Our official constitution can be found here
Cyber Security Club at UC Davis Constitution
Name
- The name of this organization shall be Cyber Security Club at UC Davis.
Purpose
- The purpose of Cyber Security Club at UC Davis is to be a Registered Student Organization at the University of California, Davis that serves as a place for future cybersecurity professionals and cybersecurity enthusiasts to spend time, learn, and grow.
- A non-exhaustive list of this club’s activities include:
- Cybersecurity workshops.
- Cybersecurity guest speakers.
- Participating in cybersecurity competitions.
Ethics & Conduct
- This club recognizes learning cybersecurity skills, such as hacking, can be used for both good and bad.
- This club recognizes that finding security holes in systems with permission is one way to help make a system more secure.
- This club follow the ethics:
- Only hack, target vulnerabilities, or otherwise access a system if it is yours, or if you have permission to do so.
- Conduct your activities within the boundaries of the UC Davis Code of Academic Conduct and the law.
- Follow UC Davis Community Principles
- Be chill. Disruptive behaviors may be grounds for membership revocation or removal from meetings.
- Agree that Ashley Bilbrey is the coolest.
Membership
- Our club consists of members.
- Members must be currently enrolled as a degree-seeking student at the University of California, Davis.
- Members may be undergraduate, graduate, part-time, or full time.
- To remain in good standing, starting the member’s first full academic quarter, for each academic quarter, excluding summer, a member must:
- Be actively enrolled full-time or part-time at UC Davis in an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree program
- And must meet one of the following requirements within a quarter:
- Attend at least three Cyber Security Club at UC Davis events
- Attend at least one Cyber Security Club at UC Davis meeting if and only if there has been no more than three Cyber Security Club at UC Davis meetings that quarter
- Be a good standing member of cowsay.
- Calculations for good standing are to be made at the end of each academic quarter, excluding summer.
- Gaining Membership
- A member may notify the officer team when they have met good standing requirements in order to become a member.
- The President may prohibit ejected members from becoming members.
- The President may enforce a period, such as “one quarter”, in which an individual who was revoked their membership due to not being in good standing may have to wait before qualifying to become a member again.
- Revoking Membership
- Membership may be revoked when:
- A member is not in good standing for two consecutive academic quarters.
- Or membership may be revoked through an ejection process, where a majority of the officer team must vote to do so.
- A revoked membership does not automatically prevent an individual from becoming a member at another time. The president may specify if and when an ejected member may become a member at another time.
Officers
- Officers serve as the leadership team for Cyber Security Club at UC Davis.
- Officers must be a member of the Cyber Security Club at UC Davis. An officer who has their membership revoked automatically ceases to be an officer. They must meet membership requirements and be re-elected/re-confirmed in order to become an officer again.
- The president and the treasurer are elected. All other new general officers are confirmed via majority vote by members.
- There will be at least the following officer roles, held by different individuals, known as the primary officers:
- President (Primary Leader)
- The President is the head of the club.
- The President oversees the direction and programming of the club.
- The President can delegate tasks to other officers.
- The President can assign roles to other officers.
- The President must select a Vice President.
- The President must select a cowsay Manager.
- In the absence of a President, the Vice President may be the acting President until a new President is elected. In the case that a Vice President is also absent, the Treasurer may be the acting President.
- Vice President (Secondary Leader)
- The Vice President is selected by the President.
- The Vice President must have already been a current officer to be selected as a Vice President.
- In the absence of a Vice President, the Treasurer may be the acting Vice President until a new Vice President is selected.
- Treasurer (Financial Officer)
- The Treasurer oversees the club’s finances.
- The Treasurer must keep a balanced record of all of the club’s transactions and accounts.
- The Treasurer should assist in fundraising and in gathering club sponsorships.
- The Treasurer oversees elections.
- The Treasurer may decide if an election is conducted online or in-person.
- The Treasurer may decide if an election takes place over a single day or an entire week.
- If the Treasurer role is vacant during an election season, the President is allowed to delegate the role of overseeing the election to another officer who is neither the President nor the VP.
- General Officers
- Officers that are not the primary officers are typically known as “General Officers”.
- If an officer is not a primary officer, they may be given a role by the President such as “CTF Team Manager” or “Social Media Coordinator”.
- The President may revoke the roles of these officers, but is encouraged not to do so unless necessary.
- The President revoking a role is not removing that person as an officer.
- Elections
- The President and Treasurer Elections
- These elections occur:
- A regular election, which is always the first instruction week of the Spring Quarter, where the President-elect and Treasurer-elect will start their role after the last day of the Spring Quarter.
