This old version of the HRC Constitution was in effect from September 2006 to late October 2006. Click here for the current HRC Constitution.

CONSTITUTION OF THE HARVARD REPUBLICAN CLUB

ARTICLE I - NAME

The name of this organization shall be the Harvard Republican Club, hereinafter referred to as “the club” or “the HRC.”

ARTICLE II - PURPOSE

The purpose of the club shall be threefold. First, the club shall encourage students at Harvard University to support, discuss and advance the philosophy, values and policies of the Republican Party. Second, the club shall assist Republican campaigns on a university, local, state and national level, and shall promote the adoption of Republican and conservative policies by various facets of the University. Third, the club shall provide a friendly and social atmosphere for its members.

ARTICLE III - MEMBERSHIP

Any student of Harvard College shall be eligible to become a voting member of the HRC upon payment of annual dues, regardless of race, creed, color, sexual orientation, or physical disability. Upon the payment of such dues proof of payment will be issued to the new member and a second copy of said proof deposited with the Secretary. These students will be known as "members in good standing." The duration of this membership coincides with the academic year. Students defined above declining to pay dues or any student of a Harvard affiliated graduate school may become "associate members." Associate members are eligible to participate in all HRC activities and events. Only members in good standing shall be granted a voice in the HRC. Endorsement of official club policies shall not be prerequisite for membership in the HRC.

ARTICLE IV - POLICIES

The official policies of the HRC shall be based on the platform of the National Republican Party; deviation from these policies must be subject to a majority approval of the board. Policy positions not addressed by the national platform, i.e. campus or purely local issues, will be decided by a majority of the Executive Board.

ARTICLE V – EXECUTIVE BOARD AND OFFICERS

The Executive Board shall consist of the elected officers of the HRC. These officers shall be the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Director, and two Members-at-Large, in descending order of rank. (The Member-at-Large who has been serving longest shall be ranked the highest.) The Executive Board shall, subject to the provisions of this constitution, direct club activities, and appoint committees and/or temporary officers to assist it. It may also appropriate and spend money from the Treasury to meet the expenses of the HRC. The President shall call meetings of the General and Executive Board. Should the President receive a petition signed by three (3) members of the Executive Board, he must call a meeting within five (5) days. Reasonable effort must be made to notify all board members at least 24 hours in advance or the meeting is declared null and void. A majority of the executive board must be present to constitute a quorum. Correspondingly, 1/5 of the members in good standing constitute a quorum of the general membership. Executive Board meetings shall be open to the rest of the HRC, unless there exists a majority vote to close the meeting to non-board members.

The main duties and powers of the officers of the HRC shall be as follows:

The President shall:

• Direct and coordinate all activities of the HRC
• Preside at all meetings of the HRC, both General and Executive with the exception of the annual General Election Meeting
• Serve as chief spokesman for the HRC and its Executive Board or appoint someone in his place.
• Represent the HRC in negotiations with other organizations and the College Republican National Committee, subject to approval of the Executive Board. The president may also appoint someone in his place.
• Have check signing privileges along with the Treasurer.
• Maintain the right to nominate members in good standing to a General Board as non-voting members to fulfill any necessary roles or duties. This General Board will consist of said appointed members and the Executive Board. A simple majority of the Executive Board may reject a nominee during the first three school days after the President has informed all Executive Board members of a nomination. A simple majority of the Executive Board may also extend the nomination period to facilitate further consideration. A simple majority of the Executive Board may compel the President to nominate an individual to the general board to perform set tasks.

The Vice-President shall:

• Preside at meetings in absence of the President
• Head projects at the direction of the President
• The Vice-President shall become President in the event that the presidency is vacated.

The Secretary shall:

• Record the minutes of all General and Executive Board meetings and general meetings
• Distribute minutes of the General and Executive Board meetings to all officers within 1 week of the board meeting.
• Make available minutes of the general meeting at the next meeting
• Be responsible for filing minutes
• Maintain all HRC files
• Be responsible for club mail, email lists, and all other available information
• Record the attendance record of General Board and Executive Board members at General Board and Executive Board meetings, general membership meetings, and/or any activities that replace the above meetings. Attendance at General Boad meeting shall be taken no sooner than 15 minutes after the meeting is called to order.

