AVERY HOUSE CONSTITUTION
Avery Council’s Commentary on the Preliminary Draft

Brief Overview.
This commentary has been prepared by the Avery Council to provide a context for discussion on the Constitution draft, and to frame our reasoning on what to include in the preliminary draft.  Some of the major differences from the current Constitution that we have included in this new draft are:
•	Membership in Avery House, and the methods of gaining it and dropping it, are now explicitly defined (Article I).
•	The makeup of the Avery Council has changed to include representatives from each Alley in addition to at-large members.  (Article II, Section 3a)
•	The method for becoming a member of the Council has also changed, from a petition system to a “voucher” system designed to make the system more anonymous and fair. (Article II, Section 3b)
•	The Chancellor is now elected by the House instead of the Council, and will be the House’s IHC representative.  A Vice Chancellor position has been created to assist the Chancellor and Secretary in their duties.  (Article II, Sections 4-5)
•	A framework for Roompicks is enacted, though the details would be worked out by the Council in its bylaws to ensure flexibility.  (Article IV)
Comments on the individual sections of the Constitution draft follow.

Preamble.
This is the mission statement of Avery House.

Article I

Sections 1-2:
Being a Resident of Avery automatically makes you a Member, and Residents cannot drop their membership since Residents are integral to Avery life.  People also have the ability to become Members without first establishing residency, by submitting a petition; in an effort to be inclusive, we want non-resident would-be-members to meet and talk to at least some Avery house members and for the process of gaining membership to be fairly easy.

Section 4a:
As things stand currently, part of the money residents currently pay to Housing to live in Avery is given back to Avery to be used by the Avery Council and Social Team.  This year Avery’s budget is $6000. $6000 / 150 residents = $40 per year per resident.  This clause is meant to ensure that, if these hidden dues ever become explicit dues, or if it becomes apparent in the future that our budget is no longer sufficient, that Avery can fund itself.

Section 5:
The Council determines dues because it is directly involved in and knows how money is spent. In addition, becoming a Council Member is a very easy process as is petitioning the Council.

Article II

Article II, sections 1-3 deal with the role and makeup of the Avery Council.  The rest of the Article is concerned with the duties and selections of the various Officers.

Section 1:
This section notes that Council members must be members of Avery, but need not be resident members (physically live in Avery).  Officers, who must take a more active role in Avery's affairs, must live in the House.

Section 2a:
This section ensures that the Council contains representatives of all primary groups in Avery (undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, RA's).

Section 2b:
This section is the Council's mission statement. The Council is the primary governing body of Avery House; it serves to manage Avery's affairs and make non-crucial decisions (the crucial ones being voted upon by the House at large).

Section 3:
The membership rules seek to achieve two disparate goals: allowing anyone who wants to participate to become a Council member (with minimal requirements), and ensuring that the Council remains somewhat representative of all Avery members, not just those individuals who have the initiative to join the Council themselves. To this end, there are two types of Council members: Alley Representatives and Representatives-At-Large. Both types have equal voice on the Council; they only differ in the mechanism by which they are selected.

Section 3a:
Alley Representatives are voted upon by members of their Alley during the first month of the fall term. This would (probably; details have yet to be determined) be a selective vote (as described in Article III, Section 4), with "No Representative" being an option. This latter option would be for Alleys which do not feel they need a direct representative, or for the case where Alley members disapprove of the candidates. If an individual wins this vote, (s)he would then need to acquire 9 signatures (as described below) to become a member of the Council; if (s)he did not, that Alley would have no representative. Anyone in the Alley who wished to be on the Council but who failed to be elected could become a Representative-At-Large; thus, competition should not be particularly vitriolic.

Section 3b:
Representatives-At-Large would be selected by acquiring the signatures of 17 Members of Avery (including at least one undergraduate, one graduate student, and one faculty-in-residence). Note that the method for acquiring signatures has changed dramatically. Under the old system, one would physically walk around with a petition and ask for signatures. This had the flaw that it was very hard to deny a signature when the petitioner was standing right in front of you. A new anonymizing system has been devised to avoid this problem.

