Constitution and Bylaws: I. Leadership. A. The Bridge Club is jointly run by the five executive members who share financial responsibility for it. Varying degrees of responsibility are associated with three different positions. B. PRESIDENT - The primary responsibility in all affairs falls to one officer, called the President. i) The President is an elected office, as outlined below. a) to attend and schedule all meetings of the bridge club, or designate some temporary substitute person(s) to run the events in his/her stead; b) to teach lessons to new bridge players for at least six hours per semester, or to find and designate someone capable and willing to do this in his/her stead; c) to advertise for games, meetings, lessons and tournaments; d) to make decisions as to what players should play competitively for Yale, and to establish a tournament for the purpose of determining this; e) to allocate the funds assigned to the Bridge club for the things outlined below. f) The President shall send weekly emails informing subscribers to the email list(s) (bridge-club@panlists.yale.edu and others) of meeting times and upcoming events. This shall also be used by the President to establish new events, such as tournaments, trips, or extra lessons. g) to keep records of bridge club expenditures and apply for funding with the assistance of the Vice President (if applicable). ii) CO-PRESIDENTS: In some circumstances, two members may share the role of President when this would advantageous to the club's organization, but then all decisions made must be unanimously by both co-presidents. a) If the co-presidents cannot come to a consensus about a major issue, such as who is to play on the team, how much money is to be spent on something or what times meetings should be held, the other executives vote to break the deadlock. b) If there is still a tie vote due to an abstention or absence, the majority vote of all Bridge Clubs members shall count as one vote. C. VICE-PRESIDENT (VP) - One of the five officers shall be a Vice President, who will act as a Treasurer and will run things in the President's absence by default (in other words, if the president does not designate someone else.) a) In practice, this means that the Vice President must approve major financial actions by the president, either orally or in writing. b) The president is ultimately responsible for keeping records and the spending of the club, but the Vice President will review the president's books. c) The Vice President IS authorized to make purchases under $30 per term of their own accord, unless expressly forbidden by the President. d) Also, the Vice President may assume a broader role, such as the designated teacher or officiator of certain weekly affairs if he/she and the president agree on such a system. e) In the event that there are co-presidents, there is no Vice President. D. MINOR (SUIT) EXECUTIVES - The other Executives/signatories, called the Minor Suit Executives, bear a personal responsibility for the club's financial actions, as per Yale's online agreement. a) Therefore, the executives have a right to, by unanimous vote, impeach the President(s), Vice President, or veto a given action, meeting, event, or purchase. b) They also are expected to attend at least six meetings per semester and be actively involved in the club, but bear no weekly or daily responsibility outside. e) All three Minor Suit Executives shall have posting privileges to the mailing list, but shall only use them occasionally or as directed. Membership in the Minor Suit Executives is obtained by volunteering and then being selected/confirmed by the President(s). If there are more than enough volunteers, they shall be selected by the President(s). f) Signatory 1 shall be known as Master-Chief. g) Signatory 2 shall be known as The Bookie. h) Signatory 3 shall be known as Donald/Ivana Notrump, depending on gender. i) The President(s) and Vice President (if applicable) have the right to amend the titles of these positions (items I.D.f/g/h) each year without consulting the Bridge Club at large. g) Items I.D.i and I.D.g override Article VI. II. ELECTIONS AND TERMS OF OFFICE - Bridge Club elections shall be held during the second week following Thanksgiving break. 1. ELECTION OF PRESIDENT(S) AND VICE PRESIDENT a) Nominations for candidates will be made by the President(s) and Vice President (if applicable) in consultation with each other and the candidates. Nominations will include whether the nomination is for President, Vice President, or both. i) Candidates must be Yale College undergraduates and must remain undergrads for their whole term. i) If anyone not nominated in this process wishes to run, he/she be nominated by any two bridge club members, which can include themselves. ii) Nominations will be made by the President(s) and Vice President (if applicable) at the beginning of the first week after Thanksgiving break. Nominations by other group members should be made during that week before the end of the day Saturday. b) Once candidates have been nominated, any two Presidential candidates may choose to run together as co-presidents at some time before elections begin. c) The major executive positions (President(s), VP) will be elected online, at once, using the bridge club's website at www.yale.edu/bridge. If the website is unavailable or not functioning, elections