CompSoc Constitution

The University of Edinburgh Technology Society

8th April 2022

1 General
The name of the Society shall be ‘CompSoc’ or ‘The University of Edinburgh Technology Society’.

1. The aims of the Society shall be as follows:

• To provide a forum for members to discuss issues relating to computer science and
computing in general;
• To facilitate social interaction amongst people with a common interest in computer-
related issues;
• To provide members with assistance with computer-related problems, including support
for study;
• To promote liaison between the local academic and business communities, with regard
to fostering future employment opportunities;
• Share experience and knowledge of work in Informatics by:
– Holding special interest group meetings to provide members with a platform for
discussion and an opportunity to learn new skills.
– Holding informal seminars with workers and researchers in Informatics from
industry or other academic institutions.
– Allowing members to have access to various Informatics-related programming tools
in order to gain experience in using them to solve related problems.
2. The benefits of the Society can be:
• Free Pizza
• Free freebies
• Allow likeminded individuals the chance to socialise and network
• Allow the indulgence of all geekery
• Organised events to benefit those interested in technology
3. The society shall abide by any applicable laws, bylaws and guidelines of the Edinburgh
University Students’ Association in relation to recognised societies.
4. Membership shall be open to all matriculated students of Edinburgh University.
5. Non-students may be members of CompSoc, vote in general meetings and stand for
committee-positions other than President, Secretary and Treasurer.

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 6. Membership shall be at least 75% matriculated students of Edinburgh University.
7. Full membership lists should be filed with the Activities Office at least once per semester to
ensure membership databases are up to date.
8. If any dispute of membership should arise, the list registered through EUSA’s database will
be used as the official list.
9. All members who are not matriculated students of a University shall pay at least twice the
annual subscription.
10. The society’s bank account must have the President, Secretary, and Treasurer added as
signatories.
11. The society has taken and will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure that our
meetings, events and socials are accessible to all, irrespective of any disability.
12. The society has ensured and will continue to ensure that it complies with any relevant data
protection legislation.
13. EUSA considers the ruling society constitution to be that which is displayed on the Society
Profile.
14. Re-registration of the society must be submitted prior to re-registration deadline set by
EUSA.
15. The financial year shall run from 1st April to 31st March.
16. The society shall be non-profit making. The Office Bearers and members may only receive
payment, direct or indirect, as reimbursement for legitimate expenses.
17. The society believes that discrimination or harassment, direct or indirect, based on a
person’s gender, age (except where it relates to licensing laws), race, skin colour, nationality,
religious belief, socioeconomic background, disability, HIV status, sexual orientation, gender
reassignment, family situation, domestic responsibilities or any other irrelevant distinction,
is detrimental to the society, the University and wider society, and will not be tolerated. As
such the society operates a safe space policy.
18. The society may not register to obtain any legal status, including a limited company or a
charitable status.
19. The Students’ Association has a Zero Tolerance policy for sexual harassment and violence.
This means that any case of sexual harassment or violence will be escalated to the final
disciplinary stage (removal). Appeals will go through the formal complaints process of the
Students’ Association.
20. The Students’ Association understands harassment to include all forms, whether expressed
orally, in writing, or on any cyber or digital platform.
21. The Committee may impose sanctions for misconduct on members, based on verifiable
evidence collected, taking into account the seriousness of the misconduct with reference to
the membership responsibilities and standard code of conduct, any previous warnings, and
any mitigating circumstances. When appropriate the following sanctions may be applied:
(a) Informal Warning;

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 (b) First Written Warnings will be issued for a minor offence or complaint;
(c) Final Written Warnings will be issued for: a further offence or complaint or if the
conduct of the member failed to improve following a previous warning, or if the actions
are serious enough to warrant a Final Written Warning.
(d) Removal from membership will occur if there is a further serious event of misconduct,
or if the conduct of the member failed to improve following a previous written warning,
or if the member committed an act of gross misconduct. Examples of gross misconduct
include but are not limited to discrimination, sexual harrassment, and any form of
violence. The committee may proceed to removal of membership in cases of gross
misconduct without having to go through warnings.
(e) EUSA’s Societies department will be notified upon removal of a member and provided
with a copy of the evidence pertaining to the sanctions process and removal. All
persons removed from membership may appeal to the Societies’ department against
such removal.
22. The society shall remain ‘Most Excellent’.

