Constitution

The Abertay Ethical Hacking society follows a constitution, which can be read in this category

Version History

Version #	Implemented By	Revision Date	Changes
1	Callum Shanks	24/04/2024	Wording surrounding the situations where a new committee can be elected. Addition of being able to hold a bi-election if a committee position is vacant.
2	David Cox	04/11/24	Social Media Manager role added to necessary sections.
3	David Cox	15/05/25	Additions made to enforce anonymous voting for AGM voting

This constitution cannot in anyway supersede or contradict the constitution or policies of Abertay Students’ Association (also referred to in this document as the Association)

Name

The name of the society shall be: Abertay University Students’ Association Ethical Hacking Society

Aims, Beliefs and Objectives

a) The Aims, Beliefs and Objectives of the Society are:

1. Allow members to learn and discuss security and computing issues 2. Organise events for our members in the interest of education, entertainment and career-advancement.

b) These Aims, Beliefs and Objectives must fall withing the Association’s, University’s and Societal policy and regulations.

c) Each Society must abide by the Abertay University’s regulations regarding Data Protection Act 1998.

Membership

a) The Membership of the Society shall be open to all, providing they are full members of the Association. (Unless they have exercised their rights to opt out of membership to Abertay Students’ Association.

b) The membership fee/s for the society will be set by the Committee once per annum.

c) Minimum number of members to affiliate is 8 Abertay Students.

d) Rights:

i. Membership of the Society implies the right to:

1. Attend all meetings and participate in the activities of the Society, subject to the constraints arising from resources.

ii. Full Membership implies the additional right to:

1. Vote for officers and stand for election to office with the Society.

2. Propose amendments to this Constitution at a General Meeting.

3. Vote on all questions of policy within the Society.

iii. Associate Membership implies the right to:

1. Participate in activities and to attend but not vote at meetings.

e) Grounds for Termination

i. Where a breach of the Association’s Code of Conduct may have occurred, Societies, Society Committees, and Society Members, Association members, members of the public, Association and/or University staff, can raise an issue regarding a Society member(s).

f) Honorary Membership

i. Honorary members can be nominated by any society member. Honorary members will be approved at the AGM, where any objections can be made.

ii. Can be revoked by the SA in circumstances where behaviour has been deemed inappropriate. Can be appealed by normal Students’ Association appeal process.

iii. Honorary membership have the same rights as associate membership.

iv. Up to 5 new honorary members can be made each year.

g) Appeals

Governance

This section contains the basic set of rules which will allow the Society to have effective governance. Please ensure that you understand this fully, particularly the section on financial regulations.

a) The Committee

1. The minimum number of members of the Society’s Committee shall be a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Social Media Manager.

2. The Society may create other Committee positions as required. The creation of a new committee member position must be determined reasonable by the membership of the society by way of a majority vote at an EGM, allowing for the position to be filled by vote at a subsequent EGM or AGM.

3. All Committee members must be Students of Abertay University.

4. All Committee members must be Full Members of the Society.

5. The Administrative affairs of the Society shall be conducted or delegated to members of the Society Committee.

6. The Committee of the Society shall be elected either in advance of or at the Society’s Annual General Meeting \(AGM\), held in the second semester. In the event that a committee position is vacant a bi-election will be called to elect a new member to the position.

7. The Society Committee shall be made up of:

President	Ross Cameron
Vice-President	Fróði Sveinsson
Treasurer	Ciaran Davidson
Secretary	Jack Laundon
Social Media Manager	Josh Trueman

Their responsibilities shall be as follows:

1. To be responsible for ensuring that the Society complies with the Constitution, By-Laws, Health & Safety Policy, Financial Regulations and Societies papers.

2. To be responsible for ensuring that the Society shall only hold accounts with the Association, and that the Society and its members comply with financial procedures and rules made by the Association from time to time.

3. To ensure that the membership registration procedures defined are properly complied with and that a receipt is made for each Society member’s subscription.

4. To ensure that the Society’s web properties are kept up-to-date.

5. On election, the contact details of all Society Committee members must be provided to the Vice President of the Students’ Association in order for society funds to be released.

6. To work with the other members of the committee to achieve the aims of the Society for the benefit of the Societies’ membership

7. One Committee member is expected to attend each Society Council, EGMs and AGMs of the Association.

8. All members and Committee should endeavour to uphold the aims and values stated in the constitution.

9. The committee must maintain an accessible archive of the content produced during each year.

10. Maintain a count of the number of members attending each meeting between Oct 1 and April 1, to be signed off by any two committee members.

b) President

i. Provide leadership and governance to the Society and it’s committee

ii. Work with the other members of the committee to achieve the common goals of the society.

c) Vice-President

i. 1. Assist the President, and assume their roles and responsibilities in their absence.

d) Secretary

i. Provide administrative support to the activities of the Society.

ii. Call meetings with defined timeframes, post agendas, take minutes

iii. Work with the other members of the committee to advertise these meetings

1. using email, the society website and social media

iv. Prepare and present any relevant documentation

1. at all EGMs and AGMs

2. to the Executive Committee of the Student Association.

e) Treasurer

i. Account for and manage the Society’s budget, held by Abertay Students' Association.

ii. Handle payments between the Society and its members. This mainly includes:

1. Membership fees

2. Funding society equipment and resources

3. Taking orders and payments for society-related merchandise

iii. The Treasurer is responsible for preparing the budget and this can be provided to any member of the society by request. The results of this request will be announced at a society meeting.

f) Social Media Manager

i. Manage social media platforms for the society

The Society can remove member of the Committee following the rules outlined in the Association’s Schedules.

g) The Society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM)

1. The AGM will be held once every academic year during Semester 2.

2. AGMs shall be open to all members of the Society.

3. Only full members of the Society who joined before Feb 1 are entitled to vote.

4. All votes shall be done through anonymous voting.

5. Notice of the AGM shall be given to all Society members, the Student Vice President and advertised to all students at least twenty eight days before the meeting.

