University of Wyoming Natural Resource Law Club PREAMBLE The Natural Resource Law Club at the University of Wyoming College of Law is a student group focused on education and involvement of legal issues surrounding natural resource usage and preservation organized in accordance with the regulations of the University of Wyoming ARTICLE I NAME Section The name of this organization will be the Natural Resource Law Club (NRLC) ARTICLE II PURPOSE Section The NRLC, interested in legal developments and legal impacts on the state of natural resource usage and preservation, is founded on the principles that the legal system is the medium by which energy, environment, and economics function in society and that there are always the underlying principles of usage and preservation NRLC seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities NRLC seeks to bring awareness to usage and preservation concerns on a local level and impacts of legal developments in natural resource sectors on a domestic and global scale Further, NRLC recognizes the paramount importance of these considerations among lawyers, judges, law students, and professors Section NRLC is willing to abide by all policies established by the University of Wyoming ARTICLE III MEMBERSHIP Section Membership in NRLC is open to any enrolled student, graduate, current faculty member, former faculty member, current administrative staff member, or former administrative staff member of the University of Wyoming Only student members are eligible to vote and hold office Section NRLC admits students without regard to their race, gender, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, creed, ancestry, political belief, or any other applicable protected category and affords each member all the rights, privileges, programs, and other activities generally accorded or made available to members of the organization Section There shall be no dues for NRLC Section Six Active Members constitute a quorum, unless there are fewer than six Active Members in NRLC If there are fewer than six Active Members in NRLC, then all Active Members must be present to constitute a quorum ARTICLE IV OFFICERS Section NRLC shall have the following Executive Officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary The Executive Board shall comprise the Executive Officers No person except an Active Member of NRLC shall be eligible to Executive Office; neither shall any person be eligible to the Office of President who shall not have already completed his or her second semester in a course of study for the attainment of the degree of juris doctor These requirements shall continue throughout the term of each Executive Officer Section Each Executive Officer shall take office on the first Sunday after the Commencement of the University of Wyoming College of Law (Commencement) in the year in which he is elected and the term of his or her service shall be through Commencement of the following year Officers appointed to replace Executive Officers who not complete their terms shall serve through the following Commencement Section Should an Executive Officer resign, fail to meet the requirements of Executive Office, be adjudicated according by the University of Wyoming College of Law as having violated the Honor Code of the College of Law, or otherwise be disqualified from office, he shall be removed from office Involuntary removal of an Executive Officer shall be accomplished by unanimous vote of the other three Executive Officers, or involuntary removal shall be accomplished by a three-quarters vote of the Active Members Section (a) President The President shall be the chief executive of NRLC He/she shall have power to call NRLC and Executive Board meetings He/she shall preside over all NRLC meetings and Executive Board meetings He/she shall supervise all club activities He/she shall have power to direct or veto NRLC expenditures, but his/her decisions regarding NRLC expenditures may be Page overturned by a two-thirds vote of all Active Members He/she shall have the power to appoint any such assistants, as he/she deems necessary to assist him/her in fulfilling the duties of office The President shall be responsible for eliciting speakers for Law Week and any other event speakers throughout their term of Office (b) Vice President The Vice President shall assist the President and shall preside in case of his absence or disability over all NRLC and Executive Board meetings He/she has power to call NRLC and Executive Board meetings He/she shall maintain all official records of NRLC, including a mailing list of all Active and Inactive members The Vice President shall supervise and coordinate all NRLC fundraising committees In any case of a tie in votes by the Senate, the Vice President shall have two votes (c) Treasurer The Treasurer shall be responsible for the finances of NRLC and shall present and supervise the budget He/she shall be responsible for payment of NRLC expenses (d) Secretary The Secretary shall be responsible keeping minutes of all NRLC meetings and Executive Board meetings Secretary shall be responsible for public relations of the club, which includes but not limited to emails to membership concerning member meetings and events, emails to the public concerning NRLC events and developing promotional materials for NRLC Section Vacancies shall be filled in the following manner on an interim basis: the Office of the President shall be filled by the current Vice President; the Offices of the Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary shall be filled by appointments made by the President, subject to ratification by two-thirds of the Senate If this method of filling vacancies is unavailing in a given year, Executive Officers may be appointed by agreement of the majority of a quorum of three or more former Inactive Members who were also Executive Officers If this method is unavailing the Faculty advisor of NRLC shall appoint a President, and consult with appointed President, to appoint remaining Executive Officers Following each selection or change of any officer/advisor, the Dean of Students or designee (Campus Activities Center) will be notified in writing ARTICLE V Operations/Elections Section The Annual Meeting shall be held in April of each year The President shall report the State of NRLC to the members The Treasurer shall report the status of the budget at that time NRLC shall elect officers for the next year at the Annual Meeting Newly elected officers shall assume their duties on the first Sunday after Commencement NRLC shall discuss speakers for Law Week for the following fall semester Page CAC APPROVED 10/5/2015-GILLIES Section The procedure of all elections of the NRLC shall be as follows: (a) All Active Members who have attended at least two meetings over the current academic year are eligible to vote (b) At least five days before the election, the Executive Board shall inform the NRLC’s Active Members of the upcoming election and specify a nomination deadline Before this deadline, an Active Member may notify the President of his interest in elective office, or may nominate other Active Members to elective office, or both (c) The President shall prepare ballots with candidates’ names, organized by the offices they seek or by offices for which they have been nominated (d) At the election, the Treasurer and Vice President shall verify all attendees present who are Active Members as those persons who have paid their dues for the current year and who have attended at least two meetings over the current academic year Only Active Members shall receive ballots (e) Candidates shall be given at least two minutes to