AVERY CONSTITUTION

Preamble.  We, the undergraduates, graduate students, and resident faculty of Avery, in order to create a community that is open, fair, and diverse, that is supportive and encourages the pursuit of knowledge without fear of ridicule or peer pressure, and that is a gathering place for upright, creative, and tenacious people, do hereby ordain and establish this Constitution for the community of Avery.

	Article I.  Membership and Dues
	Sec. 1  Membership in Avery may be established in the following ways:
		a.  Residency.  Anyone living in Avery shall automatically become a Member of Avery.
		b.  Membership Petition.  Anyone not living in Avery wishing to become a Member may present the Council with a petition signed by ten Members of Avery.  In exceptional circumstances, the Council reserves the right to deny Membership by a unanimous vote.
	Sec. 2  The membership of Avery at any time is limited to current Residents and current students of Caltech even if non-Residents.
	Sec. 3  Non-resident members wishing to drop their membership must notify the Secretary in writing.  Membership is not automatically dropped by a member terminating their residency in Avery if that person remains a current student of Caltech.
	Sec. 4  Members of Avery shall have the right to:
		a.  Attend subsidized Social Events,
		b.  Participate in the Avery internal housing lottery,
		c.  Bring matters before the Avery Council or to votes of the Members themselves, and
		d.  Vote on all matters put before the Avery Members.
	Sec. 5  Dues shall be determined by two-thirds referendum vote of Avery, as specified in Article III of this Constitution.

	Article II.  Officers
	Sec. 1  All Council Members must be Members of Avery.  Officers other than Council Members must also be Residents of Avery.
	Sec. 2  Avery Council.
		a.  The Avery Council shall consist of at least two undergraduates, one graduate, one Faculty-in-Residence, and one Resident Associate of Avery.  All members of the Avery Council shall have votes in Council meetings, with the exception of Resident Associates and the Vice Chancellor.
		b.  The duties of the Council shall be to manage affairs involving Avery and to guide Avery in a direction beneficial to its Members.  The Avery Council may take actions necessary and proper to carry these out by simple majority motion.
	Sec. 3  Council Members.
		a.  Avery Members may join the Council by presenting to the Secretary the names and signatures of 17 Members of Avery who approve of the candidate as a representative of all the Members at large by the following system.  Candidates shall distribute vouchers to Avery Members, who shall each privately mark it yes or no for support of the candidate and sign it.  They will then either submit such vouchers by placing them in a ballot box or by handing them personally to the Secretary.  The vouchers shall be designed so that the vote of the Member is not visible while the signature is being validated.  Additionally, the candidate may optionally submit to the Secretary a list of the persons he or she has distributed a voucher to, so that the Secretary may follow up on whether the Members’ vouchers have been submitted.  The candidate must obtain the signatures of at least one undergraduate, one graduate, and one Faculty-in-Residence in the affirmative, and 17 in all, to be seated on the Council.  Signatures having indicated in the negative shall not count against the candidate and records of these numbers shall not be preserved. 
		b. All new Council Members shall hold their position for at least one month and attend at least four Council meetings before they are given the right to vote as a Council Member.
		c.  Within one month after the beginning of each academic year, all Council Members wishing to remain on the Council must submit signatures as specified above to the Secretary.
		d.  A Council Member missing three consecutive Council meetings shall be subject to having his or her Council Membership revoked by a two-thirds majority vote by the Council.
	Sec. 4  Chancellor.  The Chancellor shall be chosen from among those Avery Members who have been on Council for at least three months, by a selective vote of all Avery Members.  No person shall be Chancellor for more than two consecutive years.  The duties of the Chancellor shall be:
		a. To be a liaison between Members of Avery and organizations outside of Avery.  This includes being Avery’s delegate to the IHC if the Chancellor is an undergraduate; otherwise a separate selective election shall be held among undergraduates for this position;
	Sec. 5  Vice Chancellor.  The Vice Chancellor shall be elected by the Avery Council from among its members.
		a. To preside over the Avery Council, and break tie votes thereof (though the Vice Chancellor shall not have a vote on the Council otherwise);
		b. To assist the Secretary in organizing Council meetings and preparing the agenda thereof;
		c.  To publicize and facilitate the process of voting, and to communicate the results of votes and other Council decisions to Members of Avery;
		d. To conduct Roompicks;
		e. To preside over Avery meetings
		f. To entertain concerns of Members about internal issues and affairs of Avery;
		g. To assume responsibility for unforeseen Council tasks; and 
		h. To assume the responsibilities of the Chancellor while the Chancellor is unable to perform his or her duties.  
	Sec. 6  Secretary.  The Avery Council shall appoint the Secretary by motion from among its members. The Secretary shall:
		a.  Maintain and publish a list of the current Members of Avery on the Avery website,
		b.  Maintain email lists,
		c.  Record minutes of Avery Council meetings and Avery Meetings, e-mail them to the Members, and publish them on the Avery website,
		d.  Publish this Constitution on the Avery website,
		e.  Record and tabulate the results of all votes made by the Members or Avery Council, and
		f.  Accept requests by Members of Avery to join Avery Council.
	Sec. 7  Social Director/Treasurer.  Upon election of the Members by selective vote, the Social Director/Treasurer shall:
		a.  Be responsible for regularly updating the Avery Council on Social Team activities and expenditures;
		b.  Organize and preside over Social Team meetings, approve Social Team decisions or defer them to Avery Council, and monitor the Social Team budget;
		c.  Be a signatory on the Avery bank account;
		d.  Keep a record of all expenditures of Avery;
		e.  Collect dues; and
		f.  Provide reimbursements for Avery expenditures.
		g.  If the Social Director/Treasurer is not a member of the Avery Council at the time of election, he or she shall become an ex officio member for as long as he or she holds that office.
		h. The operation and constitution of the Social Team shall be specified in the Avery bylaws.
	Sec. 8  All officers may delegate tasks to other members of the Avery Council and Social Team.
	Sec. 9  Upperclass Counselors (UCCs).  UCCs shall provide support and counseling to members of Avery.
	Sec. 10  Removal.  Any Officer may at any time be subjected to a vote of no confidence.  If an Officer is removed, he or she shall be replaced using the processes described in Article II, Section 2 immediately.  If there are no Officers to facilitate elections, the Resident Associates shall perform this duty.