- A vacancy election, within 30 days of a vacant President or Treasurer role, for that specific vacant position. The individual selected will start their role immediately following the election.
- The President and Treasurer elections will be selected through an Instant-runoff voting, ranked-choice system by members.
- The President and Treasurer may run for repeated terms.
- An incumbent President or Treasurer losing an election will become a General Officer.
- General Officers
- A potential candidate for General Officer can be put forth by any officer and must be seconded by another officer.
- The candidate will then be put up for a confirmation vote, where members may select yes or no.
- The candidate will become a General Officer if the majority of votes placed is yes.
- It is encouraged that potential candidates be put forth such that the election coincides with a President or Treasurer election but not required.
- Notice of Election
- Members must be notified of an upcoming election at 7 days prior to an election.
- Members must also be notified of an upcoming election 30 days prior to an election if it is not a vacancy election.
- Members must be notified through at least the following means:
- Newsletter/Mailing List
- Discord
- Impeachment
- Any officer may be removed by process of impeachment.
- Impeachment must be put forth by a member and seconded by another member.
- An impeachment vote must be held 30 days after being seconded.
- Members must be notified of an impeachment vote 7 and 25 days before the vote.
- Members must be notified of an impeachment vote through at least the following means:
- Newsletter/Mailing List
- Discord
- Members may select Yes, No, or Abstain in an impeachment vote.
- For an officer to be impeached the vote must both:
- Have a majority of members vote
- Have a majority of members who voted select “Yes”
- An impeached officer does not mean the individual has their membership revoked.
- Internal removal of General Officers
- The president may issue a notice of internal removal of a General Officer.
- The notice must be given 14 days before the internal vote.
- If a majority of the officer team votes to remove said officer, that individual will be removed from the officer team but retains club membership
cowsay
- cowsay is Cyber Security Club at UC Davis’ competitive team.
- cowsay participates in events such as CTFs, Defense, KOTH, and more.
- cowsay is led by the cowsay Manager, as selected by the President.
- A degree-seeking student at UC Davis can apply to be a cowsay member after solving a published problem put forth by the cowsay Manager. It is not necessary to already be a club member to join cowsay.
- To remain in good standing, a cowsay member must attend 3 cowsay meetings per quarter, or participate in at least one competition such as CTFs or CCDC per quarter.
- When members join cowsay, they must satisfy the above requirements to be considered in good standing. Joining cowsay does not immediately grant club membership status.
- A cowsay member not in good standing will have their cowsay membership revoked at the end of the quarter.
- Having cowsay membership revoked does not mean Cyber Security Club at UC Davis membership is revoked unless other club membership requirements are not fulfilled.
Meetings
- Meetings, as decided by the officer team, can include workshops, guest speakers, cowsay meetings, general meetings, special events, and more.
- All meetings, except cowsay meetings, are by default and encouraged to be public meetings where guests may attend.
- The President may prohibit non-members from attending meetings, but must specifically state so before the meeting.
- cowsay meetings are by default considered to be restricted to cowsay members only.
- The President may specifically prohibit ejected members from attending meetings which would otherwise be considered public meetings.
- The President may specify that meetings are only open to University of California, Davis students.
Adoption and Changes
- This Constitution is only to be considered in effect if a majority of the members vote to adopt it.
- When this Constitution is adopted, the existing officers retain their roles. See Appendix I for the officer list at the point of adoption.
- The President and Treasurer roles when the Constitution is adopted are subject to any regular elections.
- This constitution may be altered at any time through a vote
- A change must be put forth by a member and seconded by another member.
- A Constitution change vote must be held 30 days after being seconded.
- Members must be notified of a Constitution change vote 7 and 25 days before the vote.
- Members must be notified of a Constitution change vote through at least the following means:
- Newsletter/Mailing List
- Discord
- Members may select Yes, No, or Abstain in a Constitution change vote.
- For the Constitution to change to pass, the vote must both:
- Have a majority of members vote
- Have a majority of members who voted select “Yes”
- It is encouraged that a Constitution change be put forth at a time such that it coincides with another election.
Appendix
Officer Team at Point of Adoption
- President: Ethan Ng
- Vice President: Akhil Guntur
- Treasurer: Lance Barnes
- General Officers, in no particular order:
- Zhenkai Wang
- Jason Huang
- Justine Ellery
- Nate Buttke
- Mahmood Ikram
- Nandini Kodali
History of Changes
- 2024-05-27 - Draft Finalized
- 2024-05-29 - Constitution adopted by the members