Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi everybody, this video is about constitutions and executive board transitions.
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So probably one of the biggest challenges of
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student organizations at a graduate school is that
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some students are here for maybe three semesters
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while other students are here for three years,
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which results in a lot of turnover amongst
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our executive members of our student organizations.
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Part of the reason why we made this training into
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a more asynchronous format to help with the constant transition.
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Um,
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and the constant elections that our student organizations are
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hosting pretty much at all times of the year.
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So we hope this video helps you a little bit with your constitution,
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along with thinking about a few things to help with the transition to future uh,
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cohorts of executive members.
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Um,
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probably one of the most valuable things you can do as
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a current executive member is to prepare your next group,
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um, to be successful.
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So here are a few things to do while
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you're currently an executive member in an executive role,
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your constitution.
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So every student organization when they became a student
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organization had to provide some level of a constitution.
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Some of your constitutions are excellent. While some are a little out of date.
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So here's a great opportunity to go back look at it and see what, um,
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what maybe needs to be fixed.
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You know,
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your constitution should really be a living breathing document
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for what the club means at its time.
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Um, and really the
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best kind of constitutions that exist.
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They, if you disappeared tomorrow,
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someone could look at this and get a pretty
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good understanding for how the club is run.
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Some key points that you really want to ensure. Our, uh, in your constitution
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include your mission and vision,
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the goals of your student organization.
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It outlines each executive members responsibilities,
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how and when executive members are elected.
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What happens if an exact member is not completing their responsibilities,
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how decisions are voted upon and amendments are
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made and outlines the responsibilities of general members.
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In addition to this,
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your constitution should essentially be able to answer these questions.
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Who is a part of the organization? What does the organization do?
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When and where does the organization meet? Why does the organization exist?
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And how does this organization accomplish? Air goals?
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Yeah,
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so as you think about these things,
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we also have a document that helps outline
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what a very general constitution looks like.
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And I'm going to show you where you can find that now.
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So when you log on to SPS engage, you'll go to the student leader resource group,
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the page that you'll see
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will look like this.
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You'll go over the documents,
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you'll go to student leader documents
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and here at the bottom is a student organization constitution outline Again,
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this is a great place to start if you're doing a complete refresh.
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Um,
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of course many of you already have constitutions in a
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pretty good place that maybe just need little updates and tweaks
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next.
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While you're currently in your role, work on creating transition documents.
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Uh,
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probably the best thing that you can do is create a
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timeline and calendar of what traditionally happens in an academic year,
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examples of this could include in september, we host elections in october,
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we host a social event in november.
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We like to do a professional development event and in
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december we like to celebrate the end of the semester.
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Um some past examples of these things include um you
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can provide examples of when general meetings are held,
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you can provide examples of um you know,
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goals for the overall year and maybe if your club
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has something more like a three or five year plan.
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So these are all really great things to include and
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it helps so that when somebody's new in leadership,
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they know what responsibilities need to be done which times of year.
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It's great to include that the first month of each semester.
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Uh the office sooner like hosts a live club refuel that
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a member of the executive board needs to go to.
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Um other great things is if you do an annual review of your constitution,
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maybe putting that in there.
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Uh if you order swag every year,
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maybe it's when you purchase your t shirts every year.
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These are all great examples of things to include in this transition document.
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Also, if you have any subscriptions accounts, your zoom account,
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all these things that it's really really valuable to share your
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password and have that in a centralized document as well.
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So these are really helpful um transition documents for
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future people that will be in your role.
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So once elections are held and you have a new executive board,
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here's some really really great things.
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If you're to send an email to the person who's
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replacing you um to help them get started right away.
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First is the student leader contact information. I can't stress this enough.
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Uh the number of times we have executive boards leave without sharing
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where this form is or what this form is without this form.
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We are not emailing the new executive board.
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We are emailing you and I'm sure you want to get off that email list.
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So ensure that you are showing um where the student leader contact information is.
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As a quick refresher, I'm just going to show you where that can be found.
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So right now I am still
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in the Student Leader resource group and if you go over
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to surveys and forms the Student leader content promotion is here
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and because a new executive member will likely not be in the
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Student Leader resource group yet because we don't know who they are.
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And this is a private group on the homepage of engage
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on the left hand side there are surveys and forms,
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this is a public facing form.
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So any new executive member could also fill out their own information there.
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So it is your responsibility as you are leaving a position to share this
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information with the incoming board so that
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they are sure to update their information
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and also remove your names and positions so that you're not receiving old emails
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and you're not still listed as a current executive member on they're engaged page.
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Finally,
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it's always nice for you to introduce myself and john to the new leadership.
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Um It helps begin to build a relationship.
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We're always happy to set up meeting as well if you'd like to send some set up some
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sort of meeting just so that everyone knows who
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each others are and how we're here to support.
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Um and then therefore we can share this training
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with the new leadership so that they know how to
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manage, engage, plan events, work with finance, etcetera.
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So thank you.