make speeches; the Executive Board may equitably allow candidates longer times to speak if time allows (f) No proxy voting is allowed All voting is done by secret ballot The President and two Active Members, selected by majority vote of Active Members attending the meeting, shall count the ballots Where possible, the two Active Members shall not be candidates (g) In all elections, the voting for President shall occur before the voting for Vice President, which shall occur before the voting for Treasurer, which shall occur before the voting for Secretary, which shall occur before for voting for all Non-Executive Offices, which may be voted upon in any order, according to the Vice President’s choosing (h) Candidates for any office will leave the room before voting for that office commences to allow Active Members to discuss the candidates’ merits Candidates will be recalled to the room before voting commences (i) Voting shall be conducted according to Ranked Choice Voting principles Voters shall rank their preferences for the office for which they are currently voting, up to a number of preferences equal to the number of candidates minus one (e.g., if there are four candidates, voters rank their top three choices for the position) The candidate receiving the fewest votes is eliminated The vote of any ballot indicating a preference for an eliminated candidate is recounted toward the ballot’s next preferred non-eliminated candidate The candidate receiving the next fewest votes is eliminated Recounting of the ranked ballots is continued until only two candidates remain for a particular office The candidate receiving the higher number of Page (j) votes wins the office In the case of a tie, the President shall cast the deciding vote No candidate for office shall preside over an election to that office Section Following each selection or change of any officer/advisor, the Campus Activities Center will be notified ARTICLE VI Non-Executive Officers Section NRLC may select Non-Executive Officers according to Sections and of this Article, provided that Non-Executive Officers not assume any of the enumerated duties of the Executive Officers Non-Executive Officer includes Event Committee Organizers No person except an Active Member may serve as a Non-Executive Officer Before an Active Member enter a Non-Executive Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully serve the Natural Resource Environmental Law Club at the University of Wyoming College of Law according to the purpose of my Office, and will to the best of my ability promote individual liberty and dignity, and the rule of law.” Section The term of a Non-Executive Officer shall be defined at the creation of the applicable Non-Executive Office but in no case shall extend beyond the Commencement of the University of Wyoming College of Law of the following year Section Should an Executive Officer resign, fail to meet the requirements of Executive Office, be adjudicated according by the University of Wyoming College of Law as having violated the Honor Code of the College of Law, or otherwise be disqualified from office, he shall be removed from office A vacancy in a Non-Executive Office ends the Office except as NRLC may determine, according to the articles of this Constitution Section The Active Members may create a Non-Executive Office at will and specify its term by majority vote, subject to ratification by two Executive Officers The President may create a Non-Executive Office and specify its term, subject to ratification by two-thirds of the Senate The Executive Board may unanimously create a Non-Executive Office and specify its term Section The Active Members, creating a Non-Executive Office according to Page CAC APPROVED 10/5/2015-GILLIES Section 4, shall elect by majority vote the person to fill that office Persons filling Non-Executive Offices created by the President or the Executive Board shall be selected by the President and shall take office unless the Senate vetoes the selection by a one-third or larger vote within two weeks of the appointment ARTICLE VII Dispute Resolution Section Disputes which cannot be resolved informally or by agreement at large among the Active Members or Executive Board, or both, respectively, are to be resolved by an Adjudicatory Panel Section Disputes shall be resolved according to the precepts of common law jurisprudence under University Regulations and Wyoming law Section The President shall convene an Adjudicatory Panel by appointing three Active Members, who are not officers, to the Panel, subject to the approval of twothirds of the Senate If the President is unwilling or unable to convene a Panel, the Vice President may appoint three Active Members, who are not officers, to the Panel, subject to the approval of two-thirds of the Senate If neither the President nor the Vice President is willing or able to convene an Adjudicatory Panel, the Senate sua sponte may appoint three Active Members, who are not officers, to the Panel Section Decisions of the Adjudicatory Panel are reviewable, at the Senate’s discretion, by the full Senate ARTICLE VIII Finances Section The Executive Board may raise dues, subject to the approval of a majority of members Active Members shall not be required to pay any increase in dues until after the following Commencement Section The Active Members sua sponte may modify the annual dues by threequarters vote The modification may take effect at any time the Active Members specify Section Nothing shall preclude the Executive Board from seeking or collecting payments from members or attendees at events to meet the goals of NRLC Section If dues are imposed at a future date, the Executive Board may, in good faith, waive the annual dues requirement according to Section of this article for any member of the NRLC Should the Executive Board waive the annual dues Page requirement for a member, the member shall be considered an Active Member through the next Commencement of the University of Wyoming College of Law and shall enjoy all the rights and privileges of Active Membership Section The NRLC is funded through ASUW and fundraising Section In the event that the organization is dissolved, all remaining funds collected from dues will be equally distributed amongst dues-paying members Any additional remaining funds will be donated to ASUW ARTICLE IX Bylaws and Amendments Section Any Active Member may propose a bylaw to the NRLC Bylaws shall take effect upon a majority vote of Active Members and the assent of the President, or if the President does not assent, by a two-thirds vote of the Active Members Section Two-thirds of the Active Members or two Executive Officers may propose an amendment to this Constitution by any means feasible Amendments shall take effect upon ratification by three-quarters of the Active Members Section The rules contained in the most recent edition of ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER, NEWLY REVISED IN BRIEF shall govern NRLC in all cases to the extent that they not conflict with any express provisions, policies, or procedures of this Constitution Deviations in parliamentary procedure are ratified by the silence or affirmation of the attendees at a meeting where and when they occur Section After University recognition is granted, any proposed changes in the approved constitution or bylaws must be presented to the Campus Activity Center for approval, and such changes shall not be effective until approval is granted ARTICLE X Ratification This Constitution shall take effect upon ratification by two-thirds of the Active Members present at a meeting called for the purpose Page CAC APPROVED 10/5/2015-GILLIES