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2 The Committee
1. All office-bearers shall be subject to election annually.
2. The General Committee

• The business of the Society shall be managed by a committee of Office Bearers.

• Any member of the Society shall be entitled to sit on the committee.
• The Office Bearers must be members of the Society.
• All Office Bearers will complete annual online training as outlined by the Activities
Team.
3. The Executive Committee
• The President, Secretary and Treasurer of the society shall be matriculated students
of The University of Edinburgh.
• The committee must consist of a President, Secretary, and Treasurer (the Executive
Officers) as a minimum.
• These Office Bearers will be elected at the AGM.
• No person may be elected to more than one of these posts simultaneously.
• Should any of the Executive Committee resign a replacement or acting replacement
will be voted in at an EGM.
4. Elected committee positions are as follows:
(a) The President shall be ultimately responsible for the conduct of the society.
• The President will chair the General Committee and EGMs.
• The President is responsible to the AGM and the General Committee and is
ultimately responsible for the conduct of the Society.
• It is the President’s responsibility to ensure the Society has submitted their annual
report, risk assessment and reregistration forms to the Activities Office.
(b) The Secretary shall be responsible to the President for the administration of the society.
• The Secretary shall be responsible for the administration of the society.
• The Secretary shall also be responsible for any correspondence within or on behalf
of the Society and prepare the agendas and the minutes of every committee
meeting, AGM and EGM.
(c) The Treasurer shall be responsible to the President for the finances of the society.
• The Treasurer shall be accountable to the committee and members for the finances
of the society.
• The Treasurer shall keep and prepare Accounts of the Society and provide a
provisional budget, as exhaustive as possible, to be presented at the AGM.
• It is the Treasurer’s responsibility to ensure the annual financial report is complete
and submitted along with the society’s annual report.
(d) Other elected positions on the committee may be Vice President, Hack Secretary, Social
Secretary, Technical Secretary, Second Year Representative, Third Year Representative,
Fourth Year Representative and Graphic Designer.

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5. The year representatives must be students which will be enrolled in that year the semester
following the AGM. At the time of the AGM the Second Year Representative should be a
first year, etc.
6. The First Year (Freshers’) Representative is a special case and will be elected at the first
STMU (Or EGM) in the first semester before the end of October. If the position is not
filled the committee may select a willing first year or hold subsequent re-elections.
7. The following are guidelines as to what role the person in these positions shall have in the
society:
(a) The Vice President shall oversee and work with the SIGs as well as being responsible
for the STMUs (Finding speakers and handling venues).
(b) The committee may find volunteers responsible for promotional materials being made
for events. The Secretary shall be ultimately responsible for news and updates being
posted to the website and maintaining any social networks CompSoc may have a
presence on, although this may be delegated to others if the Secretary feels this would
be beneficial.
(c) The Secretary is also ultimately responsible for the creation of any society apparel such
as hoodies, although this may be delegated to others if the Secretary feels this would
be beneficial. The Social Secretary shall be responsible for booking venues (Other than
STMU related venues and Hackathon related venues) for and running the societies
official events.
(d) The Year Representatives shall be responsible for communicating to and promoting
the society to students in their year.
(e) The Hack Secretary shall be responsible for organising and assembling an organisation
team/SIG for any hackathons the committee wishes to run.
(f) The Technical Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining any servers and services
that the society is running for both the committee and members. The Tech Sec will
also be responsible for any technical setups for society events.
(g) The Graphic Designer shall be responsible for the creation of art, logos, and other
designs required by the society for events, merchandise and other promotional material.
It is important to note that the above are suggestions to what those elected to the positions
should be responsible, not absolute rules. Delegation is encouraged and necessary, but those
in the relevant positions should take responsibility for delegating the tasks and making sure
they get done.
8. Non elected positions on the committee are as follows:
(a) To ensure cooperation between the School of Informatics and CompSoc, the school
convenors for the School of Informatics automatically have a place and vote on the
committee, to vote on behalf of the school. It is entirely up to the representative to
what degree they wish to participate in the committee.
(b) An EDI Representiative role created and managed by the School of Informatics will
automatically have a place and vote on the committee.
(c) The leaders of the Special Interest Groups have a place and vote on the committee
(see below, ‘Special Interest Groups’).

