Crazy Awesome Food & Entertainment (CAFE-GMU)
Drafted on: 2010-08-23, 2nd draft 2010-08-25, 3rd draft 2010-09-1
Article One Name of Organization
- The name of this organization shall be “Crazy Awesome Food & Entertainment.” It shall be known by the acronym “CAFE-GMU.”
Article Two Purpose of Organization
- To encourage the GMU community to learn to cook well. Goals include:
- Teaching students how to cook things within their time, budget, and tool constraints
- Food appreciation
- Teaching safe food handling practices and healthy eating
- Generally improving everyone’s cooking ability
- Bringing the GMU community closer together through Food & Entertainment
Article Three Membership
- Membership in this organization will not be restricted on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, sex or age.
- Anyone may become a member, with preference given to currently-enrolled GMU students
- Membership is a privilege and not a right, and may be revoked at any time for any reason by a simple majority of the officers
- All active members must be currently enrolled GMU students with a minimum academic achievement record defined as a cumulative grade point average of at least a 2.0.
- There are four types of memberships available:
- Active, associate, food-lover, and honorary
- There are two types of active members: active-chefs are expected to have some cooking ability and are expected to lead the cooking. Active-apprentices are members who are interested in learning to cook. Only active members may vote on matters (official or not) including amendments, elections, and other motions brought forth in meetings.
- Associate members may include GMU faculty/staff, community members or students from other schools. Associates may participate as active members or food-lovers but may not vote.
- Food-lover members have no interest in cooking but enjoy eating. They shall support the organization by contributing ingredients, supplies, pleasant company, etc. Any member may contribute similarly, but this shall be a food-lovers’ primary support role.
- Honorary members can be anyone, especially GMU alumni or community members. Typical reasons for becoming an honorary member are: graduating from GMU yet remaining a boon to the organization, or lending one’s name/prestige to the organization (for example, a well known local chef or celebrity). Honorary members may contribute in any capacity, especially advisory, but may not vote.
- Membership shall be granted as follows:
- Active members and associate members may be nominated by any member but must be confirmed by a simple majority of the officers. Cooking ability or interest should be a major factor in the decision.
- Food-lover members may be nominated by any member but must be confirmed by one or more officers
- honorary members may be nominated by any member but must be confirmed by two or more officers
Article Four Officers
- There shall be five officer roles which may be assigned to fewer than five individual, should there be too few candidates to fill all five roles: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Foodie.
- There shall be a maximum of eight individuals assigned officer roles and a minimum of three individuals as officers.
- If more than five individuals wish to be officers, the remaining shall be assigned the title Vice-President with a CxO specialization designation (for example, a “Chief Networking Officer” might be responsible for social networking with other GMU organizations) and shall report to the primary Vice-President who will then take the title of “Executive Vice President.”
- Primary roles of officers are as follows:
- The President is expected to lead, organize, and motivate the organization. Leading by example is preferred, with the President expected to set a high standard for others. S/he shall be tie-breaker for any votes except votes requiring a simple majority of the officers.
- Vice-Presidents may specialize in any leadership areas that benefit the organization, such as marketing, networking, recruiting, strategy, rules-compliance, etc. The Executive Vice President is expected to take on Presidential duties if the President is unable.
- Treasurer is in charge of keeping the books, becoming familiar with the GMU/Student-Finding-Board policies, and shall be aware of the financial standing of the organization at all times.
- Secretary‘s role is to keep the officers, active members, and other members informed of the goings-on of the organization, especially what happens during meetings / votes.
- Foodie must love food and possess infectious enthusiasm for the organization, in addition to group-promotional abilities to be used to the organization’s benefit. A strong, large network of friends is encouraged.
- The chain of command, if needed, shall be: President, EVP, VPs, Treasurer, Secretary, Foodie.
