The Georgetown Parliamentary Debate Team is an association of people with a common interest in competitive debate with other universities.

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Elfreda Dorsey
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1 The Georgetown Parliamentary Debate Team is an association of people with a common interest in competitive debate with other universities. The purpose of the Team is to provide an opportunity for its members to learn debating styles and rules, to develop and to practice their skills and techniques with other members of the Team, and compete within the debate league(s) it chooses to participate in. Currently, the Society is a member of, but will not be limited to, the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). The Team shall host one tournament each year, preferably in March. I. BOARD POSITIONS A. The Executive Board Shall: 1. Retain the power to create and dissolve committees. 2. Retain the power to enforce the judging requirement. 3. Promulgate rules proper to the administration of the team. 4. Provide meeting minutes and transparency in decision-making at the request of non-board team members. 5. Attend monthly team meetings and any Executive Board meetings to the best of their ability. 6. Be available to members during the week. 7. Train their successors during the end of the spring semester to ensure the smooth transfer of power. 8. Work to appoint and collaborate with a Tab Observer as instructed by APDA. 9. Utilize a decision-making mechanism of a majority vote, with the President breaking ties, and pluralities permitted if there is an ex-post-facto justifiable reason for time-constraint, and at least 5 minutes permitted for votes within the main communication medium of the board. B. The President shall: 1. Plan, preside over, and facilitate Executive Board meetings. 2. Supervise or delegate the organization of team activities. 3. Serve as a liaison to APDA and any other debate organization in which the team may be a member. 4. Appoint members of the Team to positions necessary for running the annual APDA-sanctioned Georgetown Debate Tournament. These may include, but are not limited to: Tournament Director, Tab Director, Judging Director, Social Director, Housing Director, and Equity Officer. 5. Ensure that the directing staff of said tournament fulfills their responsibilities to the fullest extent such an undertaking requires. 6. Be replaced by the Vice President of Internal Operations should they be unable to fulfill any of their duties. 7. Oversee the Special Election of any vacancies that must be filled either as a result of an executive board member's inability to perform their duties, or as a result of the President's recent accession to the Presidency. 8. Serve as a liaison to the Student Activities Commission (SAC), to the team's advisor in the Center for Student Engagement (CSE), and, if

2 applicable, to the team's faculty advisor. 9. Promote, defend and enforce the purpose, constitution and best interests of the Society. 10. Attend personally, appoint a substitute to attend, or proxy votes for all meetings in which the APDA body shall be determining tournament dates or electing national officers. 11. Oversee the Vice Presidents. 12. Serve as liaison to alumni of the team and manage the listserv of alumni. 13. Serve as liaison to other Georgetown University clubs and organizations. 14. Attend allocation board meetings with the Vice President of Finance when additional funding is needed. 15. Work with the Vice President of Finance to draft the team budget each semester. 16. Maintain an independent budget to be verified periodically by the Vice President of Finance. 17. Fill in all SAC and CSE paperwork or approve any of said paperwork filled out by another Executive Board member, and ensure it is processed properly and timely. 18. Send official team s regarding non-debate related affairs. 19. Book all required space for practices in locations and times and dates in line with requests of the Vice President of Internal Operations. C. The Vice President of Internal Operations shall: 1. Oversee committee operations. 2. Facilitate practices and determine the agenda for each one. 3. Communicate practice-related information to the team. 4. Record attendance at team practices and Executive Board meetings. 5. Manage the team casebook and important Board Documents. 6. Be responsible for skill development. 7. Oversee membership requests to the Hoyalink page. 8. Maintain an official list of Active and inactive team members. D. The Vice President of External Operations shall: 1. Complete pre-registration for the Team at tournaments in a timely fashion. 2. Assist the Vice President of Finance in acquiring financial information from tournaments. 3. Maintain team's Hoyalink page and all social media pages, including, but not limited to, Facebook page, Facebook group, and Twitter. 4. Create Google forms to facilitate signing up for tournaments. 5. Establish an official list of individuals who wish to attend a tournament through a Google form or other similarly equitable manner. 6. Use the official list of attendees to, after taking into account pairing requests and the opinions of fellow board members, create a list of pairing for each tournament. This list shall be submitted to the Executive Board for approval.

