AVERY CONSTITUTION

UCC System Bylaws

Social Team System Bylaws

Room Picks Bylaws

Preamble

We, the undergraduates, graduate students, and resident faculty of Avery, in order to create a community that is open, fair, and diverse, that is supportive and encourages the pursuit of knowledge without fear of ridicule or peer pressure, and that is a gathering place for upright, creative, and tenacious people, do hereby ordain and establish this Constitution for the community of Avery.

Article I. Membership and Dues

Sec. 1 Membership in Avery may be established in the following ways:

1. Residency. Anyone living in Avery will automatically become a Member of Avery.
2. Membership Petition. Anyone not living in Avery wishing to become a Member may present the ExComm with a petition signed by ten Members of Avery. In exceptional circumstances, the ExComm reserves the right to deny Membership by a unanimous vote.

Sec. 2 The membership of Avery at any time is limited to current Residents and current students of Caltech.
Sec. 3 Non-resident Members wishing to drop their membership must notify the Secretary in writing. Membership is not automatically dropped by a Member terminating their residency in Avery if that person remains a current student of Caltech.
Sec. 4 Members of Avery will have the right to:

1. Attend subsidized Social Events,
2. Participate in the Avery internal housing lottery,
3. Vote on all matters put before the Avery Members.

Sec. 5 Dues will be determined by two-thirds referendum vote of Avery, as specified in Article III of this Constitution.

Article II. Officers

Sec. 1 The Officers of Avery consist of the Executive Committee of Avery and any other minor Officers as determined in Article II, Section 9. All Officers must be Members of Avery.
Sec. 2 Executive Committee of Avery

1. The executive power of Avery will be vested in an Executive Committee of Avery (ExComm). The duties of the ExComm will be to manage affairs involving Avery and to guide Avery in a direction beneficial to its Members. The Avery ExComm may take actions necessary and proper to carry these out with the intent of benefiting the majority of House Members.
2. The ExComm consists of the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Secretary, Social Director, and Athletic Manager. All Officers on the ExComm will be chosen by a selective vote of all Avery Members.
3. The ExComm may act only on behalf of the Members of Avery, from whom it derives its authority. The ExComm may not take any action contrary to the will of Avery at large, and ExComm actions may be overridden by referendum of the Members of Avery.

Sec. 3 Chancellor. No person will be Chancellor for more than two consecutive years. The Chancellor will:

1. Be a liaison between Members of Avery and organizations outside of Avery. This includes being Avery's delegate to the IHC if the Chancellor is an undergraduate; otherwise a separate selective election will be held among undergraduates for this position; and
2. Preside over House Meetings.

Sec. 4 Vice Chancellor. The Vice Chancellor will:

1. Assist the Secretary in organizing House meetings and preparing the agenda thereof;
2. Publicize and facilitate the process of voting, and to communicate the results of votes and other ExComm decisions to Members of Avery;
3. Conduct Roompicks;
4. Entertain concerns of Members about internal issues and affairs of Avery;
5. Be a signatory on the Avery bank account;
6. Keep a record of all expenditures of Avery;
7. Collect dues;
8. Provide reimbursements for Avery expenditures;
9. Assume responsibility for unforeseen house issues; and
10. Assume the responsibilities of the Chancellor while the Chancellor is unable to perform his or her duties.

Sec. 5 Secretary. The Secretary will:

1. Maintain and publish a list of the current Members of Avery on the Avery website;
2. Maintain email lists;
3. Record minutes of Avery House Meetings, e-mail them to the all Avery Members, and publish them on the Avery website;
4. Publish this Constitution on the Avery website; and
5. Record and tabulate the results of all votes made by the ExComm or Avery House.

Sec. 6 Social Director. The Social Director will:

1. Be responsible for regularly updating the House on Social Team activities and expenditures; and
2. Organize and preside over Social Team meetings, approve Social Team decisions or defer them to the ExComm, and monitor the Social Team budget.

Sec. 7 Athletics Manager. The Athletic Manager will:

1. Organize Avery teams for interhouse sports;
2. Maintain the Avery Ath list; and
3. Be responsible for any tasks delegated by the IHC Ath Man.

Sec. 8 Social Team and Athletics Team. The operation and constitution of the Social Team and Athletics Team will be specified in the Avery bylaws.
Sec. 9 The ExComm may create minor offices by delineating their selection and duties in the bylaws. All ExComm Officers may delegate tasks to other Officers, the Social Team, and the Athletics Team
Sec. 10 Upperclass Counselors (UCCs). UCCs will provide support and counseling to Members of Avery.
Sec. 11 Removal. Any Officer may at any time be subjected to a vote of no confidence. If an Officer is removed, he or she will be replaced using the processes described in Article II, Section 2 immediately. If there are no Officers to facilitate elections, the Resident Associates will perform this duty.