The Treasurer shall:

• Maintain all HRC funds, including dues.
• Keep accurate financial records and prepare statements upon the request of the majority of the Executive Board.
• Prepare any grant applications
• Be responsible for all alumni mailings, including fundraising letters
• Have check signing authority
• Prepare an end-of-semester summary of all expenses and assets

The Membership Director shall:

• Be responsible for planning and conducting all membership drives, including recruitment at registration, pre-frosh weekend, and the freshman activities fair.
• Publish a comprehensive and up-to-date membership list for the current year.
• Maintain a file of membership lists from previous years.
• Be responsible for the collection of all membership dues and transfer these dues to the Treasurer

The Members-at-Large shall:

• Be assigned duties by the President with the consent of the Executive Board

In addition, the Executive Board shall designate a member in good standing, not currently on the Executive Board, as Parliamentarian. The Parliamentarian shall:

• Sit as an authority on questions of Constitutionality
• Serve as an authority on questions of Parliamentary procedure at General and Executive Board meetings
• Be familiar with Robert’s Rules of Order
• Have final say in questions of Parliamentary procedure, subject to reversal by a 2/3 vote of the Executive Board
• Oversee the annual General Election meeting as the election committee chair. In the event that the Parliamentarian is seeking elected office in the organization, the highest-ranking office named to the committee shall serve as chair of the committee. In the absence of an officer, the President shall appoint an election chair.

Upon the election of a new Executive board, the outgoing President may elect to maintain the position of ‘President Emeritus’ and attend all General Board meetings.

• The position may include acting as a committee chair at the discretion of the current president. A past president may keep this title and status for as long as he or she desires, until graduation from the college at which point he or she becomes ineligible.
• Under extreme circumstances, a 2/3 vote of presently sitting Executive elected Board can choose to deny a specific past President the Emeritus privilege.

ARTICLE VI– CLUB ASSETS

Section A. Checks and Appropriations - The President and Treasurer must have check-signing privileges. Other executives may be given such privileges by majority Executive Board vote. Appropriations less than $50 may be made by the President or the Treasurer. However appropriations equal to or greater than $50 must be approved by a majority of the Executive Board. All reimbursements regardless of size require a receipt.

Section B. Safekeeping of Funds - All monies taken in by the club must be transferred to the Treasurer as soon as possible (the Membership Director must do this after recording dues received). No more than $500 of club money may be held in cash at any given time except when enabled for a specific limited duration by majority vote of the Executive Board. The remainder must be deposited in one or more accounts at one or more financial institutions. This may include volatile investments with the informed, explicit approval of the Executive Board, however the default shall be to store club monies in a checking account at an FDIC-insured institution.

Section C. Regular Treasurer Updates - The Treasurer must provide the Executive Board with an update on club resources at least once every six term weeks, which at a minimum must include the following: total cash on hand, total expected value of inventory, total investments (if any), total value of accounts receivable and accounts payable, and net worth of the club. The Executive Board may make additional requests by a majority vote. The Treasurer MUST keep a record of every transaction in which the club engages, though inventory sales and dues receipts may be recorded in aggregate only.

ARTICLE VII - ELECTIONS

Section A. Purpose - The membership of the Executive Board shall be determined by elections held once every academic year (“executive elections”).

Section B. Election Window - The executive elections shall occur on a single term day within a window beginning 14 term days prior to the beginning of Thanksgiving Recess, and ending 4 term days prior to the beginning of Thanksgiving Recess.

Section C. Timeline for Elections – No later than midnight three weeks prior to the beginning of the executive elections window, the President shall nominate, with the approval of the Executive Board, five dues-paid members to serve as an Election Commission. Each member must be individually approved by the General Board. If a nominee is not approved, a replacement nominee may be presented to the General Board under the same process. No later than midnight two weeks prior to the beginning of the Executive Board elections window, any candidate or voter must be dues-paid in order to be eligible for the election (see Section J). No later than midnight one week prior to the beginning of the Executive Board elections window, the Election Commission shall announce the date and time of the elections. The Election Commission must solicit declarations of candidacy within the time period beginning midnight three weeks before the executive elections window, and ending midnight one week before the executive elections window. If no candidate has declared for an executive position by this deadline, the Election Commission may extend the deadline for that specific position at its discretion.

Section D. Election Commission Mandate - The President may not serve on the Election Commission, and no commission members shall be eligible to run for office in the corresponding election. The Election Commission shall choose the date, time and location of the election, collect declarations of candidacy and candidate statements, monitor candidates for compliance with campaign rules, sanction non-complying candidates, run the election ceremonies including counting votes and declaring winners, and receive challenges to election results. All Election Commission decisions shall be by majority vote or by bylaws drafted internally by majority vote. The highest ranking executive on the Election Commission shall be chair, or if no executives are on the commission, the President shall select the chair, subject to reversal by majority Executive Board vote.

