OU College Democrats

New Webpage Open Thread!

2005-08-05T16:43:00.000-04:00

I hope everybody has gotten a chance to check out the new online home of the OU Dems. A big thanks goes out to Heather Ryerson for her excellent design and hard work!

In the past five months, we've launched this blog, an online interactive calendar, a facebook account, an AIM screen name, and a new webpage! I'd like to see some of you use this open thread to tell me what you think about this new online presence, and whether or not you think it's going to make a difference on election day.

To the incoming freshmen, welcome to Athens! I hope you enjoyed pre-college. Come see us at the Student Involvement Fair on Monday, Sept. 5, on the College Green!

Summer Jobs...

2005-06-22T10:55:00.000-04:00

Every summer, newspapers fill pages with the same worthless features about the hunt for summer jobs. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if we had to hunt for work!

College students get to take the summer off (most of the time), but in politics, there is no off-season. When fall quarter hits, we've all got to be ready to hit the ground running with campaigns, membership drives, fundraisers... not to mention the less glorious tasks of website maintenance, university registration, photocopying...

So I thought it would be intersting to ask what you, as a College Dem, are doing this summer to get ready for the fall? What is the new idea you can't wait to unveil to your home chapter this September? How do you hope to go about restructering, redesigning, or repeating you chapter's best programs?

Or, if you're not working on College Dems stuff or you're not a chapter leader (you should become one!), then what other Demswork are you getting into this summer? Are you learning about a new field organizing technique on the Strickland campaign, or did you just help Hackett in his primary win? Are you working on Ohio education reform, or have you traveled to DC to intern for a lobbying firm?

From the Democratic perspective, that age-old question: What are your summer plans?

Just wondering...

2005-05-19T17:57:00.000-04:00

This post is just to see if anybody has been checking back for updates to this blog... Please comment on the blog (any comment will suffice) to let me know if there's any traffic at all coming through here.

Thanks a lot!

OUCD Constitutional Amendments

2005-04-10T14:56:00.000-04:00

Dems,

Below we have posted the proposed amendments to the constitution. Please understand that amending the Constitution should not be taken lightly. However, the Dems Constitution is only a couple years old, and it is expected that as an organization grows and experiences new issues, it should amend its constitution accordingly to address these issue.

Our goals have always been to retain the spirit, if not the letter, of the original Dems Constitution. That's why we welcomed Toby Fallsgraff, former president of OUCD and co-author of the original Constitution, at the end of last quarter. He led our discussion of the Constitution and was able to explain for us exactly what the spirit of each article and section is, having been there for their conception. Thanks, Toby!

Please look them over and feel free to call anyone on the exec. board to discuss them. We will vote on these amendments at Tuesday's meeting.

Thanks!

Ohio University College Democrats Executive Board,

Amy E. Flowers, president
Mark C. Gaffney, vice president
William Wemer, communications director
Nicole Thompson, treasurer
Lauren Elliott, membership director
Allie Miller, secretary

P.S. Feel free to join us at our Executive Board meeting tonight, Sunday April 10th at 7:00pm at 221 W. Union Street (Amy's House).

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Constitutional Amendments

NUMBER ONE: Membership eligibility

Article III

Section 2:

Reads:

Official membership shall be granted upon fulfillment of at least two of the following conditions in a given year:

Amendment:

Official membership shall be granted to current students of Ohio University upon fulfillment of at least two of the following conditions in a given series of 3 consecutive quarters with the last quarter being the current one. Summer quarter does not count towards the series of three quarters but will be credited towards fall quarter membership requirements:

NUMBER TWO: Membership requirements

Article III

Section 2:

Reads:

…upon fulfillment of at least two of the following conditions…:

1) Attendance of 6 OUCD activities, at least 2 of which must be meetings

2) Payment of dues set by the Treasurer and approved by the majority of the general body

3) A letter petitioning the Executive Board and its subsequent majority approval

Amendment:

…upon fulfillment of at least two of the following conditions…:

1) Attendance of 8 OUCD activities, at least 3 of which must be meetings

2) Payment of dues set by the Treasurer and approved by the majority of the general body

3) A letter petitioning the Executive Board and its subsequent majority approval

NUMBER THREE: Voting eligibility

Article III

Section 3:

Reads:

Full membership status is required to vote in any elections, resolutions
and dues.

Amendment:

Full membership status is required to vote in any elections, resolutions, dues and constitutional amendments.

NUMBER FOUR: Definition of “Approval” and “General Body.”

Article III

Addition:

Section 4:

“Approval of the general body” shall be defined as a majority vote of the official OUCD members present at time of voting unless otherwise specified in this constitution.

NUMBER FIVE: Executive Board Duties

Article IV

Section 3:

Reads:

The responsibilities of each of the Executive Board members are as follows:

A) President: To lead the organization and Executive Board; to act as a liaison to other organizations and candidates running for office; to act as a liaison to the university; to be responsible for a weekly report at each meeting; and to fulfill the duties of the other Executive Board members when these members are not available.

B) Vice President: To fulfill duties when the President is not available; to organize the group from within; to organize internal group activity such as social events; to fulfill the duties delegated by the President; and to oversee the transition period.

C) Treasurer: To act as the bookkeeper for the organization; to head the Fundraising Committee; to act as the liaison to SAC; to give quarterly treasurer’s reports; to set dues for the approval of the general body; and collect dues with the general body’s majority approval.

D) Secretary: To take minutes at each meeting; to take minutes at each Executive meeting; to distribute minutes to the members of the organization upon request; to keep a record of the constitution, minutes, and other official documents; to send out weekly events schedule; and to nominate the historian, to be approved by the Executive Board.