	Article III.  Voting and Elections
	Sec. 1  Elections shall be held during second or third term for the positions of Chancellor and Social Director/Treasurer.  The specific day shall be chosen by the Council.  Persons eligible for either of the positions shall declare candidacy by thus informing the Secretary.
	Sec. 2  A quorum of the Members of Avery is defined to be at least one half of the population of Residents.  A quorum of the Avery Council is defined to be at least three quarters of the voting Council members, or three voting Council members, whichever is greater.  No vote of any type shall be considered valid without a quorum.
	Sec. 3  A referendum is defined as a vote with three options: yes, no and abstain.  A referendum is passed if there are more yes votes than no votes; a two-thirds referendum is passed if there are at least twice as many yes votes as no votes.
	Sec. 4  A selective vote is defined as a vote with multiple choices.  For each selective vote, a voter shall rank the choices in order of descending preference, with rank one being the most preferred.  For each rank, the voter may select one of the choices on the ballot, may write in a choice not already on the ballot, or may leave the rank blank.  There shall also be a choice for NO, but that may only be raked first if desired.  A ballot conforming to these guidelines shall be considered correctly cast.  The winner of a selective vote is declared as follows:
		a.  Ballots are counted according to first rank votes.  If one choice gets a majority of the votes then it wins.  If NO gets a majority of the votes, than that vote is considered invalid.
		b.  If no winner has been declared, the choice with the fewest votes shall be eliminated, and each of that choice’s ballots shall be redistributed among the choices by the next available choice ranked. This process shall be repeated until one choice gets a majority of the votes.
		c.  Ties among last place choices shall be resolved by the following process: the votes of one of the tied choices shall be redistributed, and the count process continued until a potential winner is found.  This shall be repeated for each of the other tied choices, until all such potential winners are found.  If the same choice emerges as the potential winner in all cases, then that choice is declared the winner.  If no consensus is found, then all correctly cast ballots shall be reorganized and counted according to preferences for only the potential winners, using the procedure outlined above, and the choice receiving an absolute majority of the votes shall be declared the winner.  If a tie occurs among all remaining choices, the vote shall be ruled indeterminate, and another vote shall be held at the earliest possible opportunity.
	Sec. 5  A vote of no confidence against an Officer of Avery may be brought before the Members according to the process set forth in Section 6 of this article, for negligence of their duties as set forth in this Constitution.  If the vote of no confidence is confirmed by a two thirds referendum vote of the Members, the officer's position is immediately revoked.
	Sec. 6  Votes are brought before the Members of Avery in the following circumstances:
		a.  The Avery Council decides that a vote should be brought before the Members; or
		b.  A petition for a vote is made by 20% of the Members and presented to the Vice Chancellor or the Secretary at least seven days before the vote is to occur.  The date and method of the vote must be specified in the petition, but the method is limited to one specified in this Constitution.
	Sec. 7  The voting period on any vote brought before the Members shall be specified in the Council motion or petition enabling the vote, but may not be more than 72 hours.  The motion or petition must also specify whether and how the voting period may be extended in the case that a quorum is not reached; but in no case may the total period of voting exceed the 72-hour maximum.
	Sec. 8  The vote shall be publicized using appropriate means by the Vice Chancellor beginning a minimum of four days prior to the start of the voting period.  Absentee ballots shall be made available by the Vice Chancellor and the Secretary to any Members who wish to vote but are unable to be present during the voting period.
	Sec. 9  All votes shall be conducted by secret ballot, and each Member of Avery may cast one ballot in each vote.  Votes may be cast at Avery meetings of all Members, via Internet, via a ballot box placed in a public area of Avery, or by direct presentation to the election committee.
	Sec. 10  An election committee composed of the Secretary and one Resident Associate shall be responsible for the collection and tabulation of all votes, regardless of the method by which the votes are cast.
	
