Current contact details:
executives@cissa.org.au
August 2021
2012/09/14 - First version
2013/09/24 - Change to 5 general reps from Activities Officer/Industry Liaison / 2 general reps, Removal of co-opt positions, Introduction of Intermediate Past President/Women’s Officer / 25% AA quota, Requirement for committee to approve payments through motion/Call a committee meeting after four academic weeks, Ability for member to move a motion to call for a secret ballot, Circular motions, Requirement for particular secret ballot voting methods in committee elections, Immediate application of constitutional amendments.
2014/09/09 - (Re)introduction of junior individual positions for general committee members, Procedures for enforcing Affirmative Action in a by-election.
2016/09/05 - Introduction of UX Officer individual position for general committee members. Introduction of sub-committee roles which may be appointed by executives and general committee members as needed and deemed suitable. Sub-committee members do not have to be voted in at general meetings and do not have voting rights. Introduction of compulsory constitution amendment from UMSU, clause 24, Grievance procedure.
2018/09/21 - General Committee is now composed of single-member positions with specific portfolios. Updated Affirmative Action procedures to handle new single-member General Committee positions. Events Officer is now an Executive position, Diversity Officer is now a General Committee position. Introduction of the First Year Officer, and the removal of the UX Officer. Removal of the Immediate Past President. Old committee are now bound to mentor new committee and run events organised prior to the AGM.
2021/08/20 - Renaming all "Officer" roles in the previous committee structure to "Director" and all subcommittee roles to "Officer". Introduction of Product Director, which is similar to the UX Officer role from previous years but also covering Product Management oriented events. Introduction of Hackathon Director that organises hackathon(s) throughout the year. Moving Events Director to general committee.
The name of the club shall be Computing and Information Systems Students Association.
This club is affiliated to UMSU Inc (UMSU) and anything in this constitution that conflicts with the constitution of UMSU or with the Clubs & Societies Regulations shall be null and void. In all matters not specifically dealt with herein, the Constitution of UMSU and the Clubs & Societies Regulations shall apply.
During the course of affiliation with UMSU this club shall comply with any requirements of the Clubs & Societies Committee of UMSU for the provision of records and documents and shall be under a duty to apply any grant monies received from the Clubs & Societies Committee in accordance with any conditions imposed by such body.
The aims of the club are:
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Provide a focal point for Melbourne University students interested in Computers to socialize.
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Give opportunities for career advancement to students by hosting events in conjunction with the IT industry.
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Promote current global and local technological trends in research and industry.
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Make a positive contribution to the general welfare of CIS students by enhancing communications between the CISSA, the students and the CIS department.
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Encourage and improve the learning, teaching and research of Computing and Information Systems within the university.
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Represent the interests of the Computer Science, Software Engineering and Business and IT communities fairly.
Membership shall be open to all students of the University of Melbourne; Associate membership shall be open to any other persons who subscribe to the aims of the club.
Membership to our club shall be free. A person shall be considered a member having: completed a membership form as prepared by the committee.
The committee shall have the following members elected at the AGM:
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Elected executive members, who shall be University of Melbourne students, consisting of:
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the President, who shall be in their second or later year and should have past committee experience;
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the Vice-President, who shall be in their second or later year and should have past committee experience;
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the Secretary, who shall be in their second or later year;
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the Treasurer, who shall be in their second or later year;
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the Education Director, who shall be in their second or later year;
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General committee members, who shall be University of Melbourne students, consisting of:
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the Publicity Director;
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the Industry Liaison;
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the IT Director;
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the First Year Director, who shall be a Bachelor of Science student in their first year;
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the Diversity Director, who must be a woman or identify as non-binary.
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the Events Director;
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the Product Director;
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the Hackathon Director;
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Affirmative Action shall be applied for women at 25 percent, rounded up, of the elected committee.
Team officers may be appointed by Executives and General Committee members as needed and deemed suitable through recruitment drives normally at the beginning of each semester. Team officers do not have voting rights in the committee.
