College of Asia and the Pacific Students’ Society Constitution
(as of 2022 June OGM)
Table of Divisions
Division 1 – Establishment
- Reference
- Interpretation of Terminology
- Objectives
- Amending the Constitution
Division 2 – Membership
- Membership
- The Committee
- Conflicts of Interest
Division 3 – Meetings
- Meetings in General
- Meetings of the Executive/Committee
- Ordinary General Meetings (OGM)
- Annual General Meeting (AGM)
- Special General Meeting
Division 4 – Elections
- Elections in General
- Election Process
Division 5 – Financial Procedures
- Financial Procedures
Division 6 – Dissolution
16. Dissolution
Appendix A – Committee Structure
Division 1 – Establishment
- Reference
1.1 This established association is known as The Australian National University College of Asia and the Pacific Students’ Society (CAPSS) herewith referred to as the ‘Society’, for the purposes of this document.
- Interpretation of Terminology
2.1. Terminology is as follows, unless explicitly stated otherwise,
- ‘ANU’ refers to The Australian National University;
- ‘College’ refers to The College of Asia and the Pacific;
- ‘Committee’ refers to the officer bearers of elected positions of the Committee body of the Society as per Section 6;
- ‘Financial Year’ begins 1 July and ends 30 June;
- ‘Meetings called by the Committee’ refers to an annual general meeting (‘AGM’), or any other meeting as called by the Committee open to all members of the Society where votes are cast;
- ‘Members’ refers to those current fee-paying members of the Society;
- ‘Meetings of the Committee’ refers to Meetings between the Committee for the purpose of discussing operations of the Society;
- ‘Regulations’ refers to the regulations contained in this document;
- ‘Association’ refers to the Australian National University Students Association (ANUSA).
2.2 Any interpretation of the constitution or the resolution of any dispute under it may be appealed to the Association Clubs Council Secretary. The decision of the Clubs Council Secretary may be appealed by the means set out in the constitution and regulations of the Association.
- Objectives
3.1. The Objectives of this Society are to:
- Promote and foster knowledge, awareness and opportunities – both academic and professional – within Asian and Pacific Studies, to its members, the ANU community, and the wider community generally, through communal events, and other activities.
- Bring together students, scholars, former students, former scholars and relevant groups and associations related to the fields of Asia and Pacific Studies for the purposes defined in 3.1.a.
3.2. The assets and the income of the Society must be applied exclusively to the promotion of its objects and no portion will be paid or distributed directly or indirectly to members except for expenses incurred on behalf of the Society.
3.3. This Society is a representative organisation and represents the students of the College of Asia and Pacific.
4. Amending the Constitution
a) This Constitution may be amended by a resolution carried by a two-thirds majority of fee-paying members present and voting at a General Meeting of the Society in concurrence with a majority vote from the Committee.
- Minor or non-substantial amendments to this Constitution may be made by a majority vote of the Committee. Any amendment made under this clause is subject to confirmation at the following AGM.
- A quorum for a vote held under this clause is two-thirds of the Committee.
b) No amendments to this constitution shall be validly enacted except where the Clubs Council Committee is given notice by email of the amendment at least five (5) days prior to the moving of the amendment. The email shall request an interpretation as to whether the proposed amendment will affect the continued eligibility of the club for re-affiliation.
Division 2 – Membership
- Membership
5.1. Eligibility for membership of the Society
- General membership will be open to all interested individuals at a reasonable price set by the Committee no later than February 1 each calendar year.
- Membership will be open to all members of the Association and PARSA.
- The fee for general membership for members of the Association and PARSA will not be greater than $20.
- Membership of the Society ceases on the first academic date of each calendar year, as set by ANU.
- Applies to the Committee, except where provisions are made at Meetings relating to office duties in the interim academic and teaching period for the provision of continued operation of the Society.
- No other class of membership exists.
6. The Committee
6.1. The Committee shall consist of the Executive (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer), the wider Committee (Marketing Director, Careers Director, Education Director, Social Director) and the representative body (Social, Education, Marketing, and Careers Representatives), structured as follows (see Appendix A):
6.2 Roles and Responsibilities:
- President: Responsibilities include general direction and leadership of the Society, coordination of Committee members, delegating as appropriate, representing the Society, holding petty cash, chairing meetings and ensuring the sustainability of the Society. The President is also a co-signatory to the Society’s bank account(s), with the Vice-President and Treasurer, acting as Trustee. The President shall have all powers given in this constitution and may do any tasks necessary to achieve responsibilities and the objects of the Society as per clause 3.1.
