Constitution the Australian International School Student Council

Duties of the Respective Council Members and Criteria for their Selection:
President:
The President shall serve for a full school year and shall be responsible for presiding over council meetings and voicing the concerns of the students to the administration and/or teaching staff, as well as supervising the activities of the council. The President shall also have to approve certain documents and shall also have the power to veto decisions made by the council in order to re-open the topics for discussion. To be eligible as candidates for the office of President, a student must: Be in the senior-most class of the school normally year 12. Have obtained at least a B-average in the semester prior to nomination and maintained said grade through the entire term of office. Have studied in the school for at least one year.

Note 1: In the event that there are less than two suitable candidates for the post of President in the senior-most class, the eligibility for this post is automatically extended to include the second senior-most class, i.e. years 11 and 12.

Vice President:
The Vice President shall serve for a full school year and shall be responsible for managing the activities of the student council, as well as advising the president and acting in his/her absence. He/ she shall also deal with the grievances brought forward by the grade representatives and shall work directly with them on problems not requiring the entire councils attention. He/she will also work with the treasurer to allocate the budget and funding for Student Council projects. To be eligible as candidates for the office of Vice President, a student must: Be in either of the two senior-most classes of the school normally years 11 and 12. Have obtained at least a B-average in the in the semester prior to nomination and maintained said grade through the entire term of office. Have studied in the school for at least one year.

Note 2: In the event that a possible candidate for the post of President or Vice President is deemed ineligible due to the grade requirement, the candidate may run for and occupy the position if they are deemed unlikely to fall below a C-average, received a C-average only in the preceding term, or showed marked improvement towards the end of the previous term. The decision to allow such a candidate to run for the post of President or Vice President shall be taken by the Student Council Co-ordinators and shall be decided on the basis of whether the candidate may be considered otherwise suitable ( i.e. without taking into account the grade requirement) for the post.

Constitution of the Australian International School Student Council 2

Secretary:
The Secretary shall serve for a full school year and shall be responsible for public relations and liaison work. He/ she shall also be responsible for the paperwork and filing of the council, as well as keeping the minutes of council meetings, a printed copy of which he/ she shall be required to submit to the President, Vice President and Moderators the day after a meeting. He/ she will also post the minutes on the school website and ensure that a printed copy is always on the Student Council Bulletin Board, along with any other special notices or guidelines, which they also be required to distribute to the moderators, executive officers, and grade representatives. To be eligible as candidates for the office of Secretary, a student must: Be in one of the three senior-most classes normally years 10, 11 and 12. Have obtained at least a C-average in the semester prior to nomination and maintained said grade through the entire term of office. Have studied in the school for at least one semester.

Treasurer:
The Treasurer shall serve for a full school year and shall be responsible for the accounting the councils finances and shall work directly with the Vice President to oversee the expenditure of council activities and assign them budgets. He/ she shall be required to keep a ledger of accounts, and shall also handle student petitions for funding for certain projects, though this must be done after a discussion with either the Moderators or President. To be eligible as candidates for the office of Treasurer, a student must: Be in one of the three senior-most classes normally years 10, 11 and 12. Have obtained at least a C-average in the semester prior to nomination and maintained said grade through the entire term of office. Have studied in the school for at least one semester.

Grade Representatives: Grade representatives shall serve for a term of one year and shall be responsible for acting as a liaison between the student council and their respective classes, informing them of the activities and decisions of the students council while also representing their interests and voicing their concerns to the council To be eligible for the office of Grade Representative, a student must have obtained at least a Caverage in the semester prior to nomination and maintained said grade through their term of office. The number of representatives per grade shall depend on the number of students in each homeroom. Representatives shall be nominated by their grade on a set day during homeroom. These elections shall take place after that of the executive officers. Student Council Co-ordinators: Two members of the teaching staff are to be assigned, or may choose, to become the co-ordinators of the student council. These teachers will serve as co-ordinators of the council until they choose to resign from the post or decide to leave the school. The duties of the co-ordinators will include the monitoring of student council meetings and activities, presiding over the election of students to the executive posts (i.e. checking the eligibility of students who are interested in an executive post, forming the list of nominees, and then counting the votes to determine the results of the election).

Constitution of the Australian International School Student Council 3

The student council co-ordinators are the only persons allowed to determine the results of the elections, i.e. count the ballots, and shall act as the primary advisors to the executive committee.

Special Allowance:
A student may be chosen by council members to act in an advisory/ assistant capacity to the council. This student may act as a substitute in any office except for President and Vice President. This may, however, only take place in the event that the person occupying the post they are filling in for is absent or has left council without prior notice. The student given this special position must have been a nominee for one of the offices and must be chosen by the members of the new student council.

The Election Process:

Elections shall occur after every summer vacation (i.e. in August or September). The election process will be comprised of a single election. Any student interested in becoming a candidate for any of the Executive Council Posts shall have to sign up to be considered as possible nominees, after which their eligibility will be checked by Student council Co-ordinators. Students who meet the requirements to be considered a nominee will appear on the list of candidates given to students for election. Each student may only vote for one candidate per post. Any indication that a candidate is unethically influencing (e.g. bribing) students to vote for them will result in the candidate being declared ineligible for that election.

Note 3: Given special circumstances, students who were previously members of the student council, i.e. grade representatives and members of the executive committee from the preceding year, may decide to nominate candidates for the four executive posts instead of allowing students to sign up for the posts. These candidates will be considered fully eligible for the posts they are nominated for, and shall comprise the entirety of the list of candidates for election. The nomination of candidates in this case will be decided by a special meeting held at the beginning of the new school year with the members of the previous years council.

Chain of Command:
The President is the Head of the Student Council and Chairs all meetings. In the event that the President is unable to attend a meeting or fulfil a duty, the Vice President is next in the chain of command. In the absence of both the President and Vice President, meetings will either be rescheduled or held with the co-ordinators chairing the meeting. The Treasurer and Secretary may not substitute for one another, but the post may be held temporarily by either the seniormost grade representative (i.e. a representative from the seniormost grade) or the student given special allowance.