The new scheme might for example be implemented as follows.  The petitioner would pass out slips with two sections: one containing "Yes" and "No" checkboxes, and one containing a signature form. The signator would then privately check the preferred box, sign the signature section, and then rip the two sections apart and deposit them in separate boxes. (Alternatively, the Yes/No section may have a flap to seal it; the whole ballot would be placed in one box, and the separation of the two halves would be done by the Election Committee before unsealing the flap but after validating the signature. The two mechanisms are identical from a privacy point of view.) The importance of this method is that it allows for validating the signatures (to prevent one person submitting more than one ballot) without forcing any individuals to admit whether they approved the individual for the Council. The No votes would be discarded without any record kept of their numbers; in principle, the petitioner could simply have not asked those people for signatures, with the same net effect.

Section 3c:
This section aims to encourage participation in the Council before granting power to new members.

Section 3d:
This section ensures that Council members from previous years are not "grandfathered" their positions when their support base is gone; all old Council members must re-apply for the position just as if they were new members (though they will retain voting powers)

Section 3e:
This section makes sure that Council members who become inactive can be removed from Council (so that if they want to regain membership, they must acquire signatures again.)

Section 4:
The Chancellor is required to already be a member of the Avery Council so that he/she will have prior experience with its workings.

Section 5:
The Vice Chancellor as described works closely with the Chancellor and Secretary, and so it is best that the Chancellor have the authority to appoint this position.

Section 6:
The Secretary must work well with the Council, and so is appointed by members of the Council.  Pertaining to clause f, note that the secretary does not have the power to deny requests to join Avery Council.

Section 8:
Part of the social director's job is to provide accountability for Social Team decisions, since Social Team members are not subject to the vote of no confidence check.

Section 9:
The UCC section is left intentionally vague since the particular way in which they provide support to House members is likely to change over time.

Section 10:
Besides having to resubmit signatures every year, the vote of no confidence is another check on the Council and its members

Article III

Section 4:
There is a general consensus that selective votes are a better way of picking between different options than your standard “everyone votes for one person and the person with the most votes wins” strategy.  

Section 5:
Votes of no confidence should be fairly hard to pass, hence the two thirds referendum vote.

Section 6:
House Members should always have the option of bringing votes before the house on various items.

Article IV

We want to maintain diversity and inclusiveness at Avery. We also want to avoid kicking people out of Avery who want to stay. Careful planning should let us do both.

Section 1:
"Non-privileged persons" is not meant to be derogatory but informative.

Section 2:
Resident members should have precedence over non-residents who have a good lottery pick. However, unfilled bed spaces should be open to non-members. Additionally, a small number of bed spaces should be guaranteed to non-members, for diversity.

Section 4:
We want to ensure that grad students will always be part of the Avery community. At least, we want to ensure that if the grad student community does die out, it's not because of lack of rooms; maybe because of a shortsighted board plan, but not because of lack of rooms.

Section 5:
We don't want better room picks to be a reason for people to serve the Avery community. However, we realize it would be much more difficult for an officer to fulfill his duties if not living in Avery.

Article V

This article delineates the relationship between the Avery House government, its members, and the Administration and other outside bodies such as the IHC.  The first section states that the Council and officers exist to serve the interests of the House’s members, and is meant to prevent abuse of the government’s authority.  The second section acts as a federalism clause of sorts; it forbids outside bodies from interfering with or dictating Avery’s internal affairs.

Article VI

Section 1:
Amendments to the Constitution can be proposed by either the Avery Council or by petition of 20% of the House; the presence of both methods makes it possible for an Amendment to be put before the House even if the Council is unwilling.  The Amendment must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the members of the House, which guarantees that any Amendment passed must have broad support; and two-thirds of the members must vote, ensuring that a small part of the House cannot get an Amendment passed in a vote where the House is not widely represented.

Section 2:
This section allows Council bylaws and resolutions as well as House votes to be binding, as long as the do not contradict the Constitution.  It also holds that very important or controversial decisions should be handled by House vote instead of by the Council.