All committee members must agree to be bound by their duties to CISSA and participate in the organisation and execution of all CISSA-run events and initiatives including but not limited to marketing campaigns, setting up of events, speaking at events, etc., unless a reasonable notice is provided in advance.
The committee shall have the following powers:
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Control over the finances of the club.
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Control over the activities of the club.
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Control over the facilities of the club.
The Committee may, by way of motion:
- Authorise payments to be made from the society account
The committee is at all times bound by the decisions of a club general meeting.
Any committee decision may be overturned by a club general meeting.
Only those who have been members for more than 5 days may vote at a club general meeting.
There shall be one Annual General Meeting every calendar year, which shall be held during the academic period, but no later than the end of September.
At this meeting:
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Written reports shall be presented by the President, Treasurer, Education Director and any other pertinent persons;
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Ratification of the clubs constitution;
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Full financial report will be presented and adopted for the financial period from AGM to AGM;
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Elections will be held for a new committee, to take charge of the club from the close of the meeting;
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Other moved motions may be discussed and voted upon, with preference going to motions of which notice was given before the meeting;
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The club shall submit all the AGM documents to the C&S Administrator within two weeks of the AGM.
The outgoing committee must make itself available to guide the incoming committee in club organisation and running events until the end of the semester in which the AGM occurs. This includes, but is not limited to, taking charge of events and mentoring successors in their new duties.
There must be an official knowledge handover between the outgoing and incoming committee to ensure that information and contacts are preserved. This includes, but is not limited to:
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Transferring ownership of any team software integral to the running of the club;
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Conducting formal introductions to current industry contacts;
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Providing updated documentation to assist throughout the handover period and beyond.
There shall be such general meetings as the committee sees fit, or as are petitioned. The procedure of such meeting will be as for the Annual General Meeting, except committee elections will not be held unless specifically notified.
If fifteen members, or one third of the membership, whichever is the smaller, should petition the committee for a general meeting, such meeting must be held within fifteen academic days, at a date to be set by the committee.
The quorum shall be:
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At a General Meeting or Annual General Meeting, a minimum of twenty University of Melbourne student members.
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At a committee meeting, five committee members, at least one of whom must be a member of the executive.
The committee shall be required to give at least five academic days notice of a General Meeting (GM), Annual General Meeting (AGM) or Special General Meeting (SGM). Such notice must be email notification and given to both the Clubs and Societies Administrator and club members.
A committee meeting may be called by any executive member of the committee, subject to such limitations on notice and spending as the committee may from time to time set. An executive member must call a committee meeting if a quorate committee meeting has not been held within the previous four academic weeks.
Voting in all meetings shall be democratic, with a simple majority sufficing for the passage of a motion. All tied motions are passed to the president for the deciding vote. No proxy voting shall be permitted.
A motion may be moved in a general or committee meeting to put a motion to a secret ballot. The Chair, acting as the Returning Officer, shall then conduct the secret ballot and declare the result. The Returning Officer shall not cast a vote during the ballot.
Where a member of the Committee determines that a motion needs to be put to the Committee as a matter of urgency; and it would not be practicable to convene a meeting of the Committee to pass the proposed motion, then consent by a simple majority of the Committee, communicated in writing by each Committee member to the Secretary, will suffice to pass the motion.
Constitutional changes require a simple majority of members voting at a Special General Meeting or Annual General Meeting, and take effect immediately. These constitutional motions must be presented in writing to the committee at least five academic days before the meeting, and notice of these shall be given to the membership. Constitutional changes shall be approved by the UMSU Clubs & Societies Office Bearer(s) before they are presented to a general meeting.
The Committee shall be elected by the following procedure:
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Each Executive and General Committee position shall be elected by optional instant-runoff voting.
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Following the conclusion of the Executives ballots, the Returning Officer shall check to see if the Affirmative Action target prescribed in Section 5.2 has been met.