- Vice President: Responsibilities are to assist the President in all duties, preside at any Committee meetings where the President is unable to attend and take the minutes if the Secretary is unable to attend. The Vice-President is also a co-signatory on the Society’s bank account(s), with the Treasurer and President, acting as Trustee. The Vice-President is also responsible for liaising with and maintaining relationships between Asia-Pacific related clubs, faculty representatives and faculty members.
- Secretary: The Secretary is the legal officer for the Society and interprets the Constitution Responsibilities include assisting the President generally, internal administration of the Society, maintaining membership and email lists, representing the Society where the relevant officer is unable to do so, setting agendas and taking minutes of Meetings, and delegating such tasks from time to time. The Secretary sits de facto as the Society’s representative to the Clubs Council but may delegate this task at the beginning of the year.
- Treasurer: Responsibilities include ensuring the ongoing financial solvency of the Society, keeping accurate financial records, managing the Society’s bank account(s) (with the President and Vice-President as co-signatories), acting as Trustee, representing the Society regarding grants and other financial matters, and creating budgets for events as necessary.
- Marketing Director: Responsibilities include management of Marketing Representatives, and the maintenance of Social Media, the Website and email inbox. The Marketing Director is also responsible for promotion of social and education events in conjunction with the Social and Education Directors, including, but not limited to printing and distributing relevant posters and other non-electronic media. Additionally, the Marketing Director serves to assist the CAPSS Committee with cross-society interactions, as well as spearheading communications with the College and the ANU.
- Education Director: The Education Director is primarily responsible for managing the Education Representatives, and indirectly for all educational and advocacy events held throughout the year, including organising Education Representatives in proposing, planning, and assisting the Marketing Director with publicity, executing events, delegating tasks as necessary and working with the Vice-President to organise inter-society events. The Education Director strives to represent multiple segments of the CAPSS Community through fostering a series of diverse and insightful events.
- Social Director: The Social Director is primarily responsible for organising the Social Representatives, and indirectly all social events including but not limited to Committee bonding nights, CAP Ball, and other open Society events. Responsibilities include assisting Social Representatives with proposing, planning, and assisting the Marketing Director with publicity, executing events, delegating tasks as necessary and working with the Vice-President to organise inter-society events.
- Careers Director: The Careers Director is primarily responsible for organising the Careers Representatives, and indirectly all career events. This includes, but is not limited to, proposing, planning, and assisting the Marketing Director with publicity, executing events, delegating tasks to representatives as necessary, and working with the President and Vice President to organise and maintain partnerships with institutions and organisations often external to the ANU.
6.2. Upon election, the precise responsibilities of each role are determined by the Committee.
6.3. Committee members of the Society must pursue and not breach the Objectives as outlined in section 3.
6.4. Members of the Committee must be fee-paying members of the Society and full or part-time students of the ANU at the time they are elected.
6.5. Removal from Office
a) A Committee member may only be removed from office if:
- The member has wilfully acted in a fashion contrary to the Constitution including but not confined to the Objectives of the society as outlined in Section 3.
- The member has manifestly failed to fulfil their obligations under the Constitution and Regulations.
b) A Committee member must be removed from office if a resolution is carried by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting at a meeting of the Committee stating that they must be removed from office because of behaviour mentioned in 6.5. a) i.
6.6. Casual Vacancy
- In the event of a casual vacancy, caused by resignation, removal or otherwise the Committee must inform all fee-paying members of the vacancy within seven days.
- Nominations shall be set for a time chosen by simple resolution of the Committee.
- Upon close of nomination, the Committee must convene within seven days to appoint a nominee by general resolution.
6.7 The Representatives
- Eleven (11) Representatives shall be duly appointed by preferential vote from the committee, and shall be each given one of the following roles.
- Nominations shall be set for a time chosen by simple resolution of the Committee.
- Upon close of nomination, the Committee must convene within seven days to appoint up to 11 nominees by general resolution.