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 9. The committee may find it helpful to appoint members to additional positions on the
committee after the elections. These must be co-opted onto the committee by a two third
majority of the current committee.
10. In the event of ambiguity or contradiction within this constitution, a quorate committee
may vote, by simple majority, to settle any disputes.

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3 Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
1. Any member of CompSoc may, and is encouraged to, start a special interest group pertaining
to any common interest the members may have. What follows are guidelines on the rights
and rules regarding SIGs.
2. When forming a new SIG a request should be handed in to the committee outlining the
main goals and purpose of the SIG.
3. The current special interest groups include:
• SIGWeb: Web Development
• HackSIG: Hackathons
• SIGINT: Cyber Security Group
• LawTech: The Law and Technology Group
• SIGnet: Computer Networking
4. The following points will be considered by the committee when processing the application
of a new SIG:
(a) The SIG should have a clearly defined goal, purpose or other reason for existence
deemed appropriate by the committee.
(b) The SIG should have at least 4 members. In extraordinary circumstances this can be
overruled by the vote of 2/3 of the committee.
(c) The SIG should have current CompSoc-member as a leader. The leader shall be
responsible for running the group and reporting back to the Vice President and the
CompSoc committee. It is encouraged that the selection of a leader should be done
democratically within the group.
5. New SIGs must be approved by two thirds of the elected committee.
6. Once an SIG is accepted:
(a) The leader of any accepted SIG will automatically have a seat and a vote on the
CompSoc committee.
(b) It is entirely up to the SIG how it wants to handle signing up members, arranging
meetings or other matters pertaining to the general administration of the SIG.
(c) The SIG has the right to receive support from the committee within reason, including
but not limited to financial support, creation of advertising materials and free promotion
on the CompSoc website, newsletter and Facebook-group. Requests for such support
should be given in writing to the committee.
(d) The leader of a SIG should continuously keep the committee informed of the activities
of the SIG.
7. At the discretion of the executive committee, once a particular SIG has ran enough events,
the SIG may be included in the constitution.
8. If the committee feels a SIG’s activities has become incompatible with the interests and aims
of the society, the elected committee may, by a two third majority, decide to dis-associate
CompSoc from the SIG.

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 3.1 Leadership of SIGs
9. The choice of a leader should be entirely up the SIG. If a major dispute about leadership
of an SIG is brought to the attention of the committee, a member of the committee will
temporarily act as a leader for the SIG and attempt to find a solution. If no agreement is
made within a reasonable amount of time the committee may choose to appoint a leader,
or decide to dis-credit the SIG.
10. When an SIG gets a new leader the change in leadership should be reported to the committee
by the old leader.

3.2 Special Cases

11. Note that the above are guidelines which should be followed in the general case. In some
instances it will be impractical for an SIG to follow the above rules. This may include
external groups or clubs with a university division that wishes to associate itself with
CompSoc or on-campus groups associated with larger tech-companies. In these cases it
will be entirely at the committee’s discretion how the relationship between the SIG and
CompSoc will work. The SIG will still require a two third majority of the committee to be
approved.