	Article IV.  Room Picks
	Sec. 1  Undergraduates wishing to pick a room in Avery shall be divided into three categories:
		a.  Residents, who are people currently living in Avery;
		b.  Eligible Non-Resident Members, defined as non-residents of Avery who have held Membership for at least one month; and
		c.  Non-Eligible Persons, being everyone else.
	Sec. 2  The Vice Chancellor shall conduct an internal picks procedure for undergraduate rooms, in a timely manner before the campus unaffiliated lottery.
		a. Prior to the Housing lotteries, a number of bed spaces will be set aside for incoming freshmen, for incoming transfers, and for Non-Privileged Persons.
		b. Current Residents and Eligible Non-Resident Members of Avery shall be allowed to pick rooms in the Internal Lottery.  Once all Eligible Members have been given the opportunity to pick rooms, the Non-Eligible Persons shall be allowed to pick into Avery as the Avery Council shall arrange with Caltech Housing.
		c. The incoming freshman and transfers shall pick their rooms in a special Roompick shortly after Rotation, in random order.
	Sec. 3  If any undergraduate spot shall become vacant during the course of the academic year, it shall be filled in a special Roompick, with the interested students having the same order as described above.
Sec. 4  Graduate student rooms will not be part of the undergrad housing lottery.  If there are empty graduate rooms during the year, they can be filled as the Avery Council, in consultation with Caltech Housing, sees fit.  However, all said rooms will return to the graduate student lottery when it occurs.
	Sec. 5  The Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Secretary, and Social Director/Treasurer (but not other Avery Council members) shall be guaranteed a room during the Avery internal lottery, but shall be given no further privilege for roompicks.  However, no one not enumerated in this Constitution shall be guaranteed a room.
	Sec. 6  The Avery Council shall determine the distribution of available spots among all involved groups as part of its bylaws; but each group must be allocated a reasonable nonzero number of spots.

Article V.  Relations and Limitations
Sec. 1  The Avery Council and all other Avery officials derive their authority from the Members of Avery.  All powers not granted in this Constitution are reserved to the people.
Sec. 2  Neither the Administration nor any other outside body may force the clauses of this Constitution to be violated, nor may they induce others to relinquish the rights granted in this Constitution.  The Avery Council or other officials must not be forced to partake in any action contrary to its will, binding arbitration and court action excepted.

	Article VI.  Amendments and Conditions
	Sec. 1  All amendments to this Constitution shall be proposed as stipulated in Article III, Section 6, and shall be approved by a two-thirds referendum vote of the Members of Avery.  Any amendment made to this Constitution shall take effect immediately upon passage, but shall not have retroactive effects of any kind.  It is the responsibility of the Secretary, upon the passage of a Constitutional amendment, to promptly post the amended Constitution in a publicly accessible location.
	Sec. 2  Any matters not directly resolved by this Constitution shall be resolved either by the Avery Council or by a vote of the Members of Avery, depending on the import of the matter in question.
	Sec. 3  This Constitution shall take effect immediately upon ratification by two-thirds referendum vote of the Members of Avery, which must include two-thirds of all undergraduate and two-thirds of all graduate students voting.