Policy

Edgerton House Association Charter

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 of Edgerton House. All members must be MIT affiliates. Members of the Executive Committee must live in Edgerton, or move to Edgerton when space becomes available.

Article III: Executive Committee

The Association shall be headed by an Executive Committee with eleven voting members. These eleven members shall be as follows: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Environmental Chair, IT Chair, Facilities Chair, Social Chairs (3), and Social Publicity Chair. All positions must be held by distinct MIT students. In addition, non-voting members of the Executive Committee shall be as follows: the Head of House, Desk Associates and Building Manager. With the exception of the non-voting members, Executive Committee members must be residents of Edgerton House or become residents of Edgerton House during their term.

The Executive Committee shall have the following rights and duties:

1. Representation of Edgerton House with the Housing Office and the Institute.
2. Recommendation of uses for all house funds, including funds from the Housing Office and all other sources appropriated for Edgerton House residents.
3. 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 IV: Meetings

The President shall call Meetings of the Executive Committee at their discretion. In an Executive Committee Meeting, voting members of the executive committee may cast votes. Unless otherwise stated in this constitution, any official decision must be passed by a majority vote in the Committee with at least 5 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.

Any resident of the House can request the calling of an Edgerton House Meeting. In an Edgerton House Meeting, all residents in attendance may cast a vote. For an Edgerton House Meeting to take place, a petition must be signed by 25 residents of the House and presented to the Executive Committee. The President must subsequently schedule and publicize the Edgerton House Meeting within two weeks. 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.

Article V: Expenditure of House Funds

The Treasurer shall present the budget for the following school year to the residents. At the end of each semester, an account of the expenditures of that semester shall be created, and be made available upon request by a House resident.

Article VI: Terms of Office

The terms of office for Executive Committee members shall be as follows: Members of the Executive Committee shall be elected to one-year terms that last from the first Monday in April to the day before the first Monday in April of the following year. Any member of the Executive Committee must reside in the Abode during their term, and in the event they leave prematurely, shall resign from their position on the Executive Committee.

The Building Manager, and the Desk Associates shall have indefinite non-voting terms on the Executive Committee until their tenures on the respective positions terminate.

Article VII: Elections

The Executive Committee shall sponsor elections before the residents by the end of March. All members of the executive committee shall be elected at this time. The voting period is recommended to last for one week, but may be set at the discretion of the Executive Committee. Voting shall occur via electronic ballot which will be delivered to all current Edgerton residents through email. Candidates are prohibited from offering incentives or intimidating residents.

Voting will be conducted using a Condorcet voting system, specifically through ranked pairs voting (See Appendix A). In the event of a cyclic tie, one revote may be invoked (though it is noted that a change in outcome would require a change in voters or preferences). If another cyclic tie is reached, the successfully elected members of the new Executive Committee will appoint one of the tied candidates via a simple majority vote. In the event that a post is not contested, the candidate shall automatically be declared the winner.

Officer vacancy may occur due to an officer resigning from their position, being impeached, moving out of Edgerton, or graduating (thereby losing MIT affiliation and becoming ineligible to serve on the executive committee).

In the event of vacancy of the President role, 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. A vote will then be held to appoint a nominee to fill the vacancy, requiring a majority vote of the remaining officers with at least 5 officers voting. The vacant office should be filled within one month after the previous officer has vacated the position.

Article VIII: Transition

After elections, the previous officers will continue to attend meetings in an advisory role for a period of one month. They will not have executive 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.

Article IX: 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 Executive Committee and the Head of House 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.

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

1. 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 thirty residents voting.
2. Executive Committee vote: Should an officer be derelict in their 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 Head of House

Article X: Officers Emeritus

The "Officers Emeritus" shall consist of all unimpeached former Edgerton House Association members who are current residents of Edgerton House. They shall serve as an ex-officio advisory board to the current Executive Committee.

Article XI: 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 thirty residents voting.

Article XII: Emergency Operation

In case of extreme circumstances, officers and residents shall consult with the Head of House and have the ability to propose special house policies, including but not limited to modifications to quiet hour policy, guest policy, and reservation policy. When a proposed policy change receives majority support from the proposing body as outlined in Article IV, it shall be submitted for a house-wide vote. The proposed change shall be enacted only upon receiving approval from two-thirds of voting residents, provided that at least fifty percent of all residents participate in the vote. All special policies enacted must be documented with the date of enactment, the circumstances necessitating the change, and the duration or conditions for policy termination.