If the target has not been met, the Returning Officer will continue to conduct the General Committee ballots, noting the order of potential election of candidates, as well as the vote counts, for each position. If the target has still not been met, all General Committee ballots should use the following procedure:
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Using the vote counts, the Returning Officer shall check to see which ballots had a woman candidate who wasn’t elected.
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For the ballot with the woman that was closest to being elected, this woman shall instead be elected.
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In the case of two female candidates from separate positions trying, the order that their position appears in Section 5.1.1 of the Constitution shall be taken into account, with the candidate whose position appears higher in that order being chosen.
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This procedure should continue until the Affirmative Action target has been met.
If the target has still not been met, the Returning Officer will then declare vacant the number of General Committee positions not held by women required to meet the target in the reverse order of their appearance in Section 5.1.1 of the Constitution.
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In a by-election called outside of an Annual General Meeting the Returning Officer is directed to check whether the composition of the committee including vacancies meets the Affirmative Action target prescribed in Section 5.2. Vacant positions don’t count towards the Affirmative Action target.
If the Affirmative Action target has not been met, after concluding Executive Committee ballots, the Returning Officer should conduct elections for all unfilled positions with ballots using the procedure outlined in Section 14.4.2.
Any committee member absent from two consecutive committee meetings without due cause or previous apology may, at the committees discretion, be deemed to resign from her/his position by a motion of the committee. If the resigning member was an executive member, a general meeting must be called to elect a replacement. Otherwise, the committee may elect a successor or leave the position vacant at their discretion.
If it is deemed that a committee member should be stood down, by a motion of the committee, or a petition bearing the names of at least fifteen members, impeachment proceedings will take place against the nominated committee member. At the next general meeting or Annual General Meeting, a motion shall be put to impeach the committee member, provided that at least five academic days notice has been given to the membership and to the member concerned in writing. If this passed by a two thirds majority, that committee position will become vacant and a new election held immediately. The committee member to be impeached will be given at least five minutes to speak before the vote is taken.
If deemed by a motion of the committee, or a petition bearing the names of at least fifteen members, any member of the club can be expelled. The procedure is the same as for impeachment except that the result is the voiding of the persons membership. No member may be expelled on the ground of race, sex, gender or religion; political, moral or sexual views.
A motion to wind up the club must be written and notice of the motion is to be given in the agenda for the general meeting at which the winding up motion is to be decided. A winding up motion must be carried by an absolute majority.
In the event that the club is wound up, or ceases to be affiliated to UMSU the control of assets which have been 50% or more funded by UMSU Clubs & Societies Committee grants and which are less than 3 years old will revert to UMSU and be held in trust by UMSU Clubs & Societies Committee until such time that a club with the same aims is affiliated or a period of 18 months lapses.
In the event that the club has not been able to organise a quorate meeting within the 12 month period, the UMSU Clubs & Societies Committee may wind up the club by passing a motion to do so under the rules of UMSU. Any member of the club who wished to oppose the winding up of the club should make submissions to the committee. The decision of the committee is final subject only to appeal under UMSU rules.
For all purpose herein, an academic day will be considered as a day in the academic calendar of the University of Melbourne.
The profits (if any) or other income and property of the club must be applied solely towards the promotion of the aims of the club as set out in this Constitution and no portion of it may be paid or transferred, directly or indirectly, to any member of the club whether by way of dividend, bonus or other profits. This does not prevent any payment in good faith by the club for the payment or reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by a member of the club on behalf of the club.
If the club is wound up, any money remaining after the payment of all debts, liabilities and expenses must not be paid or distributed to the members but must be transferred to the C&S Committee of UMSU.
Any grievance that arises between a club and UMSU, a club member and another club member, or a club member and another University of Melbourne student is subject to the grievance procedure outlined in the UMSU Clubs & Societies Regulations. If the parties subject to a grievance are unable to meet and discuss the grievance and determine a resolution within 21 academic days, the UMSU Clubs & Societies Officer/s or their nominated representative shall appoint a mediator to facilitate mediation. Parties subject to mediation will have certain rights as members of the club suspended until mediation is completed.