- The makeup of the representative body will be as follows:
i) Up to 3 Social Representatives
ii) Up to 3 Education Representatives
iii) Up to 3 Careers Representatives
iv) Up to 2 Marketing Representatives
7. Conflicts of Interest
7.1. Conflicts of Interest
- Committee members who hold positions on other ANU Clubs or Societies must declare this as a conflict of interest to the Committee within seven days of taking up this position or upon nomination for a position on the Committee.
- Informed consent must be sought by two-thirds of the Committee or else the member must renounce their position.
- Committee members must declare all other conflicts of interest that may influence their ability to participate in the Society and fulfil their responsibilities as outlined in Section 6.
Division 3 – Meetings
- Meetings in General
8.1. A meeting can be:
- a meeting of the Committee; or
- a meeting of the Executive; or
- a meeting between a Director and their portfolio representatives; or
- an Ordinary General Meeting (OGM); or
- an Annual General Meeting (AGM); or
- a Special General Meeting.
8.2 Any resolution of a quorate General Meeting binds all members of the Committee to the extent that the resolution directly relates to their activities as a member of the Committee of the Society.
8.3. If a member is absent from a meeting, they can inform the Secretary of a proxy of their choosing.
8.4. The President is the chair of a general meeting. Where unavailable, the Vice-President will chair meetings in their absence.
8.5. The chair has a deliberate and casting vote.
8.6. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in this document, decisions of a General Meeting are passed by a simple majority of full members present in person who cast a vote.
- Meeting of the Executive or Committee
9.1 Executive or Committee meetings shall be convened at a time and place determined by the Executive or Committee respectively.
9.2 If an Executive or Committee member misses three Executive or Committee Meetings, without providing at least 24 hours prior notice and good reason, such good reason as is determined by a majority vote of the Executive or Committee present at each meeting in question, that Executive or Committee member is deemed to have renounced their position.
9.3 In the event that any Committee member is deemed to have renounced their position as per 9.2, the position will become a casual vacancy and shall be filled in accordance with Section 6.6.
- Ordinary General Meeting (OGM)
10.1. An Ordinary General Meeting of the Society may be convened no more than four times during each teaching period of the academic year at the discretion of the Committee.
10.2 Notice for an Ordinary General Meeting is 2 weeks.
10.3 Notice for an Ordinary General Meeting must be published by the Society Facebook Page and emailed to all paying members of the relevant year.
10.4 The Agenda for an Ordinary General Meeting must be published in the same way as the Notice within 72 hours (3 days) of the Ordinary General Meeting for ordinary items of business, or 120 hours (5 days) for any amendments to the Constitution of the Society.
10.5 Quorum for an Ordinary General Meeting is 10 members of the Society of which a minimum of 4 must be non-Committee members.
11 Annual General Meeting (AGM)
11.1 An Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society is to be held at least once each year, not more than 14 months after the previous AGM of the Society, at which the members of the Committee of the Society are to be elected, and an Annual Report, statements of income and expenditure, and a current balance sheet are to be presented by the outgoing Committee.
- The Returning Officer is responsible for announcing and advertising the AGM, receiving nominations and drawing ballot papers, vote-counting and providing the results to the President.
- The Returning Officer is to be the Secretary, unless there is a conflict of interest where the Secretary intends to nominate for a position in the next Committee. In this instance, the Returning Officer shall be appointed by a two-thirds majority of the incumbent Committee.
11.2 A quorum for an AGM is 15 members.
11.3 The AGM must adhere to the same rules of Notice and Agenda as the Ordinary General Meeting (10.2-10.4)
- Special General Meeting
12.1 A Special General Meeting must be called by the Committee within 7-14 days of being presented with a petition signed by 20 fee-paying members of the Society setting out the purpose for which such a meeting is requested, or by request of two-thirds of the Committee.
12.2 Aside from the way in which the meeting is called, the Special General Meeting must adhere to the same rules of Notice, Agenda and Quorum as an Ordinary General Meeting.
Division 4 – Elections
- Elections in General
13.1. Elections are to be held at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) with the exception of the election of First Year Representatives.
- Election Process
Nomination
14.1. Nominations for any election must be in writing and be given to the President, Vice-President or Secretary before the close of nominations.
- The close of nominations shall be at 9am on the day preceding the AGM, or for representative roles the publicly provided cut off date.
14.2 Nominations open 7 days before the close of nominations.
14.3 All members are eligible to run for any Committee position provided they had purchased membership prior to the closing of nominations. Candidates who have purchased membership but have not fulfilled the requirements in 14.7 may not vote in the election.