6. The business of the AGM shall include the election of the next Society Committee and the presentation of the annual financial accounts of the Society.

7. Each AGM will be minuted and a copy of these minutes shall be submitted to the Association.

8. Quorum shall be 67% of the active members. The number of active members shall be determined by the committee by averaging the attendance of meetings between Oct 1 and April 1.

9. In the event of the Quorum not being met, a new AGM shall be announced and held within a further 14 days.

10. Constitutional amendments and honourary members must be proposed 7 days prior to the AGM.

h) Extraordinary General Meeting

i. Extraordinary General Meetings can be called to discuss a particular question and may be called by:

1. A simple majority vote of the committee.

2. Twenty-five per cent of the active members of the Society, or five of the ordinary members of the Society, whichever is the greater.

ii. The Secretary shall publish notice of the meeting with the agenda within two working days of the receipt of a request for such a meeting. The meetings shall be held within 14 days from the day of publication.

iii. The quorum shall be as for the AGM.

iv. In the event of the Quorum not being met, a new EGM shall be announced and held within 28 days.

i) Society Meetings

1. The Ethical Hacking Society must meet at minimum monthly during undergraduate teaching time. Meetings may be held outside this time but are not deemed mandatory.

j) Finance

1. The Society shall be provided with a bank account within the Association for which to manage their accounts. The Society will not have a bank account out with Abertay Students’ Association.

2. Funding belonging to the Society will be used to achieve the aims, beliefs and objectives outlined in the “Aims and Objectives” section of this document.

3. The Treasurer shall be responsible for the proper account of the funds in accordance with the Association’s regulations.

4. The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, Social Media Manager’s signatures shall be required to authorise financial transactions.

5. In the event of the Society ceasing to be recognised as a legal entity, either as an affiliated organisation within the Abertay Students' Association, or as an independent organisation, all remaining funds shall be donated 50%/50% to the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/) and the [Open Rights Group](https://www.openrightsgroup.org/). If one of the two charities ceases to exist, 100% of the funds will go to the remaining charity.

6. In the event that both charities cease to exist the Students’ Association's finance officer will approach the current committee to solicit the name of a charity to donate the remaining funds to.

7. In the event of suspected financial malpractice, the Association has the right to investigate and act accordingly through discipline procedures.

Amendments to this Constitution

As your Society grows, you may find that the Constitution is no longer covering everything that you need it to. If that is the case, this section outlines the rules on changing the Constitution.

a) Amendments to the Constitution must have the approval of two-thirds of the active members of the Society present at the AGM or at an EGM of the Society convened for this purpose

b) Notice of the proposed constitutional changes must be published in the agenda and cannot be brought up under the item 'any other business’

c) Any amendment to the Constitution is subject to the final approval of the Executive Committee

d) In the event of changes to the Abertay Students' Association's constitution, an EGM shall be immediately called, following standard EGM procedure, to appropriately amend the society's constitution to accommodate any changes that may affect the society.

e) In the event of the Executive Committee withholding approval of any amendments to the constitution, an EGM will immediately be called, following standard EGM procedure, to allow the society to discuss the reasons for withheld approval, and take appropriate action to allow an updated constitution to be deemed valid.

General

Abertay University Students’ Association is ultimately responsible for all the actions of your Society, and this sections aims to help the Society to keep this in mind.

a) We are a recognised Abertay Students’ Association Society, and the Society shall at all times abide by the Constitution and Schedules of the Association.

b) At least one elected member of the Society shall attend each meeting of the Society Council meetings, which are held monthly on a rotating basis.

c) All publications, social media posts, digital assets and prints made by the Society must include the Association’s logo, and Scottish Charity Number. For a copy of these please email [email protected]

d) Society members may request any and all information related to the Ethical Hacking Society from the Committee to be provided to them. Requests will be limited to information stored on society platforms, and the Committee may reserve the right to redact sensitive information from such requests. All requests must be answered within four weeks.

e) Any of the following matters are grounds for a society to be disaffiliated from the Association:

a. Failure to meet deadlines as required.

b. Breach(es) of financial regulations.

c. Bringing the Association into disrepute

d. If the membership of a society falls below 8 members at any point, the society in question must go through the standard affiliation process.

e. Should the society be disaffiliated, they may appeal the decision in writing within 5 working days.

Affiliations with outside organisations

Outside organisations can give a Society valuable guidance and support, and we allow societies to have external affiliations. As Abertay Students’ Association has a duty to ensure that the societies are run by Abertay students, this section frames the rules on affiliation and the relationship that the external organisation can have with the Society.

a) The Society may affiliate to an outside organisation(s), providing the affiliation is approved by two-thirds of the voting members at a Society meeting and be approved by the Vice President of the Student’s Association

b) The Society may only affiliate to an outside organisation(s) whose Beliefs and Activities are in strict conformity to section “Aims and Objectives” of this document.

c) The Society may not affiliate to any organisation that conflicts with any standing policy or the aims and beliefs of the Association.

d) No affiliation to an outside organisation will be allowed to compromise the autonomy of the Society.

Signatures

President: Ross Cameron

Student Number: 2307533

Date: 16/05/2025

Vice-President: Fróði Sveinsson

Student Number: 2402871

Date: 16/05/25

Secretary: Jack Laundon

Student Number: 2202274

Date: 16/05/25

Treasurer: Ciaran Davidson

Student Number: 2201846

Date: 16/05/25

Social Media Manager: Joshua Trueman

Student Number: 2401372

Date: 15/05/25