will be done by secret ballot at the second social game following the Thanksgiving break and nominations will be conducted via emails to the existing President. i) The president or pair of presidents who obtain the most votes win, and become the next president(s) until the following election. effective at the start of the next calendar year. In other words, on Jan 1st and 12:01AM. ii) If a pair of presidential candidates win, the election for Vice President becomes irrelevant. iii) If the winner of the Presidential election is a single person, then the winner of the Vice Presidential election becomes Vice President, unless the same person won both elections. iv) If there are no Vice Presidential candidates (or none left after Presidential elections), and there are Presidential candidates left who did not win, the President must offer them the choice to be V.P. in order of the number of votes they received (from most to least.) v) If no one in the election process wishes to be V.P, the President may appoint one from among members of the bridge club at his/her discretion. d) In the event that there is no president mid-term, the vice or co-president can choose to become the full president, or can organize an election of a new president, which shall happen at the earliest regularly scheduled meeting time. i) The new president need not be part of the previous executives, but if he/she is, that role must be filled by an appointee of the new President. 2. TERMS OF OFFICE - Terms of office are for one year, from Jan 1st until Dec. 31st of the same calendar year. a) Executives may be reelected as many times as they are supported during their time as Yale undergraduates, but as a consequence, a current senior cannot be elected as President. b) Control of the bank account and records must be passed on to the new President(s) and VP (if applicable) by the end of January. 3. CLAUSE FOR THE YEAR of 2005-2006 a) As a result of a transition in constitutions, the elections for the 2006 calendar year will be held at the Bridge Club on October 10th, 2005, and the electees' term of office will run from October 15th 2005 to Dec. 31st, 2006. They will be held in person, as the online election system is not yet in place. III. Money 1. The President has authority to use club funds to buy bridge supplies, food, instructional equipment, and to pay for transportation and tournament entry of a team. 2. He/She is obliged to spend money to meet the requests of the general membership (if they, for instance, want bidding boxes or bridge mix at meetings). 3. The Vice President may authorize money to be spent in the exact same way, except he/she cannot spend money on travel or plan tournaments without the President's authorization. There is a $30 per semester limit on the VP's spending without the President's authorization, and the President may also forbid or limit the amount of money the VP can spend. 4. Money shall be kept in the designated Bridge Club bank account, decided by the President(s) and VP (if applicable), currently at Wachovia. IV. Substitutes 1. If the President must be absent for a limited time or single meeting, the Vice-President may act as a temporary President. If the President is absent for more than one meeting, the VP may appoint a temporary VP. 2. The President is automatically impeached if he/she does not attend (or does not schedule) six consecutive meetings of the Bridge Club (where meeting is defined as a social game, duplicate event, or lesson), notified or not. The VP then becomes the full President and the appointed assistant VP becomes the new VP. V. Impeachment 1. If two people want to call for an impeachment of the President or Vice President, or both, they may do so by emailing the list calling for an impeachment vote. i) The vote will take place at the start of the next regular social meeting. ii) The nominators for impeachment may present their case in five minutes or less, and the President or VP may defend themselves for 5 minutes. iii) Both parties may use their time to have others speak their case. iv) After these 10 minutes, there will be a vote by secret ballot. v) If a 2/3 majority is obtained to remove, then the person is considered impeached. vi) Nominations for a new election for the impeached office must begin immediately, and an in-person vote will take place at the next social meeting to replace any missing offices. vii) Voting shall follow, in paper format, the system outline in Article II, with necessary modifications if only office is impeached. VI. Amending the Constitution 1. Only the President(s) and VP (if applicable) may amend the constitution, to take effect at the start of the next calendar year after their term is over. 2. The new constitution must be approved unanimously by the new Minor Suit Executives, and by a majority of bridge clubbers attending the meeting where it will be presented. i) A new constitution must be announced at least 24 hours before the meeting where it will be voted on will take place. ii) It should also be sent out to the email list at least 24 hours before the meeting. iii) Absentee ballots sent via email must be accepted. 3. CLAUSE FOR THE YEAR of 2005-2006 - This constitution will be announced, displayed, and voted on, along with an election, on the night of October 10th due to our pending renewal of registered Yale status.