- There shall be no “class-standing” restriction placed on officers, nor a GPA restriction, but officers must demonstrate as many of the following qualities as possible: mental and emotional maturity, reliability and trustworthiness, leadership, integrity, thoughtfulness, resourcefulness and an ability to follow through on commitments
- An officer shall commit to their position one semester at a time, with a 1-year term limit on any position. The term-limits can be waived on a per-semester basis in extenuating circumstances (for example, to ensure the survival of the organization if there are not enough candidates that semester)
- An officer may be removed from his/her duties at any time if they demonstrate extremely poor judgment or negligence. In less serious situations, an officer’s position may be revoked at the end of the semester (before their 1-year term limit is reached). Any action to remove an officer requires a unanimous vote from the other officers or a supermajority of the active members.
Advisor
- The primary advisor shall be a member of the faculty or staff at George Mason University.
- The advisor will be selected from a pool of candidates generated by the officers of the Organization. The advisor must be a friendly, responsible individual who can be trusted to perform their duties in a timely manner.
- An advisor may be removed for any reason at any time
- The advisor may offer guidance and support for the organization, but MAY NOT have a vote
Article Five Elections
- Elections will take place in March, with certain flexibility based on situational circumstances.
- Officer nominations for elections will be presented by blind ballot in late February. Should there be more than one nomination for each individual position; existing officers will decide how to manage the situation on a case-by-case basis with consideration for qualification and history of dedication to CAFÉ GMU’s previous endeavors.
Article Six Meetings
- Meetings shall be held monthly with certain flexibility allowed for more or less frequent meetings depending on necessity, at the President’s discretion.
- Of the officers present, the chain of command determines who presides over the meeting by default. The presiding officer may pass their responsibility at any meeting to a different willing officer if they wish.
- The executive board (all the officers) may meet with any frequency at any time.
- There shall be no attendance policy, except during “important” meetings/votes.
- Any officer may declare a meeting “important.”
- Attendance is encouraged but not required at non-important meetings.
- Officers/active-members who wish to vote during non-important meetings may cast their vote after-the-fact (in a reasonable amount of time; 24hrs to 1week at most) via email/social-networking-website/Instant-Message-chat/etc as long as members are adequately informed in an un-biased manner of what the vote is about.
- There shall be no requirement for a quorum for in-person meetings except for “important” meetings, where the quorum shall be at 50% of the officers in the case of an executive board meeting, or 2 officers + 50% of the active members in the case of a general meeting/vote.
- Meetings should be scheduled by first suggesting a topic, date/time/place to the officers. If there are no objections, any officer may inform members of the decided-upon meeting time/date/place. A different strategy may be used to ensure higher attendance by polling all members about potential meeting times/dates/places to see which option has the fewest objections, before deciding on a final meeting place and date/time.
- Parliamentary rules of order that will be used are the latest edition of Robert’s Rules of Order if-and-only-if the officers wish to practice this formal method at any particular meeting. Informal meetings are also acceptable.
Article Seven Finance
- The primary goal is to gather as much money as possible so that the organization can spend it wisely toward the purpose of the organization.
- The default funding policy shall be:
- Use GMU Student-Funding-Board funds as primary income
- Use bake sales and similar food sales/events as secondary sources of income
- Dues shall not be required. If dues could increases available funds, officers may meet and set dues-guidelines for that semester.
- All changes to the funding policy must be made by the Last Day to Drop Classes Without Tuition Penalty in a given semester.
- Finance policies may be changed on a semester-by-semester basis with the intent of maximizing available funds. A super-majority of the officers is required to change the funding policy for each semester.
Article Eight Amendments
- Amendments to the Constitution may be proposed by any member, but must be ratified by a simple majority of the active members AND by a super-majority of the officers
- The Office of Student Activities must review all amendments in the same manner as a completely new constitution.
Article Nine Ratification
- This constitution shall become effective upon approval by a ¾ vote of the membership, the Council of Student Umbrellas and the Director of Student Activities.