OUR CONSTITUTION
 

This Constitution provides procedures and guidance for the establishment and maintenance of the content and facilities relating to the "Australian Artillery Association" web site, all of the web site content shall remain the property of the Trustees, "Australian Artillery Association".

The Committee shall exercise day to day management of the web site on behalf of the "Australian Artillery Association" Members.  An objective of this Constitution is to ensure that no one person shall solely own the content of, nor dictate the direction or influence the membership of, the "Australian Artillery Association" web site!   This document has been provided for member’s guidance and whilst your opinions and views expressed from time to time may differ from other members you are welcome to stay as long as you wish subject to your compliance with this constitution.
  This is truly your home, so come and go as you please and remember
~ you're always welcome. ~

The "Australian Artillery Association" has been established to provide a, not for profit, non political, non secular and non singular entity controlled facility, for Gunners of the Royal Australian Artillery, their spouses and immediate families via the World Wide Web (WWW).   The  Committee shall exercise governance of the site and no decisions regarding the web site, content, context, style, quantity, or membership acceptance, denial, withdrawal or suspension thereof shall be made unless a majority of the Executive Committee members shall so decide.

The Committee of the "Australian Artillery Association" shall comprise the following positions:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Webmaster
Historian
Newsletter Editor
Internet Chat Line Facilitator

Each Committee position shall be filled by a current or ex serving member of the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA) irrespective of rank or gender.

Incumbents of the respective positions shall be appointed for a period of 12 months (excluding the Webmaster's position).  

Should there be no volunteer for a specific position then the present incumbent may be asked to retain the position indefinitely, should they wish to do so, unless the Committee determines otherwise.  

The Webmaster shall be appointed for a period of 3 years.  

A volunteer to replace the Webmaster will only be considered provided:-

(1)

the proposed new incumbent has the appropriate software and experience to enable them to fulfil the position, without jeopardizing the system, and

(2)

they are prepared to meet all the costs of maintaining the site on the World Wide Web utilising a reliable host, and

(3)

the nomination is accepted by the Committee.  

A Committee member may be removed by a majority vote of the Committee, should the need arise.   When a Committee member is removed or vacates their position on the Committee, a request shall be sent out via email and the Internet Chat Facility to all members for a suitable volunteer to fill the vacated position.

All positions on the Committee of the "Australian Artillery Association" web site and any Sub Committee's formed there under shall be non-paid voluntary positions.

No expansion to the aforementioned Committee positions is considered necessary however should the need arise from time to time, the Committee may approve Sub Committee's to assist with specific aspects of the web site.   No Sub Committee member shall be entitled to vote on any matter before the Committee

The web site known as the "Australian Artillery Association" is the rightful property of the "Australian Artillery Association", Committee (of the day) (which shall be held in trust by the Trustees "Australian Artillery Association") and may be amended, restyled or even deleted from the world wide web at the direction of the Committee provided that a majority vote by the Committee has been made on the decision at hand.   Such decision is to be ratified by the Trustees.  While it is recognized that the Webmaster of the "Australian Artillery Association" web site may maintain the site on a day to day basis and do whatever is necessary to sustain the site on the world wide web the Webmaster/s may not on their own make changes to the site without first seeking and receiving the approval of the Executive Committee.

All Membership applications shall be considered by the Committee and shall be decided within 14 days of receipt.   Notice of the Committee's decision shall be forwarded to the applicant either via email or post and shall include a formal welcome to all successful applicants.

Membership of the "Australian Artillery Association" web site is available to Gunners of the Royal Australian Artillery irrespective of rank or gender, their spouses and immediate family and shall be free.   However any member who wishes to voluntarily contribute towards maintaining the site on the World Wide Web may do so by contacting the Secretary.

Membership shall be lifelong or as long as the site is sustained on the World Wide Web unless a request to be removed from the membership roll on the site is made by the member.

The "Australian Artillery Association" web site shall maintain an internet chat facility for members.   This facility is to be monitored by a Committee or Sub Committee member whenever possible and any content submitted that contains unnecessary profanity, sexually explicit content, nudity or chain mail type emails is to be removed and the member informed.   Should the same email member submit unwarranted content again they are to be warned of a possible suspension from the chat line facility for a period to be determined by the Executive Committee.   Should the same email member continue, following the receipt of a warning then they are to be suspended as per the Committee's direction and so informed by the online moderator.   Additionally, the online, chat line moderator is to monitor any discussions that appear to be escalating into unnecessary levels of tension between online participants and calm the discussion down or even ask that one side voluntarily take a break or change subjects so as to relieve the tension.   The moderator should not seek to terminate a discussion point, unless absolutely necessary, rather point out to both sides that each are entitled to an opinion albeit they may be opposing opinions.

Opinions expressed by members over the Internet Chat Line facility do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of neither Committee nor Sub Committee members.   Therefore any Committee member acting in the position of the Internet Chat Line moderator should maintain a non bias position towards either side of a heated discussion should it occur.