3 II. 7. Set and enforce all deadlines for signing up to attend tournaments. 8. Negotiate with other teams on registration breaks, transportation sharing, and hybrids, in coordination with the President s recommendations E. The Vice President of Finance shall: 1. Serve as the financial liaison to the Student Activities Commission. 2. Keep strict and accurate records of the Team's finances. 3. Maintain accurate records of all allocated funds. 4. Maintain accurate records of fundraising funds, deposits, withdrawals, and balances. 5. Maintain receipts (originals or copies) from all purchases and reimbursements. If no receipt is available, then proof of purchase must be presented before reimbursing with Team funds. 6. Organize fundraising activities if the team hosts any. 7. Be required to attend any mandatory finance meetings. 8. Account for team property. 9. Arrange transportation to and from tournaments in accordance with the allocated budget. 10. Oversee the registration of drivers with the University necessary for transportation, in coordination with the Vice President of External Affairs. F. The Member at Large shall: 1. Serve as a guiding member of the board, functioning effectively as a tiebreaker and deliberator. 2. Outline the topics of discussion for the board meeting; send the outline to other board members so they can add subjects they would like to discuss. 3. Take minutes during board meetings; keep these minutes in the board s Google Drive. 4. Assist the President and Vice Presidents with their assigned duties if the aforementioned members are unable to complete them on their own in a timely fashion. G. Miscellaneous 1. All decisions lacking special procedures as outlined in this Constitution shall be decided by a standard vote of the Executive Board. 2. All Executive Officers shall be permitted to temporarily delegate power to other Executive Officers, provided both Officers agree to the delegation. Executive Officers shall not temporarily delegate power to Non-Executive Officers or members without the approval of four-fifths of the Executive Board. No Executive Officer's power shall be delegated permanently. H. Non-Executive Officers 1. The Executive Board shall be free to create, fill with appointments, and dissolve non-executive officers deemed necessary to the functioning of the club, provided there are no more than five non-executive offices in existence at one time. NATURE OF TEAM ACTIVITIES

4 III. A. Novice and varsity members shall practice debating and judging via practice rounds to be organized by the Vice President of Internal Affairs. B. Decisions shall be made regarding which tournaments to attend and which members may attend them, given: 1. The financial constraints of the Society. 2. The availability of transportation. 3. The skill and general attitude of each debater, as well as any disorderly or inappropriate conduct committed by each debater. 4. Each debater's practice attendance and their timely communication with Executive Board regarding tournaments. C. Social activities outside of debate shall be planned. D. All formal complaints shall be handled, discussed, and resolved. E. The Team shall not officially endorse any candidate for an outside elected office for any organization which is an arm of Georgetown University. MEMBERS A. A member s status shall be determined by his or her activity in the current semester and the previous semester. B. Active members shall meet one of the following requirements: 1. Attend at least two APDA-sanctioned, non-georgetown tournaments and attend at least 3 team practices during the current semester. 2. Have qualified as an active member prior to the adjustment of qualification requirements, so long as those requirements were changed in the current semester or previous semester. C. Members who do not meet the requirements for active membership shall be deemed inactive, and shall be ineligible to vote and to attend APDA Nationals or any other title tournaments in which the team participates. D. Exceptions shall be made for members who are off campus but still enrolled as undergraduate students at Georgetown University at the discretion of the Executive Board. E. When attending tournaments at other schools, members shall respect the rules of the host school. F. Case ownership 1. Members will be required to upload cases which have been run at tournaments funded by the Team to the casebook 2. Members will retain property claim over cases, and those cases will not be run by any other member without explicit permission from the owner prior to each round 3. At graduation, members will cede ownership of cases to the common property of the team a) The only exception will be when ownership is ceded to a particular team member, or when an original author has not yet graduated, in the case of co-authored cases b) The executive board may deem certain team cases to be withheld

5 from use until certain rounds (e.g. bubble rounds, round 4 or later, semifinals or later) by a majority vote IV. ELECTIONS A. Only active members may run for board positions in elections. B. Each candidate will have the opportunity to make a brief statement to the members prior to voting. C. The voting shall be by means of secret ballot, which will be processed by the presiding officer. D. The President shall be the presiding officer (and shall therefore not enter into the formal debate) except during the election of the President, in which case a current board member shall be appointed to be the chair for the duration of the presidential election, after which the chair shall be the new President. E. The official term of office shall be one year. If an officer is unable to hold the position for the entire year, the President shall appoint an interim replacement until a special election shall be planned and called. F. Elections shall be held after the Princeton elections but before Nationals; the newly elected Executive Board shall thereafter spend the spring semester training with the previous Executive Board, and the transfer of power shall not officially take place until the end of competitive debate for the team. G. Non-Executive Officers shall be appointed by the Executive Board but subject to removal should four-fifths of the active members sign a petition clearly indicating their desire to remove said Non-Executive Officer. H. Said petition shall, after being duly signed, be presented to a member of the Executive Board within two weeks of the final signature. I. Said petition shall be brought before the body in a special election whose sole purpose is the removal of said Non-Executive Officer. A four-fifths vote of the active members present at the election shall be required to confirm the removal of said Non-Executive Officer. J. Oversight of the planning of Elections shall be done by the President with the oversight of the entire Executive Board. K. When a special election is found to be necessary, the President, with the oversight of the entire Executive Board, shall call for and plan said election, giving all members of the team no less than two, but no more than four weeks notice of the date, time, and location of said election; the date, time, and location shall be reasonable. V. VOTING A. A quorum must be present to hold a vote, and the President must count for a quorum before beginning elections. 1. A quorum consists of all the officers and 51% of the active members. B. Voting shall be done through secret ballot. C. Only active members shall be eligible to vote. D. No proxy votes shall be accepted. E. Absentee ballots must fully articulate all possible voting preferences

