Article I: Name

The name of the governing body of Edgerton House shall be the Edgerton House Association.

Article II: Definition of Membership

The membership consists of the Executive Committee, the Student Advisory Board, and all Subcommittees. All members must be MIT students. Members of the Executive Committee must live in Edgerton, or move to Edgerton when space becomes available. Members of the Student Advisory Board must be current residents of Edgerton, and either former members of Executive Committee or residents who have lived contiguously in Edgerton for three years or longer.

Article III: Executive Committee

The Association shall be headed by an Executive Committee with ten voting members. These ten members shall be as follows: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, External Relations Chair, Social Chairs (2), Reservations/Resources Officer, Information Technology Chair, and Gym Activities/Athletics Coordinator. The offices of President and Treasurer must be held by distinct MIT students. In addition, non-voting members of the Executive Committee shall be as follows: Representatives to the Graduate Student Council, Desk Captain, Chair of the Student Advisory Board, Residential Life / Student Life Programs representative (SLP), Representatives-at-large, and Building Manager. With the exception of the Building Manager and SLP representative, Executive Committee members must be residents of Edgerton House or become residents of Edgerton House during their term.

Article IV: Objective of Executive Committee

The Executive Committee shall have the following rights and duties:

• Representation of Edgerton House with the Housing Office and the Institute.
• Recommendation of uses for all house funds, including funds from the Housing Office and all other sources appropriated for Edgerton House residents.
• Recommendation for the regulation and use of the common facilities of Edgerton House. These shall include but not be limited to the common lounges, the exercise room, the music room, the common storage, the bicycle storage areas, and the recycling rooms.

Article V: Subcommittees

The Edgerton House Association shall have the following subcommittees: Social and Athletic. The membership, organization and duties of these subcommittees shall be as follows:

• Social Subcommittee: This subcommittee shall be headed by the Social Chair(s). He/She shall recruit members from the House at large to be responsible for the management of social functions.
• Athletic Subcommittee: This subcommittee shall be headed by the Gym Activities/Athletics Coordinator. The membership of this subcommittee shall be the captains of all the teams entered by Edgerton House into intramural sports.

Article VI: Student Advisory Board

The Student Advisory Board shall consist of three or more current Edgerton residents (with the total number of members being odd). The Student Advisory Board shall administer fair elections, run the Edgerton Transfer Lottery in accordance with the dates set by Housing, act in an advisory capacity to the Executive Committee, run the bike purge.

By June 1, possible new members are identified by the current Student Advisory Board. The Student Advisory Board will contact these candidates by letter and email. All interested parties must submit a statement of intent to the Executive Committee. Members are then confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the Executive Committee before June 30. No member of the Board may be a member of the Executive Committee.

Members hold office while residency in Edgerton is maintained or unless impeached. The Housemaster may choose to serve in an advisory capacity. The Chair of the Student Advisory Board is elected by a majority vote of the Student Advisory Board in January.

Article VII: Meetings

Two types of official meetings - General Meetings and Executive Committee Meetings - shall be held in Edgerton House. The nature of these two types of meetings shall be as follows:

• General Meetings: Any resident of the House can request the calling of a General Meeting. However, in the event that no other resident requests a General Meeting, the President shall schedule a minimum of one Meeting each academic term (during the Spring and during the Fall). The Secretary shall notify all residents at least three days before the Meeting. To reach any official decision, there must be a majority vote of those present with at least ten residents in attendance.
• Executive Committee Meetings: The President shall call Meetings of the Executive Committee at his/her discretion. To reach any official decision, there must be a majority vote in the Committee with at least six of the voting members present. Executive Committee Meetings shall be open to residents, except when a majority of the voting members present decides it necessary to exclude them for discussion of a particular issue.

The Secretary shall be responsible for the recording and the public posting of the minutes for each meeting.

Article VIII: Expenditure of House Funds

The Treasurer shall present the budget for the following school year at least a month before the end of the fiscal year, both to the Housing Office and to the residents. At the end of each semester, a detailed account of the expenditures of that semester shall be available upon request.

Article IX: Terms of Office

The terms of office for Executive Committee members shall be as follows: Nine of the voting members of the Executive Committee (not including the Information Technology Chair) shall be elected to one-year terms that last from the first Monday in March to the day before the first Monday in March of the following year. Elected members shall have the right to abode in Edgerton House until their terms of office expire. Any member who leaves the House prematurely shall resign his/her position on the Executive Committee.

The Information Technology Chair will be appointed by the Executive Committee no later than 1 week prior to elections. His/her term runs on the day of appointment and runs, for one year, until a new IT Chair is selected.