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4 AGM
1. Before the AGM the committee shall provide a document which outlines the activities and
events which took place since the last AGM. This document should give members attending
the AGM an insight into the activities of the society and give the new committee a guide
to what they should go on to do in their term.
2. All members shall be entitled to stand and to vote in elections.
3. All members must receive at least 14 days written notification of the annual general meeting
and of elections not held at the AGM.
4. Motions to be discussed should be presented to the Secretary in advance of the AGM.
5. The society shall also inform the EUSA Societies’ Office of the date, time and place of the
society’s AGM.
6. The AGM of the society must take place between week 7 and week 11 of semester 2.
7. The quorum of a general meeting shall be 10% of the current membership unless:
(a) The number of members is less than 50, in which case the quorum shall be 5 members.
(b) The number of members exceeds 200 in which case the quorum shall be 20 members.
8. Votes shall be cast by the raising of hands, unless any member requests otherwise, in which
case votes shall be cast by secret ballot.
9. New Office Bearers must be assigned to the Society Profile immediately upon election.
10. The following shall be the procedure for amending the constitution:
(a) The committee must make the amended constitution available to society members no
later than 14 days prior to a general meeting.
(b) Suggested changes to an amended constitution must be submitted to the committee
no later than two days prior to the general meeting.
(c) Changes to an amended constitution will be presented at the general meeting and will
be voted upon. Changes to an amended constitution must be passed by a two third
majority. After all changes have been voted on, the amended constitution with the
passed changes will be voted on.
(d) The amended constitution must be passed with a two third majority at the general
meeting.
11. When elections are held there will always be an option to re-open nominations. This option
will be presented as an additional candidate, ‘Ron’. If Ron gets the greatest amount of votes
the position will be kept open and an EGM shall be called by the committee to fill the
position. Nominations may be made at the AGM, subject to the nominee’s consent.
12. If no nominations are received for any of President, Secretary or Treasurer, the incumbent
committee shall call an EGM within 4 weeks. If all 3 positions are not filled following an
EGM, the incumbent committee shall inform EUSA that the society has become defunct.
Anybody can reform the society by contacting EUSA, however this must be done within 3
years or all society assets will be lost.

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5 EGM
1. An EGM can be called in the following ways:
(a) The resignation of any elected committee-member will trigger an EGM at the earliest
opportunity unless an AGM is held within 4 weeks.
(b) A quorate committee may vote, by simple majority, to hold an EGM on constitutional
amendments.
(c) A quorate committee may vote, by two thirds majority, to hold an EGM to re-elect a
committee member. This member would be entitled to run again for the same position
and if re-elected could not be removed from the position by another EGM until an
AGM is held.
(d) Any member of the society may bring about an EGM to amend the constitution or
replace an elected member/members of the committee by collecting signatures of at
least a third of the society, with a minimum of 30 members.

2. The committee shall decide on a date for an EGM which must be within 4 weeks of it being
called for. If an EGM is called for outside of term-time the committee must decide on a
date within 4 weeks of the start of term.
3. All members must receive at least 14 days written notification of an EGM. An e-mail suffices
as a written notification.

4. An EGM can be called with the purpose of either amending the constitution or re-electing
a committee member.
5. The quorum of a general meeting shall be the same as that for an AGM.
6. Any newly elected Office Bearers will be communicated to the Societies Team after the
election has taken place.
7. The administrative running of an EGM shall be identical to that of an AGM.

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6 Committee Meetings
1. The committee shall meet at least once every 14 days in term-time.
2. The quorum of a committee meeting shall be 75% of the members of the committee with at
least two of the president, treasurer and secretary.
3. As a general rule the meetings shall also be open to any members who wish to discuss
an item on the agenda with the committee or raise any other issue. However, if for any
reason any member of the committee wants a meeting to be restricted to the committee
only, a request should be made to the Secretary and the Secretary in concurrence with the
President can restrict the meeting to committee members only.
4. The minutes of a committee meeting must be made available to members of the society
within a week of the meeting being held.

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7 Signatures
1. The acting executive committee shall sign one or more paper copies of the constitution to
show agreement with the above terms:

President Date

Secretary Date

Treasurer Date

CompSoc ♥ LATEX

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