Sunday, May 10, 2009

EON Constitution Proposal


Mission:


EON is a network of students that work together both to raise awareness of and implement working solutions to environmental issues both within and beyond the Wesleyan community.

Purposes:

1. Provide a network for sharing information and collaborating among environmental groups and campaigns on campus.
2. Provide an accessible environmentalist community that acts as a hub for recruitment.
3. Provide the space and resources for members to work together on unified, large-scale campaigns.

Structure:

1. EON holds monthly meetings that are facilitated by two Coordinators.
a. Meetings take place on Monday nights at 9:00pm. The Coordinators decide on the specific dates at the beginning of each semester.
b. The purpose of these meetings is primarily to coordinate among the several environmental groups and campaigns on campus.
c. Meetings also provide the opportunity for EON members to select particular issues or campaigns to collectively focus on.
2. EON consists of standing committees, ad hoc committees, and independent groups.
a. Standing committees have at least one chair or contact person who holds the central responsibility for coordinating the committee’s interaction with the larger group.
i. Each committee keeps an updated list of active members, and all such lists are given to the EON Secretary.
b. Ad hoc committees are created and dissolved as necessary to plan for one-time events and campaigns.
c. All groups with an environmental focus, including those that wish to remain organizationally independent from EON, are encouraged to designate members to attend EON meetings, with the objective of forming close and lasting partnerships.

Leadership Roles:

1. All EON leaders are nominated and democratically elected during the first meeting of each semester. If a leader cannot come to an EON meeting, ze is responsible for designating someone else to fill hir role.
a. Two Coordinators
i. Organize and facilitate monthly meetings.
ii. Take charge of student recruitment.
iii. Check and respond to emails sent to weseon@gmail.com.
iv. Assist and guide committees when necessary.
b. Treasurer
i. Keeps track of all EON funds.
ii. Acts as the group contact for the SBC.
1. All committees should make requests to the SBC through EON rather than on their own.
c. Secretary
i. Takes minutes at all meetings.
ii. Sends out email updates to the EON community.
d. Administrative Liaison
i. Facilitates communication between students and university administrators.
e. Social Coordinator
i. Organizes informal social events.

Standing Committees (subject to change):

- Energy
- Compost/Waste
- Awareness
- Landscaping

Ad Hoc Committees (subject to change):

- Earth Day
- Focus the Nation
- Dining
- Procurement

Independent Groups (subject to change):

- SAGES
- WSA
- Long Lane Farm
- Farmers Market
- Bike Co-op
- Earth House
- Outing Club
- WesDems

5 comments:

Sam Bernhardt said...

EON,
I like the new constitution. I think it provides just enough structure with the monthly meetings, while also allowing people to devote themselves to more specific projects.

Given that, I think the particulars of the new constitution are lacking in that they do not really expand the group's existing connections. Other groups on campus should be given a chance to be "independent groups" contributing to EON. Also, how about an environmental justice subgroup?

Josh said...

One of the central purposes of this new constitution is to involve as many other groups on campus as possible, but we only listed the ones that seemed clearly related to EON. It would be great to have as many involved as possible.

We should also definitely have an environmental justice subgroup. The three bottom categories in the constitution are very much subject to change, and we hope to expand and improve upon what's listed.

Alex said...

i think we should also have someone be responsible for EON's web presence (maybe the secretary, or the coordinators, or maybe a different position altogether). in addition to sending out update emails, it's important to have the website and blog constantly updated. in my mind, the website should be:
1. a place where groups can publish their work/campaigns/etc
2. a place where eon members and others can access tools and resources

keep up the good work! yay.

Josh said...

We all agreed that someone should be in charge of EONs web presence, but we were concerned that if we made it an official position it might regularly be filled by people who don't really want to do it but are just taking one for the team (as we've yet to find a volunteer web master other than you).

So basically we agree but were worried that no one would actually take and do the job.

(we're looking forward to your return to Wes)

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