New Club Checklist
Checklist for creating a new organization at Appalachian
Use this checklist as a guide for creating a constitution.1. Name: Every organization needs an identity. Example: The name of this organization shall be the Appalachian Physical Fitness Club.
2. Purpose: The most important part of any constitution is its purpose statement. Why does the organization exist? The strong organizations have well defined purposes which are consistent with the broad overall purpose of the University.
3. Broad Objectives: Objectives are essential in moving toward the accomplishment of an organization's goal. They are the "how-to's" of the organization.
4. Membership Requirements: These are the specific requirements that are necessary for one to be eligible to join the organization. Types of eligibility: regular, alumni, honorary.
5. Membership Responsibilities: This article describes the responsibilities that each person in the organization must fulfill as a member.
6. Officer Duties: The establishment of officer!
s is not enough in this article. A specific listing of each officer's duties is essential and cannot be stressed enough. Note: It must be stated that two officers will be co-signers of checks.
7. Elections/Voting: Every organization has to have a standardized procedure for voting and elections in order to insure continuity from year to year. Include eligibility, nomination and election process, and process for removing officers from duty.
8. Committees: Most organizations work through a committee system. In this article the standing and ad hoc committees should be described and their functioning outlines. If you don't know which committees you will have, then via an article, grant the authority to develop them.
9. Role of Faculty Advisor: The role that a faculty advisor plays in an organization is extremely important. That role needs to be well defined in every organization's constitution.
10. Meeting Procedure: In order to conduct orderly meetings where all pertine!
nt business within your organization gets taken care of, you need some established procedure.
11. Standardized Meeting Time: To eliminate confusion and to insure that the proper amount of meeting and planning takes place in your organization, you need to establish when and where you are going to meet over the course of the year.
12. Amendments: As your organization evolves, certain parts of your constitution will need to change and evolve with it. That is why a procedure for amendment needs to be included in every constitution.
13. Ratification: Before a constitution can be fully utilized by an organization, it must have the support of the full membership. Thus, the membership must vote on passage of the constitution and a reference to this vote and the method used for the passage must be included in every constitution.
14. Authority/Supremacy: All student organizations are subject to the policies and procedures of Appalachian State University and any governing body.
So there you go!
That is the easiest way to make the constitution for your club! Just follow along with those guidelines, and you'll be fine! Most of those items are just suggestions to help you through the process of writing a easy to follow constitution, but a few of them ARE required by CSIL and Appalachian State University.A few things you need to make sure you include in the constitution:
If you have any questions, you can call us at 828/262.6251, or e-mail us at clubcouncil@appstate.edu , and we will be glad to help you!