6 VI. VII. F. If the presiding officer is informed that a quorum has ceased to be present during an election, he or she shall count for a quorum. If no quorum is present, the election is immediately postponed until the following meeting at which a quorum is present. G. A member may serve in only one Executive Board position at a time, accepting the President s dual-role. H. Elections shall be adjudicated by ranked-choice voting wherein the person with the fewest first place votes is removed from the pool, and subsequently the voters who chose them are distributed to the remaining candidates before a similar elimination round proceeds until one candidate remains. TOURNAMENT ATTENDANCE POLICIES A. No debater shall be denied a chance to attend a tournament except for financial reasons or logistical reasons, i.e., lack of a partner. B. When it is not possible for every interested debater to debate, preference shall be given to those debaters determined by the board through a justified competitive or practice-based metric. C. A tournament shall be defined as an officially sanctioned APDA tournament or a tournament sanctioned by another league as determined by the Executive Board. FINANCIAL POLICIES A. All money raised through fundraising shall be kept within the Student Activities Commission fundraising account. B. To be reimbursed for expenses related to the Society, a member must present a receipt to the Vice President of Finance or the President. C. The Society shall pay for tournament registration fees and other fees associated with transportation to tournaments, specifically rental cars, rental car insurance, and gas, provided that: 1. More than one member of the Society is in the car. 2. More than one member of the Society is attending the tournament. 3. The expenditure was properly financed. D. The Society shall not be financially responsible for speeding, parking, or other traffic violation tickets. E. The Society shall not reimburse members for meals or other personal expenses. F. Members shall not incur debt in the name of the Society nor expect personal reimbursement unless specifically authorized by the President. G. Team Reimbursements 1. The Vice President of Finance will oversee all team reimbursements. 2. The Society will fully reimburse all eligible expenses relating to: a) Gas b) Tolls c) Legal parking 3. Eligible expenses are expenses which were accrued in the process of attending a tournament in which a member of the Society drove to the tournament.

7 VIII. IX. 4. All expenses must be previously certified by the President and by the Vice President of Finance. Ex post facto reimbursements will be considered on a case-by-case basis by previous two board members. a) Irresolvable ties will be broken by the President H. The semesterly budget shall be drafted in accordance with the due dates set by SAC by the President and the Vice President of Finance. This budget shall be submitted to the Executive Board for approval and shall require a four-fifths vote to pass. I. The travel budget shall be drafted in accordance with the due dates set by SAC by the President and the Vice President of Finance. This budget shall be submitted to the Executive Board for approval and shall require a four-fifths vote to pass. J. The tournament budget shall be drafted in accordance with the due dates set by SAC by the President and the Vice President of Finance. This budget shall be submitted to the Executive Board for approval and shall require a four-fifths vote to pass. AMENDMENT PROCEDURES A. A member may submit a written amendment to the Constitution at any election, whether regular or special, provided the Executive Board is informed of such amendment at least two weeks before the election date. B. The presiding officer shall recognize any amendment(s). C. The present members shall then debate any amendment(s) according to Robert s Rules of Order. D. An amendment must be passed by a three-fourths vote of the active members present. E. Once an amendment is passed, the Vice President of External Operations must, in a timely fashion, insert it into the appropriate section of the Constitution on the website. REMOVAL OF AN OFFICER OR MEMBER A. The Executive Board can unanimously vote to temporarily suspend a member; however, said suspension shall only last until a special election is called and confirmed by a four-fifths vote of the active members present at the election. Said special election must be called within three weeks of the suspension, or the suspension shall be lifted and cannot be renewed until the next semester. B. The Executive Board may petition the team for a removal of an Executive Officer, provided the whole Executive Board save the accused officer is in favor of said petition. Said petition shall be brought before the body in a special election whose sole purpose is the removal of said Non-Executive Officer. The Executive Officer in question shall be removed upon a vote by a four-fifths vote of the active members present at the election. Removal from office shall not constitute removal from membership. C. Executive Officers shall be subject to removal should four-fifths of the active members sign a petition clearly indicating their desire to remove said Executive Officer. Said petition shall be brought before the body in a special election whose

8 sole purpose is the removal of said Executive Officer. The Executive Officer in question shall be removed upon a vote by a four-fifths vote of the active members present at the election. Removal from office shall not constitute removal from membership. X. COMPLAINTS A. If a problem should arise among the members of the Society, members have the right to file a formal written complaint containing: 1. The nature of the complaint. 2. Details of the incident or complaint. 3. Recommended action for the Society to take to resolve the complaint. B. The Executive Board shall handle all complaints, calling a special election if deemed necessary. If the complaint involves one (or more) Executive Officers, such Officers shall recuse themselves from any discussions, proceedings, actions, votes, etc., regarding the complaint. C. The member(s) against whom the complaint is filed must receive a copy of the complaint and shall therefore have two weeks to file a formal, written response; said response must be received by the Executive Board before any action (including calling for a special election) is taken, unless said response is not delivered within the two week deadline. XI. STATEMENT OF NON-EXCLUSIVITY A. Membership of Team shall be open to all Georgetown University undergraduate students. XII. ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION A. This constitution shall be valid upon recognition by the Georgetown University Student Activities Commission. XIII. MISCELLANEOUS A. All fractional thresholds not explicitly defined should be presumed to require rounding up.

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