Preamble

The Constitutions of most clubs are designed to centralize all governance. By contrast, the COG constitution is intended to guarantee the freedom of semi-autonomous COG Task Forces to carry out their independent missions while centralizing enough administrative duties so that things operate smoothly and no one bumps into each other -- too much.

When we speak of semi-autonomous task forces, we are referring to sub-groups created by the COG Board of Directors to carry out specific missions, tasks, or goals. Our organization is designed to make sure that members of COG have the freedom to create and disband task forces as the need arises, and that they know they can do these things.

To protect the rights of Task Forces, we need to make restrictions that forbid the Board of Directors from denying Task Forces these rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for the Board of Directors, and certain rights guaranteed to Task Forces.

For example, if the Board of Directors creates a Task Force, they must grant the Task Force the right to reserve rooms and advertise events under the COG name.

We protect the rights of Task Forces with two steps: (1) imposing certain required responsibilities on the Board of Directors, and (2) guaranteeing certain rights to Task Forces.

Also, for the smooth operation of COG, we want to make sure that certain people are directly responsible for certain critical functions -- day-to-day operations (President), club finances (Treasurer), and recordkeeping (Secretary). These three Executive Officers are ex officio members of the Board of Directors.

Finally, any club is threatened by unchecked power. We wish to avoid this danger of potential abuse. To prevent this, we have made it clear that all major decisions must be decided by a majority vote of the Board of Directors, and not by any individual officer.

The precise terms and conditions of this Constitution follow.