Section E. Nonnegotiable Election Requirements - Unsolicited emails and unsolicited phone calls are explicitly prohibited, as is campaigning during official club, caucus and committee meetings, and these prohibitions cannot be overridden. The Election Commission may, however, define its own party-neutral, a priori standards as to what constitutes an unsolicited email or phone call, and candidates may campaign before and after official meetings. Use of any official club announcement medium including but not limited to websites, newsletters and announcement lists is also prohibited.

Section F. Negotiable Election Requirements - Use of any club discussion medium including but not limited to discussion email lists and official blogs is prohibited, but may be conditionally allowed by the Election Commission, provided the accepted use is not unlimited. There must be word limits and/or posting limits, and every candidate must be given equal access to the medium.

Section G. Additional Election Commission Rules - The Election Commission may also create other rules for campaigns as it sees fit, in accordance with this constitution. The Election Commission may not apply its own rules in an ex post facto manner. However, rules existing in this constitution may be applied after the fact by the Election Commission even if it did not explicitly state them in its communications with candidates.

Section H. Voting Integrity – In order to maintain the integrity of club elections, the purchase of dues by a member for another member is strictly forbidden. All dues must be purchased by a member using their own money, and not using loans or gifts from any candidate or from anyone working on behalf of a candidate. The Election Commission holds the right to investigate the purchase of dues. If a member of the club is found by the Election Commission to have violated this rule, the member concerned as well as any associates in the effort will be disqualified as voters and candidates from the election and will not have any of the dues concerned refunded. However, this requires a majority vote of the General Board after recommendation by the Election Commission. Any dues found to have been purchased in such a manner will be considered invalid.

Section I. Candidate Sanctions - Candidates who break rules in this constitution or rules set by the Election Commission may be sanctioned by the Election Commission. Sanctions are limited to one or more of the following: public rebuke, loss of a portion of a candidate’s speaking time, and bans from campaign activity for a specified period of time. Sanctions may also include disqualification, but this requires a majority vote of the General Board after recommendation by the Election Commission.

Section J. Voter and Candidate Eligibility - For the purposes of executive elections (including Section C of this article), “dues-paid” status only takes effect when the names and dues are given to the Membership Director, and not when they are collected by any other executive. Other executives may, however, deliver names and dues to the Membership Director on behalf of the dues payers.

Additionally, candidates and voters in the executive elections must have attended two General Board meetings within the calendar year preceding the date of the election itself (this may include meetings after the deadline for paying dues but more than 7 term days before the election). Attendance at these meetings is determined solely by the official records kept by the Secretary.

Beginning 3 term days after the deadline for paying dues prior to executive elections, the Membership Director must provide a list to all candidates as they declare of the members who were dues-paid by the deadline. 6 term days before the election, the Secretary must provide all declared candidates with a final list of eligible voters.

Section K. Candidacy Declarations - No more than 4 term days after the deadline for candidacy declarations for the executive elections, the Election Commission shall send all eligible voters a list of current declared candidates and candidate statements.

Section L. Timing and Format – The Election Commission, and not the Executive Board or General Board, shall have full control over the election event. The start of the election must be between 4 PM and 10 PM to enable maximum access, however it may run as long as necessary. The election must include speeches by all candidates and some form of questions for all candidates. Questions may be waived by the Election Commission if the candidate has no opponent.

Positions must be elected in order of rank. Votes must be tallied and announced for one position before the next lower position is considered. Nomination for any position may be taken from the floor.

Section M. Preventing Vote Fraud – Ballots must be official and pre-made, and generic ballots must be disregarded. Voters’ actual votes must remain secret. However, ballots may be numbered and a separate list maintained showing sign-in and sign-out times for each specific ballot number (without names), to prevent proxy votes or votes by those who have already left. For ease of sign-in/sign-out a separate sheet may be maintained linking names to numbers, provided the person using it never has access to the ballots themselves.

Voters who receive ballots after the Election Commission begins to collect votes for a race may not vote in that race. Voters must be present for every race in which they cast votes. In particular, the Election Commission must create safeguards to ensure that voters do not leave their ballots for others to cast in their name, potentially through the method described above. Absentee ballots may be granted to voters ONLY in the following cases, which must be verified by the Election Commission: religious observance, out of town trip, death in the family. Absentee ballots shall not be granted later than 48 hours prior to the start of the election under any circumstances.

Section N. Immediate Recounts - After the results of a specific race are announced, any candidate in the race has the right to demand an immediate recount if they believe the tally may have been incorrect. This may only be done once, and must occur before the beginning of speeches for the next race. All candidates have the right to see the actual tally numbers, but releasing the count to all those present is at the discretion of the Election Commission.