If the temporary suspension of one or more rules in this constitution is required, the Edgerton House Association may pass a measure calling on the Graduate Student Council to support the suspension. Either the Graduate Student Council General Council or Executive Committee may then support this motion, enforcing the temporary suspension. An end date for the suspension must be included with the motion.

Appendix A

Ranked pairs voting has been chosen to prevent vote-splitting and (theoretically) eliminate the need for runoff elections. Information on ranked pairs voting can be found here.

To conduct ranked pairs voting, a ballot counting code and instructions to set up google forms are included here: devault-settings/votecounter: A Vote Counting Code for Ranked Pairs Elections

Additional Edgerton house government policies and procedures (not part of the Constitution) are laid out below:.

Noise

Quiet hours

Quiet hours are from 12am-8am Mon-Thurs nights, 2am-8am Fri-Sat nights. Parties and loud noise are strongly discouraged throughout final exam period. Keep noise at other times to a reasonable level. Note that Edgerton walls are very thin, so something as simple as increasing the TV's volume could be keeping someone else awake.

Noise inside Edgerton

Please attempt to contact the resident first. If the noise persists during Quiet Hours, you can call Unit 12, the MIT police ((617) 253-1212). For persistent noise problems (i.e. a party every Friday), please contact the EHA President at eha-president@mit.edu.

Noise outside Edgerton

For example: deliveries to adjacent businesses, loading dock noise, etc. Please contact EHA President and HoH at eha-president@mit.edu and mindell@mit.edu with as much information as possible about the incident.

If it is a Novartis nitrogen gas refill, they are supposed to schedule them outside of local ordinance quiet hours, and alert the City if there is an emergency requiring an after-hours refill. If a nitrogen gas refill is happening after hours, please email alicia.dernier@novartis.com and novartis@mit.edu documenting the incident, and CC the EHA President and HoH.

Room Policies

Smoking

All MIT buildings are smoke-free - this includes offices, halls, rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, lounges, hallways, staircases, emergency exit routes and entrance areas. Smoking inside the Edgerton courtyard is permitted if it does not disturb anyone. Edgerton holds a strict non-smoking policy:

• First offense: Warning
• Second offense: $100 fine billed to your MIT account
• Third offense: Removal from building

Maintenance access

Please do not block the heating/air-conditioning unit. Access to the unit is imperative for your safety.

Edgerton residents' checklist

Once you are at Edgerton, you and your suitemates will be required to fill out a residents' checklist and submit it by the end of September. This list contains items such as - who will clean the bathroom, how do we take care of the common areas, what are our apartment's guest policies, etc. This checklist is an agreement among the apartment occupants and its main purpose is to prevent problems and confrontations at a later date. The list will be provided to you and your suitemates.

Visitor policy

Each resident is allowed 6 guests for visitation per day. Overnight guest are allowed for only three consecutive nights, or three nights per week. Any overnight guest that needs more than three nights should be approved by the HoH. All guests including MIT residents need to show proper identification (photo ID preferred). If guests arrive and there is nobody staffing the desk, they should use the sign-in sheet at the front desk to check-in. Guests should contact the resident to inform them that they are waiting inside the lobby. The resident must come and meet them in the Front Lobby. No unescorted visitors will be allowed past the front desk.

• Hosts are responsible for their guests at all times. Guests may not use common areas of the building without their host.

• Guests must be escorted by the resident host when entering/exiting the building.

• Residents are prohibited from giving guests their room/apartment keys or MIT ID card or Mobile ID data at any time.

• Guests, as well as all non-residents, are not allowed to enter MIT residence halls with any animal(s), except service animals which have been individually trained to do work or perform a task on behalf of an individual with a disability.

No other visitors will be allowed in the building. Guests are allowed in Edgerton a maximum of three days/nights per week. Please remember to be respectful of your suitemate's wishes regarding visitors.

Pets

In the graduate residences, no pets may be kept by residents or guests. The term "pets" includes mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Fish are not specifically prohibited. Students accompanied by a Guide Dog or Hearing Dog are exempted from the prohibition of pets on campus. Roommates will be informed of the presence of this type of pet and allowed to transfer if a problem arises.