E) Membership Director: To take attendance at all meetings; to keep records of the attendance and official membership status; to spearhead membership recruitment and retention; to act as a liaison between members and the Executive Board; and to facilitate meetings

F) Communications Director: To ensure the regular drafting and distribution of all press releases; to appoint and oversee a Communication Committee; to act as the official liaison to the press; to publicize events; to nominate webmaster to be approved by the Executive Board.

Additional Sections to Article IV Section 3:

3.2 All executive officers must attend at least 2 executive board meetings in a four week period.

3.3 All executive board meetings must be announced 24 hours prior to the scheduled meeting.

3.4 The executive board will declare official medium or media to communicate decisions of the executive board to the general body during the first week of every quarter and is subject to change upon approval of the majority of the executive board.

NUMBER SIX: General Impeachment Process

Article IV

Section 8:

Reads:

The general body can move to impeach an officer via a signed petition containing no fewer than five (5) signatures of official members and outlining reasons for impeachment. The general body then votes on impeachment. If impeachment and proceedings are successful, the impeached officer will defend himself or herself at the next meeting of the general body, whereupon the general body will vote on removal from office, which requires two-thirds (2/3) of membership present.

Amendment:

The general body can move to impeach an officer via a signed petition containing the signatures of no fewer than 15% of the official membership with a minimum of five (5) signatures of official members and outlining reasons for impeachment. The general body then votes on impeachment. If impeachment and proceedings are successful, the impeached officer will defend himself or herself at the next meeting of the general body, whereupon the general body will vote on removal from office, which requires two-thirds (2/3) of membership who are present.

NUMBER SEVEN: Executive Impeachment Process

Article IV:

Section 9

Reads:

A majority of the Executive Board can move to impeach an officer at an Executive Board meeting. That officer’s defense and the Executive Board’s charges will be presented at the next general body meeting, whereupon the general body will vote on removal from office, which requires two-thirds (2/3) of membership present.

Amendment:

A majority of the Executive Board can decide to impeach an officer at an Executive Board meeting. That officer’s defense and the Executive Board’s charges will be presented at the next general body meeting, whereupon the general body will vote on removal from office, which requires two-thirds (2/3) of membership present.

NUMBER 8: Nominations for Elections

Article IV
Section 10:

Reads:

Officer nominations will be held the eighth (8) week of Winter Quarter. Officer elections will be held the ninth (9) week of Winter Quarter.

Amendment:

Officer nominations will be at the general body meeting of the eighth (8) week of Winter Quarter and no further nominating, accepting or declining candidacy can occur once this meeting has adjourned. If a potential candidate’s absence has been pre-approved by the executive board, the candidate may accept, decline, or nominate at the general body meeting of the eighth (8) week by proxy. Officer elections will be held the ninth (9) week of Winter Quarter.

NUMBER NINE: Election Speeches

Article IV:

Section 12

Reads:

On the day of elections each candidate and his or her nominating party shall be given time to speak on the candidate’s behalf.

Amendment:

On the day of elections each candidate and his or her nominating party shall be given time to speak on the candidate’s behalf. The nominating party may yield his or her speaking time to the candidate.

NUMBER TEN: Resolutions

Additional Article:

Article VIII: Resolutions

SECTION 1

Resolutions shall be resolved by a vote of two-thirds (2/3) majority of the membership present at any regular or special meeting.

SECTION 2

Provision for advance notice of resolution shall be made by any member. Proposed resolutions will be voted upon one week after they are proposed.

Forming Ohio College Democrats

2005-04-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

Earlier this weekend, I announced a plan to form the Ohio College Democrats, a statewide organization to help College Dems across the state do everything better.

I've also launched an OCD Blog to facilitate discussion about the plan and its potential execution.

At the OYD convention yesterday, I met with as many College Democrats leaders as I could to talk with them about my OCD plan and invite them to comment on the blog. Everybody was very receptive, and they all seemed eager to learn more and get their hands on the project.

And the more College Democrats hands on the project, the better it will turn out. Unlike other organizations in this state, Ohio College Democrats is about what we can do for each other, not what "they" can do for "us" or any version of that dichotomy.

Ohio University College Democrats-- get your hands dirty!

OYD Convention!

2005-04-01T16:23:00.000-05:00

The following message is from Ohio University College Democrats President Amy E. Flowers (we're still working the bugs out so she can post herself).

It's HERE!

NO! Not Mark's new shoes...THE OYD STATE CONVENTION IS HERE!! We will be departing from the Hudson Health Center in Athens at 7:30 am. Please be there by 7:30 am so we can leave and begin the fun!

The Convention will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel located at 33 E. Nationwide Blvd. in Columbus. Here are map quest directions from Athens.

If any one has any questions or concerns please call me. See you there!

My legs hurt from dancing with Councilwoman Sexton,
Amy E. Flowers
President

Welcome to the BLOG!!!

2005-03-31T09:52:00.000-05:00

After much talk, it's finally here! Welcome to the official online discussion of the Ohio University College Democrats!

As of right now, the OU Dems Blog will work like this: executive board members are able to make new Posts, and anybody on the internet is able to comment on those posts. If you are unfamliar with blogging, you may want to read this first.

To get things started...

What would YOU like to get from this blog? What do you want to discuss? What links do you want provided in the navigation field? Anything and everything you can think of to make this blog the best it can be: blog it!

Comment as much as you want for as long as you want as many times as you want! Feel free to get off-topic from the main Post if you want to discuss something else or the flow of conversation leads elsewhere. The main point of this blog is to have the freedom which is not allowed by standard Dems Listserv etiquette.

Thanks for checking it out and come back soon! Remember, even if there aren't any new posts, there might be new comments on old posts which are often times much more interesting than the posts themselves!