Article III. Voting and Elections

Sec. 1 Elections will be held during the second term for all Officer positions. The ExComm will be elected in a separate election before the election of the other Officers. The specific day will be chosen by the ExComm.
Sec. 2 A quorum of the Members of Avery is defined to be at least one half of the population of Residents. No vote of any type will be considered valid without a quorum.
Sec. 3 A referendum is defined as a vote with three options: yes, no and abstain. A referendum is passed if there are more yes votes than no votes; a two-thirds referendum is passed if there are at least twice as many yes votes as no votes.
Sec. 4 A selective vote is defined as a vote with multiple choices. For each selective vote, a voter will rank the choices in order of descending preference, with rank one being the most preferred. For each rank, the voter may select one of the choices on the ballot, may write in a choice not already on the ballot, or may leave the rank blank. There will also be a choice for NO, but that may only be ranked first if desired. A ballot conforming to these guidelines will be considered correctly cast. The winner of a selective vote is declared as follows:

1. Ballots are counted according to first rank votes. If one choice gets a majority of the votes then it wins. If NO gets a majority of the votes, than that vote is considered invalid.
2. If no winner has been declared, the choice with the fewest votes will be eliminated, and each of that choice's ballots will be redistributed among the choices by the next available choice ranked. This process will be repeated until one choice gets a majority of the votes.
3. Ties among last place choices will be resolved by the following process: the votes of one of the tied choices will be redistributed, and the count process continued until a potential winner is found. This will be repeated for each of the other tied choices, until all such potential winners are found. If the same choice emerges as the potential winner in all cases, then that choice is declared the winner. If no consensus is found, then all correctly cast ballots will be reorganized and counted according to preferences for only the potential winners, using the procedure outlined above, and the choice receiving an absolute majority of the votes will be declared the winner. If a tie occurs among all remaining choices, the vote will be ruled indeterminate, and another vote will be held at the earliest possible opportunity.

Sec. 5 A vote of no confidence against an Officer of Avery may be brought before the Members according to the process set forth in Section 6 of this article, for negligence of their duties as set forth in this Constitution. If the vote of no confidence is confirmed by a two thirds referendum vote of the Members, the Officer's position is immediately revoked.
Sec. 6 Votes are brought before the Members of Avery in the following circumstances:

1. The Avery ExComm decides that a vote should be brought before the Members; or
2. A petition for a vote is made by 20% of the Members and presented to the Vice Chancellor or the Secretary at least seven days before the vote is to occur. The date and method of the vote must be specified in the petition, but the method is limited to one specified in this Constitution.

Sec. 7 The voting period on any vote brought before House Members will be specified by the ExComm or petition bringing forth the vote, but may not be more than 72 hours. The motion or petition must also specify whether and how the voting period may be extended in the case that a quorum is not reached; but in no case may the total period of voting exceed the 72-hour maximum.
Sec. 8 The vote will be publicized using appropriate means by the Vice Chancellor beginning a minimum of four days prior to the start of the voting period. Absentee ballots will be made available by the Vice Chancellor and the Secretary to any Members who wish to vote but are unable to be present during the voting period.
Sec. 9 All votes will be conducted by secret ballot, and each Member of Avery may cast one ballot in each vote. Votes may be cast at Avery meetings of all Members, via Internet, via a ballot box placed in a public area of Avery, or by direct presentation to the elections committee.
Sec. 10 An elections committee composed of the Secretary and one Resident Associate will be responsible for the collection and tabulation of all votes, regardless of the method by which the votes are cast.

Article IV. Room Picks

Sec. 1 Only Avery Members who have held Membership for an appropriate interval prior to the due date of the internal lottery forms may participate in internal room picks. This interval shall be determined by the ExComm with guidance from the Room Picks Bylaws.
Sec. 2 The Vice Chancellor will conduct an internal picks procedure for undergraduate rooms, in a timely manner before the campus unaffiliated lottery as per Avery bylaws.
Sec. 3 If any undergraduate spot will become vacant during the course of the academic year, it will be filled in an appropriate way as determined by the Avery bylaws.
Sec. 4 The Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Secretary, Social Director, and Athletics Manager (but not any other Officers) will be guaranteed a room during the Avery internal lottery, but will be given no further privileges for room picks. However, no one not enumerated in this Constitution will be guaranteed a room.

Article V. Relations and Limitations

Sec. 1 The Avery ExComm and all other Avery Officers derive their authority from the Members of Avery. All powers not granted in this Constitution are reserved by the people.
Sec. 2 Neither the Administration nor any other outside body may force the clauses of this Constitution to be violated, nor may they induce others to relinquish the rights granted in this Constitution. The Avery ExComm and other Officers must not be forced to partake in any action contrary to its will, binding arbitration and court action excepted.

Article VI. Amendments and Conditions

Sec. 1 All amendments to this Constitution will be proposed as stipulated in Article III, Section 6, and will be approved by a two-thirds referendum vote of the Members of Avery. Any amendment made to this Constitution will take effect immediately upon passage, but will not have retroactive effects of any kind. It is the responsibility of the Secretary, upon the passage of a Constitutional amendment, to promptly post the amended Constitution in a publicly accessible location.
Sec. 2 Any matters not directly resolved by this Constitution will be resolved either by the ExComm or by a vote of the Members of Avery, depending on the import of the matter in question.
Sec. 3 This Constitution will take effect immediately upon ratification by two-thirds referendum vote of the Members of Avery, which must include two-thirds of all undergraduate and two-thirds of all graduate students voting.