The Representatives to the Graduate Student Council shall serve their terms according to the rules set forth by the Graduate Student Council.

The Chair of the Student Advisory Board, the Building Manager, and the Desk Captain are appointed and shall have indefinite terms on the Executive Committee until their tenures on the respective positions terminate.

Any number of Representatives-at-large may be appointed by the Executive Committee. These Representatives must already be residents in the House and will serve a term that begins upon appointment and ends on the day after elections.

Article X: Elections

The Student Advisory Board shall sponsor elections by the residents within the first four weeks of February. The members to be elected shall be President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, External Relations Chair, Social Chair, Reservations/Resources Officer, and Gym Activities/Athletics Coordinator. The voting shall be by secret ballot cast at the Front Desk from 8 am to 12 am. On midnight, the day before elections, posters must be taken down. Candidates are prohibited from campaigning the day of the election. This includes offering incentives or intimidating residents on the day of the elections.

For a resident to place his/her name on the ballot, he/she must present a statement of intent to the current Chair of the Student Advisory Board before a deadline set by the Student Advisory Board, which should be at least three or more days prior to the elections. The Student Advisory Board should post these statements on the public bulletin board in the Front Lobby and on the Edgerton House Website at least three days prior to the election. In the event that a member of the Student Advisory Board wishes to run for office, he/she must first resign from the Student Advisory Board.

The votes will be counted by the Chair of the Student Advisory Board under the supervision of the House Manager or other representative from RLSLP. No other parties may participate in or monitor this process. To preserve voter secrecy in such a small voter population, only the winner of each position will be announced; no further vote tallies or percentages will be announced. A recount may be demanded by any party, in which case the Student Advisory Board and the House Manager (or other RLSLP representative) will recount the ballots. Again, in order to assure voter secrecy, no other parties may participate in or monitor this process.

A simple majority shall constitute election to the relevant office. In the event that a post is not contested, the candidate shall automatically be declared the winner.

In the event of a tie for an officer election, the tie shall be broken by a runoff election. The runoff election shall occur within one week after the results from the general officer election have been posted.

In the event of early resignation of the President, the Vice President will serve as a successor to the President, and the office of Vice President will be filled as described in the paragraph below.

In the event of an officer vacancy (with the exception of the President), the remaining officers should notify the House within two weeks and ask that residents interested in filling the vacancy identify themselves to the House officers. All the officers should vote to decide whom to offer the position. The vacant office should be filled within one month after the previous officer has vacated the position.

Article XI: Transition

After elections, the previous officers will remain part of the executive board for a period of one month. They will not have voting power, but will assist the new officers in becoming familiar with the processes and resources available to them. During this month, the old officers should make all reasonable attempts to attend executive board meetings to function in an advisory role.

Article XII: Impeachment

In the event that an Edgerton resident or affiliate believes there is a serious dereliction of duty of an Executive Committee Member, the resident or affiliate may request that the Student Advisory Board examine the Executive Committee Member’s performance. This request must be a signed, written statement of no less than 250 words, and may include additional documents. If the Student Advisory Board identifies a serious dereliction of duty, they may request a General Meeting to discuss the behavior.

In the event of serious dereliction of duty, an Executive Committee member can be removed from office and lose Housing status by either of two methods:

• Referendum: For impeachment of the officer by public election, a petition signed by 25 residents shall be presented to the Executive Committee. The petition shall request a referendum on the removal of the officer in question. Official impeachment shall require a two-thirds vote of those residents voting in a referendum, with at least fifty residents voting.
• Executive Committee vote: Should an officer be derelict in his or her duties, or obstruct the normal function of House activities, then that officer can be removed from office with a 2/3 vote of all other elected Executive Committee members and the approval of the General Manager of Housing Services.

In the event of serious dereliction of duty, a Student Advisory Board Member can be removed from office by the referendum method: For impeachment of the Student Advisory Board Member by public election, a petition signed by 25 residents shall be presented to the Student Advisory Board. The petition shall request a referendum on the removal of the member in question. Official impeachment shall require a two-thirds vote of those residents voting in a referendum, with at least fifty residents voting.

Article XIII: Amendments

Amendments to the articles set forth in this charter shall require a majority vote in the Executive Committee and a two-thirds vote of the residents voting in a referendum, with at least fifty residents voting.

Article XIV: ASA God Clause

The Edgerton House Association agrees to abide by the rules and regulations of the Association of Student Activities, and its executive board. This constitution, amendments to it, and the by-laws of this organization shall be subject to review by the ASA Executive Board to insure that they are in accordance with the aforementioned rules and regulations.