Policies and Procedures
Policy Name: Central Committee Policy
Policy Number: 002002
Applicable to: Central committee
Effective:
Revision Required:
Prepared by:
29/01/2012
Immanuel Kemp
1. Central committee structure
i. Subject to the dictates of circumstance and the best judgement of the
membership of the Executive Committee, the Central Committee of RAG shall be
composed of several teams, each of which shall have a team leader who shall be
responsible for overseeing the activity of that team. Some of the team leaders
shall be members of the Executive Committee, and the body of the elected
Executive Committee members together with the team leaders shall be referred
to in this document as the ‘Operations Committee’.
ii. The teams shall be as follows: Treasury, Administrative, Raids, Events, RAG
Week and Publicity. The Central Treasurer is the head of the Treasury team
which comprises the Central and Colleges Treasurers. The Secretary is the head
of the Administration team.
2. Determination of responsibilities
i. Allocation of responsibility to the teams shall be determined by the Operations
Committee.
ii. Allocation of responsibility within each team shall be determined by consultation
between the respective team leaders and team members, with the Chair and
President to advise.
iii. It is the responsibility of the Chair and President to produce a cursory
specification of the responsibilities of each member of the central committee,
subject to the consultation in 2.ii.
3. Composition of the central committee
i. The precise composition of the committee shall be determined in part by
availability of applicants and the Executive Committee may exercise discretion.
What follows in this document is a recommended structure.
ii. The composition of the committee shall be confirmed by the incoming Executive
Committee members on consultation with the outgoing Executive Committee
following the Annual General Meeting elections.
iii. The Treasury team shall comprise the Central and Colleges Treasurers.
iv. The Administration team shall comprise the Secretary along with a Social
Secretary, a Reps Liaison Officer, an Alumni Relations officer and a Sponsorship
Officer.
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v. The Raids team shall comprise a Raids Supervisor who is team leader, and a
number of Raids Officers, usually around four.
vi. The Events team shall comprise an Events Supervisor who is team leader and
officers for whatever major events are planned that year, generally including two
Blind Date Officers, two Lost Officers, one Auction Officer and four Jailbreak
Officers.
vii. The RAG Week team shall comprise a RAG Week Supervisor who is team leader
and such officers as are required to run the events planned within RAG Week,
generally including a Carnival Officer, a RAG Mag editor and several small event
Officers.
viii. The Publicity team shall comprise a Public Relations Officer who is team leader
along with a Webmaster, a Designer, a Writer and a Graduate Publicity Officer.
4. Appointment of the central committee
i. At the first opportunity after the desired composition of the committee has been
confirmed, the outgoing Chairman or President shall open applications for all
non-elected positions on the central committee and publicise through whatever
media are judged appropriate the titles and job descriptions of all available posts.
ii. It is advisable that the non-elected members of the Operations Committee are
appointed prior to other appointments, and if there is uncertainty over the
composition of their teams, prior to the opening of other applications, so that the
incoming team leaders may be consulted in the subsequent processes.
iii. Anyone eligible for General Membership of RAG or to whom Honorary
Membership has been extended may apply for a committee post. If the
Executive Committee deems it appropriate they may extend Honorary
Membership following the opening of applications to enable someone otherwise
not a member to apply.
iv. Applicants should be encouraged to specify as many positions as they might be
interested in, in order of preference.
v. The appointment of committee members is at all times primarily the
responsibility of the Chair for the term of office of the appointment in question,
but the decision must be approved by a majority of the Executive Committee for
the term in question and, in the case of appointment for an incoming committee,
should be made in consultation with the outgoing President and Chair.
vi. At other times of the year members of the Executive Committee may seek out
and approach individuals they deem to be suitable for positions on the
committee and invite them to fill such vacancies as may exist at the time without
opening publicised applications, provided the appointment is approved by the
Executive Committee.
5. Officers without specific mandate
i. Under special circumstances it may be appropriate to create roles on the
committee which are temporary or which are not tied to a specific aspect of
RAG’s operation. It may alternatively be the case that an applicant wishes to
support RAG through involvement in the committee in a manner more flexible
than by being tied to any of the roles already defined. In such circumstances an
appointment may be made without a specific mandate.
ii. Such appointed officers may be referred to as ‘General Committee Members’ or
‘General Officers’, or a title relevant to their new role may be created.
iii. At the end of the academic year in which such an appointment is made, the
position should be reviewed with respect to the creation of a permanent role.
6. Removal of members of the central committee
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i. If a member of the central committee is considered to be failing to enact the
responsibilities associated with their position, the Chair must issue them with
written advice to this effect.
ii. Should the Chair issue such advice, it must set clear terms judged reasonable by
the Executive Committee for the remediation of the committee member’s
performance to a satisfactory standard.
iii. Should the committee member fail to meet the terms set out in 6.ii the Executive
Committee may rule to remove that member from office and seek a replacement.
iv. If the member being considered for removal is not a member of the Operations
Committee, their respective team leader must be consulted throughout the
above proceedings and invited to any meetings called by the Executive
Committee to discuss the matter.
7. Emergency co-option to elected positions
i. If the number of the Executive Committee falls to three through removal or
resignation, an election is required to properly appoint new Executive Committee
members at the first available opportunity. In the interim before such an
election can be properly conducted, the remaining members of the Executive
Committee may appoint one or more members of the Administrative Committee
to the vacant roles on the Executive Committee.
ii. Such appointments shall be on a temporary basis only, and the appointees shall
be referred to as ‘Acting’. Acting Executive Committee members shall be
considered to hold all responsibilities and authority associated with the role or
roles they are Acting until an election may be called.
iii. If there are vacancies on the Executive Committee owing to lack of successful
candidates at an election, the Committee Members elected may co-opt additional
members at their own collective discretion (as determined by unanimous
approval only) provided a motion to this effect is passed at the General Meeting
in which the election took place, in accordance with clause 5.vii of the
Constitution.
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