Article I Name, Purpose, and Mission Statement
Section I: The official name of this organization shall be Pride!
Alliance.
Section II: The organization shall operate as a non-profit organization.
Section III: The organization shall abide by the applicable policies and procedures of ASUSU and USU student code.
Section IV: The mission statement shall be: To provide a safe meeting place and support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, community members, and their allies; and to promote the acceptance and understanding of diversity through education.
Article II Membership
Section I: Membership is open to any individual regardless of gender, race, creed, color, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Section II: Categories of Membership
a) Member in good standing: can vote, run for office, propose legislation, be on committees, attend events and nominate other members in good standing for office.
b) Attending member: can voice comments and concerns; and attend events but have to make contribution, if contributions add up to dues then standing will increase to member in good standing.
Section III: How to become a member
a) Member in good standing: pay dues that are decided upon by the board before the first meeting and sent out to the list serve.
b) Attending member: is a person who is present at a Pride Alliance meeting.
c) Pride Alliance will follow an open membership policy (no disclosure of name or other personal information necessary for membership) in order to safeguard the privacy of members and/or attendees.
Section IV: Members must uphold the mission statement and create a safe and inclusive environment. If a member patently, chronically and publicly defames another member and/or makes unreasonable disregard for the progress of Pride and it’s mission statement within Pride meetings, a Pride board member can officially reprimand the individual and can move to request the individual be removed from said meeting. Removal from the meeting will be granted only after unanimous consensus from all board members in attendance. The individual can return upon a discussion with one board member. If reprimanded individual’s behavior is present in subsequent meetings then a board member can move to vote on the reprimanded individual’s expulsion. Members in good standing will vote and must have 2/3 in favor in order to remove the individual. Reprimanded individuals will be given appropriate time consideration to address the alliance.
Section V: No violence will be tolerated between members in Pride! Meetings. If an individual(s) participate(s) in an act of violence at a Pride! Alliance function a board member can officially reprimand the individual(s) and move to have a vote among the Members in Good Standing regarding the expulsion of the reprimanded individual. Expulsion will require a 2/3 majority in favor of the expulsion. Reprimanded individuals will be given appropriate time consideration to address the alliance.
Article III Organizational Structure
Section I: Pride! Alliance will serve as an umbrella organization over any number of sub-organizations. These sub-organizations must be approved by the executive board and must support and function the goals of Pride! Alliance and its mission statement.
Section II: Officers: An Executive Board consisting of one representative from each sub-organization and 3 other positions shall be elected from the membership of Pride! Alliance. The board will consist of:
A) One representative from each sub-organization under Pride! Alliance whose titles will be named by the Pride! Alliance. Duties of this position are as follows:
1.Act as an ambassador to his or her own sub-organization as well as hold key positions in the Pride! governing board.
2. There currently must be at least two people to fill this position.
3. Organize Panels
4. Act as Pride! Alliance ambassadors to CSCO
b) Treasurer/Secretary: can be representative from any sub-organization
1. Secretarial duties are as follows:
a. Keeping minutes of board meetings
b. Keeping minutes of Pride! Alliance meetings
c. Handling any CSCO paperwork
2. Treasurer duties are as follows
a. Collecting dues
b. Keeping ledger
c) Activities Director: can be representative from any sub organization and is expected to know and plan the upcoming events that concern the GLBTQ community. It is strongly advised that the residing member create committees in order to plan and execute these events. These events include but are not limited to:
1. Opening Social (at discretion of the board)
2. National Coming Out Day (October 11)
3. Freedom to Marry Day (February 12)
4. Pride! Day (April)
5. Gay-butaunte Ball (at discretion of the board)
6. Closing Social (at discretion of the board)
d) Public and University Relations: can be representative from any sub-organization and his/her responsibilities are as follows:
1. Contact appropriate media about any of the aforementioned events.
2. Scheduling any materials, spaces, or tools needed from the vniversity scheduling office or outside sources.
3. Either maintain or delegate maintenance of the Pride! Alliance web page list server.
4. Use the appropriate advertising vehicles that will assist in activating Pride! Alliance members and community members to join in activities or take advantage of various Pride! offerings (i.e. Scholarships)
Section III: Mitigations:
a) If there is not a sufficient number qualified or willing candidates to reside of the Executive Board, and odd number of board members should exist. Should at any time, the number of qualified or willing individuals not be sufficient to fill all the positions of the board, any board position can remain vacant for any amount of time. Individuals wanting to fill a vacant board position can appeal to the board for an open election. If a nomination is made by a member in good standing for the vacancy, then a vote will occur no less than 14 days after the nomination.
b) If there is a four-to-one ratio of any dominant sub-organization being represented on the Executive Board then two (2) senators will be recruited from the minority party to evenly establish sub-organization representation.
Section IV: Sub-Organizations: The Sub-Organizations will be self-named and controlled by the membership of each approved sub-organization. Sub-Organizations will be required to appoint a member to act as a representative to the Pride! Alliance. These organizations, thus far, include:
a) Men's interest group
b) Women's interest group
Section V: Elections: Board members are elected by a majority of the members in good standing present at the third to last meeting of the spring semester. Board members take office immediately so there is a two-week overlap for transition and training. Board members serve for one year and then can go up for re-election.
Section VI: Impeachment procedure (14 day time period):
a) An accusation will be made in the form of a written proposal to all board members.
b) The accusation will be substantiated in writing to all board members.
c) The accusation will be answered during a Pride! meeting by a speech.
d) A movement to impeach will be made and seconded
e) two-thirds of all attending members must vote “yes” for impeachment to occur If a sub-organization wants to impeach its elected leader and/or senators because they feel they are not representing them, impeachment procedure will be under scrutiny only by the sub-organization itself.
Section VII: Board Vote: Board decisions will be passed by majority vote with no less than one board member missing.
Article IV Committees
Section I: There shall be no standing committees.
Section II: Special committees shall be formed as needed.
Article V Meetings
Section I: Meetings shall be held weekly during the traditional academic year. A board member will call each meeting to order.
Section II: Decision making votes shall take place during regularly scheduled meetings.
a) Executive decisions are voted up by majority of members in good standing. Executive decisions include but are not limited to: amending or approving the constitution and nominating and voting for officers.
b) Social decisions are made by majority of attending membership. Social decisions include but are not limited to: if Pride! will participate in school and/or community functions or if Pride! will hold a fundraiser.
Section III: Special meetings can be called by any officer for the purpose of accomplishing his/her assigned duties and must be approved by a majority board vote.
Article VI--Financial Matters
Section I: The organization shall not provide financial gain, incidentally or otherwise, to its officers, advisors, or members in the form of wages, salaries, bonuses, or incentives.
Section II: The organization may reimburse individuals for out-of-pocket expenses provided the individual obtained approval for the expense from the board prior to incurrence and must provide a receipt to treasurer.
Section III: Should the organization dissolve, leaving residual assets, redistribution of the assets will go the USU Gay and Lesbian Scholarship fund, to the GLSRC, or appropriate organization that follows the Pride! Mission statement as decided upon by the Pride! advisor.
Article VII--Amending the Constitution
Section I: Procedure
a) Anyone can propose an amendment
b) Board writes the amendment and decides where it goes in the constitution, to be decided on by majority vote with no more than one board member missing.
c) Present to membership no less than 14 days after proposed.
d) Approved by two-thirds majority vote of members in good standing.
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