Rice Linux User Group Feed the Penguin!

Goals:

• Better protection of on-campus Linux boxes from external security threats.
• Promulgation of Linux resources on the Internet.
• Writing a How-To for Rice Linux Users.
• Increasing community awareness of Linux and other Open Source issues.

Linux User Group HOWTO

Officers:

President: Stephen Anthony
Vice-President: Greg Stoll
Treasurer: James McDougall
Secretary: none

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Ross Reedstrom

Constitution:

Article I: Name and Purpose

Article II: Membership

1. Members of the Rice community, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and spouses.
2. Individuals external to the direct Rice community but interested in participating.
3. Individuals whom the RLUG decides to extend Honorary Membership.

Members Rice of the community must comprise at least 50% of the total Membership.

Article III: Regular Meetings

No later than the second week of each academic semester, the officers shall determine a regular meeting schedule for the RLUG. Regular meetings shall occur at least once a month. Meetings shall be scheduled such that the largest number of potential members are able to attend, and the meeting schedule shall be posted on the club website.

Article III: Principal Officers and Responsibilities

1. The President of the RLUG shall organize and lead Regular Meetings, and is responsible for making sure that the other Principal Offiers are executing their responsibilites.
2. The Vice President shall assist the President in his/her duties and act as President in his/her absence. In addition, the Vice President is responsible for club fundraising, both by club activities and by soliciting donations from the membership.
3. The Secretary shall maintains the RLUG homepage, the announcements mailing list, and keeps a record of each meeting (including attendance) of the RLUG.
4. The Treasurer shall oversee RLUG finances and is the only officer who may directly spend RLUG money. The treasurer must attend all mandatory meetings required by the University.

Principal officers and spokespersons must be currently registered Rice students. It is the responsibility of the Principal Officers to register the club every year with the Student Association.

It is within the power of the Principal Officers to appoint special officers for explict tasks.

Article IV: Election of Officers

The Principal Officers for the next academic year shall be elected over the first two meetings of the month of April of the current year. This allows for a short period where the new officers can utilize the expertise of the outgoing officers. At the first meeting, officers nominations shall be taken and the closing date for officer nominations shall be set. At the close of officer nominations, all officer candidates will be given the option of posting a short blurb regarding their candidacy to the club website. At the second meeting, votes shall be tallied by any non-candidate outgoing Officers (or optionally a designate, if all current officers are candidates) and a date set for the cutoff of voting. All full members of the club are eligible to vote either in person or electronically, and a simple majority shall determine the new officer corps. In case of a tie, a second runoff election involving only the tied candidates shall be conducted.

In the case of a three-way elections, the "Roy Stogner Procedure" shall be observed: all ballots will include the option for a yes or no vote for each candidate, and ballots submitted without a vote for or against each candidate are considered invalid. The candidate with the largest number of "yes" votes wins. In case of a tie, the tied individuals are the candidates for a new round of elections. These new elections are either by a simple majority (two remaining candidates) or by the Roy Procedure (three or more remaining candidates).

Any officer may be impeached for dereliction of duty by a Motion raised by the remaining Principal Officers and ratified by a simple majority of the RLUG attending the next meeting after such a Motion is raised. No more than one Officer may be impeached at a meeting. Any officer who resigns or is impeached will be replaced by an appointment ratified by the remaining Principal Officers.

Voting membership is tracked by the club Secretary, who must have an email address to contact any member of the club. Members are encouraged to either have an account on the club server, or an email alias there. Membership is accomplished by sending a message to the club Secretary, and is maintained for each academic semester by any of the following actions:

• attending a majority of the previously held meetings in any academic semester (meeting attendance is tracked by the Secretary, as noted elsewhere)
• assisting at the Installfest (or equivalent large event) for a semester. Adequate level of assistance shall be determined by the officer or designate in charge of that event.
• a majority vote of the current membership to grant an exception to the above rules. This is intended to be an unusual provision, for instance in the case of schedule conflicts with the club's regular meeting time.

Voting membership is required to run for office, to vote for election of officers and for participating in club decision-making. Membership is revoked upon failure to fulfill any of the requirements for membership, although revocation is at the discretion of the Principal Officers and is not required to be exercised immediately. In the case of student members of the Rice community, the Secretary shall send them a message on their graduation asking whether they wish to remain members of the RLUG. If they do not reply in the positive, their club membership and any associated logins or email aliases shall be removed by the second week of the next academic semester.

Article V: Executive Descisons

Any RLUG action requiring the spending of RLUG money may be raised by any Member of the RLUG at any meeting and must be passed by a simple majority of those attending. Members that spend money at the explicit direction of the RLUG for a previously approved RLUG activity will be reimbursed by the Treasurer. Any other Executive Descison requiring a vote, must pass by simple majority of Members attending a meeting.

Article VI: Selecting a Faculty Sponsor

The RLUG must have a faculty/staff Sponsor that satisfies University requirements. The Sponsor must keep abreast of RLUG activities and to be ultimately responsible for providing year-to-year continuity of the RLUG.

Article VII: Amending the Constitution

Amendment of the RLUG Constitution is a three-stepped process that spans three meetings and must be completed within the same academic year. First, at any RLUG meeting a Motion to Amend may be raised by any member. The RLUG must wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting to take a prelimanary vote. If that vote passes by simple majority, than it must be taken a second time at another regular meeting. This second vote also requires a simple majority of those attending.

Any amendment to the Constitution, including negation or augmentation of any of the Articles, shall be enumerated in a seperate section called "Amendments" at the end of this Constitution. It is the duty of any RLUG officer to guarantee the historical continuity of this document altogether.

Article VIII: Additional Non-Principal Officers

These are officers of the club appointed by the Principal Officers and confirmed by the following procedure: the Officers shall announce their appointments at a regularly scheduled meeting upon filling these positions. If a simple majority of club members do not oppose the appointment either in person at the meeting or by email over the next week, the appointment shall stand.

Publicity Czar{ina}: responsibilities include publicizing club meetings and heading up publicity of the Installfests (along with the Installfest coordinator). This person is also responsible along with the Secretary for the contents of the club web pages, and should keep the internet and Linux community as a whole up to date with any relevant RLUG news.

Installfest Coordinator: this person is in charge of organizing, publicizing, and executing the once-per-semester RLUG Installfest.

RLUG Server BOFH: this person is the single point of contact for administration of the club server. Although the Principal Officers shall also have administrative privileges on the club server, the BOFH shall be primarily responsible for maintenance and security of the machine, and shall carry out any account maintenance as requested by the Principal Officers (in particular, the Secretary).