Your school may have specific requirements for your constitution, so you should be sure to check with them. If you don't have any requirements beyond having a constitution, here are some elements that your constitution should probably have:
If your organization wants to create By-laws, which usually contain more fluid rules for the organization operations, it can be set up in a very similar way to the constitution, using Articles, sections and sub-sections. If you're using a set of By-laws, these will usually govern any kind of operational or procedural items, such as voting, campaigning, discipline procedures, impeachment procedures, meeting rules, and other such concepts. These are typically written into By-laws instead of the constitution because a constitution is generally harder to change than a By-law. Your org's restrictions on what is required to make these changes should be in the constitution.
- Your Organization's Official Name
- Statement of Purpose
- The make-up of Required officers in your organization (usually an odd number)
- How the officers will be elected or selected
- Affiliations with other organizations (like TAPS)
- Specifics on how meetings and voting will be handled (this can be in a set of by-laws, as well);
- requirements for membership.
If your organization wants to create By-laws, which usually contain more fluid rules for the organization operations, it can be set up in a very similar way to the constitution, using Articles, sections and sub-sections. If you're using a set of By-laws, these will usually govern any kind of operational or procedural items, such as voting, campaigning, discipline procedures, impeachment procedures, meeting rules, and other such concepts. These are typically written into By-laws instead of the constitution because a constitution is generally harder to change than a By-law. Your org's restrictions on what is required to make these changes should be in the constitution.
A few definitions:
Constitution - The governing document that defines how the organization's business will be conducted. Changes to the constitution should require a higher level of scrutiny
By-laws - Set of rules to help govern members and manage affairs. These are more flexible and can be member-led. Changes to the by-laws can be made easier than changes to the constitution.
Quorum - the total number / percentage of voting members that must be present for any voting to take place.
Simple Majority - Also simply called "majority" is half plus one of present members voting. So, if you have 10 members, 6 must vote positively for an item to be passed. If you have 11 members, you'd need 7. (11/2 = 5.5, so 6 is only .5 higher than half, therefore 7).
Constitution - The governing document that defines how the organization's business will be conducted. Changes to the constitution should require a higher level of scrutiny
By-laws - Set of rules to help govern members and manage affairs. These are more flexible and can be member-led. Changes to the by-laws can be made easier than changes to the constitution.
Quorum - the total number / percentage of voting members that must be present for any voting to take place.
- This may need to be a low number for general meetings, particularly if your members aren't always able to make it to meetings.
- 25% is an acceptable amount.
- You can also specify what types of voting require quorum. You may want your officer elections to require Quorum, and changes to your constitution should also require quorum, and possibly a 2/3 majority vote.
- Officer meetings should require a larger quorum than 25%. 75% or half plus one are reasonable.
Simple Majority - Also simply called "majority" is half plus one of present members voting. So, if you have 10 members, 6 must vote positively for an item to be passed. If you have 11 members, you'd need 7. (11/2 = 5.5, so 6 is only .5 higher than half, therefore 7).
- Often used for general voting procedures; not typically used for constitutional changes
Check out the document below to see the Texas State University constitution guidelines for an outline and format. This is several years old, but would still be a good jumping point.
| draft_constitution_guidelines.docx |