Section O. Challenges - Election results become permanent 3 hours after the announcement of the results of the last ballot of the event, with the exception of results that have been challenged within that 3 hour window by a candidate notifying the Election Commission in writing. The only acceptable grounds for challenges are the following allegations: miscounting of votes, ineligible voters, votes cast by absent voters (other than legitimate absentee ballots), and announcing the wrong winner. In such cases, the outgoing Executive Board must call a General Board meeting within 4 term days to resolve the dispute by a binding majority vote of the General Board (in executive elections, this means the outgoing General Board). If the General Board sustains the challenge, the Election Commission shall hold a new election for that position within one week of the General Board meeting, under the same terms as the previous election (to the extent possible). No candidates may participate in the second election except those who already participated in the first election for that seat. If a candidate in winning a second election vacates a lower seat whose election did NOT face a challenge sustained by the General Board, that seat must be immediately filled by a vote at the same event. In this case, nominations may be taken from the floor even if there were other candidates in that race, since those candidates lost despite the fact that the election was deemed fair, and consequently have no special claim on the seat.

Section P. Destruction of Ballots - Ballots for unchallenged races must be destroyed 3 hours after the election. Ballots for challenged races must be destroyed upon completion of the General Board vote on the challenge.

ARTICLE VIII – GENERAL MEETINGS

General meetings may be called and the agenda determined by the Executive Board. A petition signed by one-fifth (1/5) of the general membership shall oblige the Executive Board to hold a general meeting within ten (10) school days of the receipt of such a position. Reasonable effort must be made to notify all members in good standing of the time, place, and agenda of the meeting.

ARTICLE IX – SUCCESSION AND EXPULSION

Should any seat on the Executive Board become vacant, the next most senior officer shall ascend to the vacated position.

Should vacancies remain or a junior officer choose to remain in his/her elected office, the President shall, with the advice and consent of the Executive Board, appoint a club member in good standing to fill the vacated position.

A 2/3 vote of one Executive Board meeting shall be required to remove an officer. Additionally, should a member of the Board accumulate two (2) unexcused absences in the course of a single semester, the President may upon the consent of the Executive Board , declare the office vacant. Arriving either more than 15 minutes late to a Board meeting or leaving over 15 minutes early is equal to one-half of an unexcused absence. The Executive Board shall determine excused and unexcused absences.

ARTICLE X - AMENDMENT

This constitution shall be amended by a 2/3 vote of one General Board meeting, when balloting on questions of constitutional amendment all members of the General Board shall have a vote. A petition by a quorum of the general membership or a majority vote of the Executive Board shall introduce such an amendment. Absentee ballots shall be accepted.

ARTICLE XI – DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED HEREIN

The following definitions shall apply to terms used throughout this constitution.

A “majority vote” shall be defined as a vote in which the number of persons voting in the affirmative is greater than, and not equal to, the number of persons voting in the negative.

A “2/3 vote”/”2/3 majority” and a “3/4 vote”/”3/4 majority” shall be defined as votes in which the number of persons voting in the affirmative is either equal to or greater than a 2/3 or 3/4 share (respectively) of all those voting in either the affirmative or the negative. Thus a vote of 8 in the affirmative and 4 in the negative would quality as a 2/3 vote, and a vote of 6 in the affirmative and 2 in the negative would qualify as a 3/4 vote. The reason for such definitions is that in the case of an even split, the will of the body is ambivalent, whereas in the case of exact 2/3 or 3/4 approval, the will of a supermajority is already manifest. This standard shall also be applied to 1/3 votes/petitions, since the goal in that case is simply to determine a substantial minority.

All partial fractions must be rounded up to the nearest integer vote (e.g. 2/3 of 5 is 3.33, so a 2/3 vote of 5 voters requires 4 to vote in the affirmative).

Unless otherwise specified, explicit abstentions shall not factor into the calculation of votes. Also, no phrase in this constitution shall be taken to imply a quorum requirement unless it explicitly states so, or is bound by another portion of the constitution that explicitly states so.

In cases where the voting threshold is not defined, the requirement shall default to a majority vote requirement.

References to “term days” mean all days, including weekends and weekdays, but excluding holidays and vacations honored by Harvard University, regardless of whether classes are held.

Temporary Article 1. Constitutional Convention

In order to revisit the reforms being made and address future reforms, another Constitutional Convention must be held before November 9th, 2006 at a date and time determined by the Executive Board.

Temporary Article 2. Executive Board Transition

The term of the Freshman Member-at-Large elected in Fall 2005 will end at midnight the night of the MAL special elections held this Fall 2006, and at that time the Freshman Member-at-Large will no longer be an Executive Board position. At the election, a Member-at-Large will be elected to serve on the Executive Board. This Member-at-Large will only serve until the next Executive Board elections, rather than for a full year term.