say on the matter, HRSFA's general membership has only limited powers over the Association's individual SIGs not that this has ever proven to be a problem. (SIGs have usually been too small and fragile to want to assert much autonomy.) In terms of SIG membership requirements, the "eight members to form, five to maintain" formula was recommended by Dean Epps when HRSFA was founded in the fall of 1987, and should not be changed. The internal secretary should require each SIG to submit to him (or her) a summary of its activities and a list of its current members every semester, the former document to ensure that the SIG isn't dormant, and the latter to ensure that it has at least five active members. If the SIG fails to meet this latter criterion, it "shall cease to exist as utterly and finally as did Czechoslovakia in 1939" which is to say until someone comes along, possibly at the head of the Red Army, and re-establishes it. SIGs may only limit their membership by interest they are forbidden to limit membership by race, sex, religion, age, handicap, or sexual orientation, and should be discouraged from limiting membership by nationality. A SIG may, however, concern itself with issues of race, gender, and so forth in sf. SIGs are also forbidden to constitute themselves as political organizations, though HRSFA's general members must decide what that means. A Space Issues SIG is probably acceptable; a Send Dan Quayle to Mars SIG is pushing it; and a Libertarian SIG is right out. More information on SIGs can be found in Chapter Three of Apocrypha HRSFAlogicæ. Article Seven Budgeting: There is little enough to say about this section of the constitution, apart from the fact that it is new (i.e. it was not included in previous versions of the HRSFA constitution). The purpose of the HRSFA budget is to regulate the treasurer's monetary requests to the Undergraduate Council, and to impose a certain measure of financial discipline on the SIGs and on Fusion magazine. HRSFA's general members may modify or add to their budget at any time during the school year, within the limits of the Association's bank account, by a majority vote of voting members. (For example, in May of 1992 HRSFA agreed to give SIGs matching funds of up to $40, with which to buy books, games, and other materials.) At budget meetings HRSFA must determine how much money is to be assigned to the treasurer as the "discretionary fund." The treasurer may spend this money without approval by other officers or by the general membership of HRSFA. The discretion-ary fund may range in value from $0 to all Association monies not specifically allotted by the UC. HRSFA's treasurer and members should stay apprised of grant making organizations on and off-campus other than the UC, and make use of them whenever possible. Also, the Association may want to change its budgeting schedule if the amount of UC grants to HRSFA declines to insignificance, or if the Undergraduate Council ever disbands. Article Eight Amendments: HRSFA has not amended its constitution in nearly four years at the time of this writing, preferring instead to scrap its old constitution and write a new one whenever a flaw appeared. I have already noted why I consider this an unwise practice, and why I think the amendment process should be used more often. By way of closing this exegesis, I will list a few constitutional changes that I believe should be made through the amendment process:
Postscript: The third HRSFA constitution is a confusing and rather jury-rigged document, and this textual commentary probably makes it more so not to mention more daunting. I would therefore ask any reader who has made it this far to consider two things:
Back to Index |