Vote on Feb 23-24!

Please remember to vote on the new ASM Constitution this Monday and Tuesday (February 23-24)! The special election for the constitutional referendum is held online, and you can access the virtual poll by going to the ASM homepage (asm.wisc.edu). The polls close on Tuesday at 9:00 pm.

New ASM Bylaws and Financial Code

Below are links to the Financial Code and Bylaws. After a six-hour meeting last night, final changes needed to be incorporated into the documents, which took most of the morning. Please post with any questions, comments, or concerns.

New ASM Bylaws 2-10-09

ASM Financial Code 2-10-09

Bylaws are approved, will be posted in a few hours

The Committee has been meeting since 6pm, and has by and large finished its work. However, the building closes in 10 minutes and we have to break for the night. We’re putting the documents all together, renumbering some bullet points, and cleaning up the fonts. We should get it posted sometime tomorrow morning.

Actual final version

The ASM Student Council made a few amendments to the constitution at its December 3rd meeting. Most of them were typos, but there was one substantive change – the threshold for removal from office was originally at 3/4ths of the Senate for Justices, the President, and Vice President in the 3rd draft which was what was sent to the Student Council by the Constitutional Committee. The Student Council reduced this number to 2/3rds of the Senate to remove the  President and the Vice President. Removing a justice continues to require 3/4ths of the Senate.

We have placed the new version here. We also have a version with “Track Changes” to compare the 3rd draft of the constitution with the changes Council made, which appear in lime green.

ASM bylaws to be posted Tuesday evening

The bylaws governing the new ASM Constitution will be posted here on the evening of Tuesday, February 10.

The Constitutional Committee is pulling together components of the new bylaws from across the student government, and is in the process of making final revisions.

The final meeting before publication of the bylaws is this Tuesday from 6-7 PM in the Caucus Room (4th Floor) of the Student Activity Center. Feel free to submit suggestions for bylaw changes on this site or come and speak during open forum.

The current bylaws can be found here.

Working on Bylaws

The ASM Constitutional Committee, Coordinating Council, and other entities of ASM are currently working on the bylaws for the proposed constitution. Per legislation that Student Council passed on December 10, 2008, ASM must have the bylaws finished two weeks before the special election. This requirement allows students to get a better sense of how ASM will operate should the constitution pass – where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. The bylaws will serve as an advisory document that the 16th session will then take up in the beginning of May. Once completed, the bylaws will be posted on this blog for your perusal.

Election Update

Due to the City of Madison Common Council primaries on February 17, the ASM Student Election Commission has changed the dates of the special election for the new constitution. Pending approval of the Student Judiciary (SJ), February 23 and 24 are the new dates. The SJ is expected to meet on Thursday to review the tentative dates. You can read more about the date change in the Badger Herald.

Special Election: February 17-18, 2009

On December 3 and 10, ASM Student Council unanimously passed a new constitution to be voted on by the UW-Madison student body in February. The final draft can be found here.

Pending approval of the Student Judiciary, the dates for the special election for the constitutional amendment will be on Tuesday, February 17 and Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

The Student Election Commission will be running a neutral get-out-the-vote effort, in the week or two leading up to the election. We encourage students students to utilize the supporting documents on this blog to learn more about how the government would change under the proposed constitution as well as the opportunities for involvement it would offer.

Tonight at 6:30PM: ASM Constitution at Special Student Council Meeting

Last week, the ASM Student Council took the first of two required votes the proposed constitution needs before it can move forward for a vote by the entire student body. The council voted unanimously to place the constitution on the ballot (see the Daily Cardinal story or Badger Herald story).

The Student Council will meet again tonight to hold the second vote. The meeting is at 6:30pm, in room 2653 Humanities (per TITU). As always, the Student Council meeting will start with “Open Forum”, which gives every and any student an opportunity to publicly address the council with comments, questions, and concerns. 

If you can’t make the meeting, but still want to give feedback via email, you can contact Jeff Wright, the chair of the constitutional committee, at jawright2@wisc.edu, or contact any member of the Student Council.

Constitutional Changes on ASM Student Council Agenda Tonight

The proposed constitution is on the Student Council agenda for tonight’s meeting, Wednesday, December 3 at 6:30 pm in 1131 Humanities. Come voice your support or opposition by signing up for open forum. Open forum, scheduled at the beginning of the meeting, allows any university student speaking time to discuss any topic he or she deems important.

Constitutional amendments must be approved by Student Council by a 2/3 majority at two consecutive meetings in order to be placed on a ballot as a referendum.

If Student Council approves the document this evening, a special meeting will be called for Wednesday, December 10 at 6:30 pm, TITU.

Please direct questions or concerns to Constitutional Committee Chair Jeff Wright at jawright2@wisc.edu