From owner-constitution@andromeda.68k.org Tue Oct 7 00:01:19 1997 Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 02:00:07 -0500 From: owner-constitution-digest@lsmsaaa.org (LSMSAAA Constitution Digest) To: constitution-digest@68k.org Subject: LSMSAAA Constitution Digest V1 #13 Reply-To: constitution@andromeda.68k.org Sender: owner-constitution-digest@lsmsaaa.org Errors-To: owner-constitution-digest@lsmsaaa.org Precedence: bulk LSMSAAA Constitution Digest Tuesday, October 7 1997 Volume 01 : Number 013 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 13:26:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Dennis Voss Subject: Dues revised (and increased) Message to the Virtual Constitutional Convention: Hi folks. Sorry for the long hiatus. We got to the point where I had to rewrite a few things, plus work out the details on a couple others, but I've caught up again. This message includes a new Dues section. It includes the following changes from the first one I floated: (1) For the most part it gets rid of the postal fees mechanism. Andre strongly disliked it, and no one else seemed terribly excited about it. I still give regular members a $2 discount if they take communications through email, but Lifetime Members do not need to write any more checks. (2) Dues are higher. The raise is slight for regular members ($10 --> $12) but heavy for lifetime membership. I had two reasons. First, Dr. Loftin suggested that the dues were too low, which reinforced my own thoughts on the matter. Second, now that Lifetime Members do not have to pay postal fees, I wanted to make sure that they were providing the LSMSAAA with a sufficient endowment to handle communication costs. Note that dues used to be $7 and $15, so this restores the old 2:1 relationship that once was in place and made a lot more sense. (3) I have introduced a method of earmarked funds to make sure the LSMSAAA has adequate postal money, although that portion will show up in a different message. It relies on the Treasurer -- theft or going AWOL would mess up the system -- but otherwise seems simple and functional. Let me know what you think. steve 3. DUES Members of the LSMSAAA who wish to activate their status for a given fiscal year must submit dues for that year to the LSMSAAA Treasurer, as specified in the biennial report (see Section 4.3a). The fiscal year runs from October 15 of one year to October 14 of the next. Lifetime Members no longer need to pay dues to retain their active status. (a) The rate for "regular dues" is $12 annually, paid to the LSMSAAA Treasurer for a given fiscal year. If an LSMSAAA member is willing to receive communications electronically, dues are reduced to $10. (b) The rate for "lifetime dues" is $25 annually, paid to the LSMSA Treasurer for a given fiscal year. 3.1 Timing of Changes in Membership Status Members may pay dues to cover a given fiscal year at any time. (a) If dues are paid prior to the beginning of a fiscal year, all rights and privileges of membership associated with those dues begin (or continue, for members who are already active) at the start of the fiscal year. (b) If dues are paid after a fiscal year has already begun, relevant rights of membership begin upon receipt of payment by the LSMSAAA Treasurer; no privileges are retroactive. (c) Once a member of the LSMSAAA has paid lifetime dues sufficient to cover 10 fiscal years, regardless of timing, that person becomes a Lifetime Member. No act of the Executive Committee may revoke someone's Lifetime Membership. 3.2 Retroactive Rate Increases Changes in the dues requirements (through Section 9, governing constitutional amendments) may not be retroactive; anyone who has paid dues for a given fiscal year before the new rate structure takes effect will still qualify as having paid dues for that year. No change in the dues requirements may revoke Lifetime Membership once someone has qualified. 3.3 Other Fees The LSMSAAA may charge user fees or admissions for activities, services or products organized by the LSMSAAA or subsidized out of the General Fund, at discretion of the LSMSAAA President. However, no additional dues or fees may be charged for LSMSAAA members to exercise any rights or privileges granted in this Constitutionm (such as voting in elections, attending a meeting of the General Assembly, or receiving the required communications). Any fees collected under the terms of this subsection must be turned over to the LSMSAAA Treasurer without delay, and may not be used to defray any costs associated with an LSMSAAA activity unless normal appropriations procedures are followed, as outlined in Article 4 sections 1b and 3d. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Stephen Voss (dsvoss@wjh.harvard.edu) Eat your beans, then some mutton, Department of Government, GSAS don't pee ... and go on looking Harvard University after you obsession! Oh! my hypothesis! M-38 Littauer Bldg. Oh! my fame! I shall be immortal! Immortal! Cambridge, MA 02138 Doktor (from Wozzeck) - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 13:54:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Dennis Voss Subject: Budgeting Message to the Virtual Constitutional Convention: This note pulls subsections from various locations of my constitution draft. They are grouped by theme rather than location -- they outline the appropriations procedure for the LSMSAAA. I am particularly proud of this section, not because it's necessarily 100% clean, but because I think if adopted it will make the most important improvement to the LSMSAAA. As things stand,the LSMSAAA has no clear rules for spending money. The Executive Council has responsibility, so in theory the only time the organization should be able to spend money is when a quorum of those officers meet together. (This could produce the idiotic practice of the officers spending more money to reach a meeting than they appropriated during the meeting!) In point of fact, the spending has not followed any established procedures at all -- members of the Parents Association actually have all the LSMSAAA money, and I still haven't figured out who's making the spending decisions. This new budgetary procedure throws out the committee approach to spending. Now, only two people are required for any expenditure, and there's no reason they need to meet in the same place. Either the President or the Recording Secretary requests money, and the Treasurer decides whether to provide it. Unless the Executive Council is squabbling internally, the President should be able to move swiftly to accomplish any purpose, and the Recording Secretary should be able to publish newsletters or conduct elections efficiently. This system is not perfect, because it places excessive trust in the character of the Treasurer. I don't particularly like that; it violates my Madisonian constitutional principles. But as things stand, the LSMSAAA could lose all its money if a single officer of the Parents Association goes AWOL; at least with this system we would get to vote for the person in such a position. One item is missing from the below subsections. If the Treasurer vetos a spending request, the General Assembly will have the option of overriding the veto. In such a case, the Treasurer would be constitutionally obligated to cough up the requested money. But you can evaluate these subsections without the details on the General Assembly. steve 3.4 Earmarked funds Three-fourths of all dues money collected by the LSMSAAA (the "General Fund") may be spent according to the appropriations procedure outlined in Article 4 sections 1b and 3d. The remaining quarter of dues (the "Communications Fund") is earmarked for LSMSAAA communications, and may only be spent by the Recording Secretary. Proceeds collected under the terms of Section 3.3 go into the General Fund. Nothing in this section is intended to prevent additional spending from the General Fund for communications. 4.1 President (job description...) (b) General Fund Budget - To decide how the General Fund should be spent and how LSMSAAA resources should be distributed, in keeping with the general purposes of the LSMSAAA. The President may delegate the decisions underlying this spending authority, either in part or in full (e.g., to other members of the Executive Committee, or to an agent planning a particular activity), but bears ultimate responsibility for passing any expenditure request to the LSMSAAA Treasurer for review. At no time may the President delegate spending authority directly to the acting LSMSAAA Treasurer; funds must pass through the President's hands before they are spent. 4.3 Treasurer (job description...) (c) Treasury - To safeguard all LSMSAAA funds (e.g., by depositing them with the Louisiana School administration or LSMSA Parents' Association, or by depositing them with an insured bank or savings and loan). To keep track of what portion of the money belongs to the General Fund, and which proportion belongs to the Communications Fund. The Treasurer may not provide money from the General Fund to anyone other than the acting LSMSAAA President or, when stepping down, to a successor. The Treasurer may not provide money from the Communications Fund to anyone other than the acting Recording Secretary or, when stepping down, to a successor. The Treasurer may not spend LSMSAAA funds for any reason (aside from banking and checking fees, if applicable), nor may the Treasurer receive delegated powers to spend LSMSAAA funds directly. 4.4 Recording Secretary (job description...) (e) Communications Budget - To decide how the Communications Fund should be spent and how LSMSAAA resources should be distributed, in keeping with the elections and communications requirements of this Constitution. The Recording Secretary bears ultimate responsibility for passing any communications expenditure request to the LSMSAAA Treasurer for review. At no time may the Recording Secretary delegate spending authority directly to the acting LSMSAAA Treasurer; funds must pass through the Secretary's hands before they are spent. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Stephen Voss (dsvoss@wjh.harvard.edu) Eat your beans, then some mutton, Department of Government, GSAS don't pee ... and go on looking Harvard University after you obsession! Oh! my hypothesis! M-38 Littauer Bldg. Oh! my fame! I shall be immortal! Immortal! Cambridge, MA 02138 Doktor (from Wozzeck) - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 13:59:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Dennis Voss Subject: Oops - veto Message to the Virtual Constitutional Convention: Oops. I forgot part of the Treasurer's job description in my budget message, the part on the veto. This gives a better decription of how we've safeguarded against abusive spending by the officers with appropriations power: (d) Veto - To review all expenditure requests from the President (for the General Fund) or Recording Secretary (for the Communications Fund), and decide within two days of receiving the request whether to provide funds. If the Treasurer approves at least a portion of the request, the amount approved must be provided within a week (or by some later date specified in the request). If a portion of the request is rejected, the Treasurer immediately must notify the officer who made the request. The Treasurer also must prepare a Veto Notice explaining why the funds were refused, and provide that report to the Natchitoches Liaison at least a week before the next meeting of the General Assembly. steve - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Stephen Voss (dsvoss@wjh.harvard.edu) Eat your beans, then some mutton, Department of Government, GSAS don't pee ... and go on looking Harvard University after you obsession! Oh! my hypothesis! M-38 Littauer Bldg. Oh! my fame! I shall be immortal! Immortal! Cambridge, MA 02138 Doktor (from Wozzeck) - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of LSMSAAA Constitution Digest V1 #13 *****************************************