14.4 In the event that a Committee position has no candidates following the close of nominations, nominations may be taken from the floor for that specific position.
14.5 All candidates shall be given an opportunity to speak at a length determined by a general resolution of the AGM. Candidates who are not present may select a proxy to deliver a speech on their behalf.
Voting
14.6. The Committee members are elected during an AGM by a majority agreement amongst the Society’s Members who are eligible to vote.
14.7 To be eligible to vote in the election of the Committee, members must meet the following conditions:
- they must have been members for at least one week prior to the AGM; and
- they must have attended at least one event organised by the Society in the current year, not including the CAP Ball, at the Returning Officer’s discretion.
14.8 The Voting Process is as follows:
- Voting is conducted via blind optional preferential ballot, collected and counted by the Returning Officer.
- Each Candidate may request a scrutineer to oversee the Returning Officer during the counting of votes.
- Where a vote is tied, a revote will take place.
- If after three rounds of voting, no candidate is declared a winner, the position will be re-opened as a casual vacancy as per Section 6.6 of this Constitution.
14.9 Re-Opening Nominations
- ‘Re-open Nominations’ or ‘RON’ is a candidate in all elections. Should RON win an election, no-one shall be elected to the position and the position shall be re-opened as a casual vacancy as per Section 6.6. of this Constitution
- Until the position is filled, the duties of the role will be distributed amongst the remaining members of the Committee.
14.10 Failure to elect a Committee:
- Where all or a majority of the Committee or Trustee positions are not filled at a general meeting, the Clubs Council may appoint the remaining positions on an interim basis or dissolve the Society.
- The Society shall, as soon as is practicable, hold another general meeting at which the positions filled by the Clubs Council shall be filled by election or dissolve the Society.
- Upon failure to elect a majority of Committee positions at the general meeting, not inclusive of those filled by Clubs Council, the Society shall be dissolved.”
Division 5 – Financial Procedures
- Procedures
15.1. Records Keeping
- The Committee is responsible for the safe and proper storage of its records. This involves the Secretary holding responsibility for the management of records, emails, agendas and minutes and any other documents relevant to the Society.
- The Treasurer holds the responsibility for the management of financial records and bookkeeping which is to be kept up to date and can be accessed by ANU Student’s Association upon request.
- The Committee must make the records available at any time to the ANU Students Association Grants and Affiliations Committee.
15.2. Affiliation
- The Society is affiliated to the Clubs Council of the ANU Student’s Association and anything in this Constitution which is inconsistent with the ANU Student’s Association Clubs Regulations and Policies is null and void to the extent of that inconsistency.
- The Society must fulfil its obligations under the Association’s Clubs Regulations and Policies.
15.3. Non-profit
a) The assets and income of the Society shall be used only for the promotion of the Society’s objectives and no portion may be paid or transferred directly or indirectly to members of the Society except as:
- Bona-fide remuneration for services rendered by the members to the Society,
- Repayment of expenses incurred on behalf of the Society,
- Interest at a rate not exceeding interest at the rate for the time being which is or would be charged by the Society’s bankers for money lent to the Society, and
- Bona-fide rent for premises lent to the Society.
15.4. Integrity
- The assets and the income of the Society must be applied exclusively to the promotion of its objectives and no portion will be paid or distributed directly or indirectly to members except for expenses incurred on behalf of the Society.
15.5. Disaffiliation
- Upon dissolution, disaffiliation or failure to re-affiliate by the end of the first teaching period, any net assets, property, funds or money shall not be distributed among the members but shall be given or transferred to the ANU Students’ Association except for those sourced by means other than Clubs Council grants in the current and previous calendar year. The proprietary interest of the ANU Students’ Association arises at the point that the Club is no longer affiliated.
Division 6 – Dissolution
- Dissolution
16.1. The Society can be dissolved by:
- A decision of two-thirds of membership at a general meeting
- When the Society ceases to operate due to no members being elected to the Committee positions or appointed by the Clubs Council Executive.
- When the Society ceases to function through natural attrition.
16.2 In the case of the Society being dissolved, any excess assets, property, funds or money remaining after all debts and liabilities are paid shall not be given to members but shall be given or transferred to the ANU Student’s Association.
Appendix A – Committee Structure