The Constitution of Geekonix Alumni Association
Geekonix Alumni
This document is the proposed Constitution of The Geekonix Alumni Asso- ciation at Techno India. The document includes regulations for internal management and administration of the association.
Below, is the glossary of definitions of terms used within the Geekonix Alumni Association Constitution:
Geekonix Alumni Association or Association: “Geekonix Alumni Associa- tion” or simply “Association” in this document refers to the proposed body for providing an interface between alumni (defined below) and the current students of the the college (defined below).
Techno India or college: In this Constitution, unless the context otherwise requires, “Techno India” or “college” directly refer to Techno India, Salt Lake, Sec – V, a constituent college of West Bengal University of Technology.
Alumni: Alumni refers to those alumni of Techno India, who have actively or passively contributed to the founding, management or functioning of either Geekonix, the technical magazine and the now inactive Yahoo Group, or Edge, the annual technical festival of Techno India which was founded in 2006 under the moniker of “Tech Fest” and was entitled “Edge” in 2007.
Student(s): All currently enrolled students of the college.
Member: Member refers to a voluntary Member of the association. An alumni may not be a Member while a Member must be an alumni.
Associate Member: A non-voting Member of the association. The voting choice shall be voluntary.
Representative: A Member of the association who has been elected or nominated to represent and carry out the views or wishes of the association and also act as a communication interface between alumni, students and college authorities.
Administrative Executive: A faculty member nominated by the college authorities and agreed upon by the association who shall act as an administrative interface between the association and the college authorities. The Administrative Executive is mandatorily a part of the Administrative Committee.
Associate Administrative Executive: A faculty member nominated by the college and agreed upon by the association who shall act as an administrative interface between the association and the college authorities. The Associate Administrative Executive is mandatorily a part of the Administrative Committee and also acts as Administrative Executive in the absence of the designate.
Student Members: A current student of Techno India who is involved in the activities of Geekonix or Edge.
Student Representative: A current student of Techno India who is on the administrative committee of Geekonix or Edge.
Administrative Committee: The committee will carry out meetings and negotiations between the committee members as defined in Section 5.
The text in this document lays down the restrictive but not prohibitive guidelines for the Members of Geekonix Alumni Association for only activities designated under the auspices of the association. The guidelines must be adhered to by all Members of the association not including all alumni. This document shall be considered comprehensive for all practical purposes and any circumstantial digressions or unforeseen revelations must be appended to this document as and when necessary. Any revisions to this document must be subject to a vote among at least five Members of the association.
The foundations of the Geekonix Alumni Association lie on a highly valued tradition of pursuing technical and managerial excellence through practical implementation and rigorous competition. The tradition is rooted in the the foun- dations years of Geekonix and Edge. At this juncture it is necessary to delve, for a moment, into the history of the two aforementioned entities. Geekonix, founded in September 2005, was started as a wall magazine to promote interest in science and technology among the students of the college. Within months, the magazine successfully brought together like minded students with a common hunger for knowledge. The activities of the magazine soon snowballed into the first large scale technical festival of Techno India in 2006 (conducted as part of Anakhronos) bringing in participants from more than seven different colleges in Kolkata. The conduction of this festival however, did bring Geekonix to the forefront and enticed many new members. The activities of these members fanned out to participating and winning technical competitions in several colleges across India going as far across as IIT Powai. Not only did these activities inspire students to pursue similar activities, they also inspired members of Geekonix to come up with a distinct technical festival of their own – Edge. Edge 2007, put Techno India on the prestigious list of one of the larger technical festivals in eastern India. By the editions in 2008 through 2012, Edge has established itself as a major technical festival attracting participants from all over the country.
Geekonix and Edge have made a stellar contribution not only to the careers of members and alumni alike, they have also helped bring recognition to the college. Though informal, this recognition allows students of Techno India to network with their peers from other colleges. The Geekonix Alumni Association proposes to further this contribution through the services of a network of high-achieving alumni who once served Geekonix or Edge. The alumni wish to make available knowledge gained through years of experience in various fields and career paths to the students of Techno India. A list of the normative but not restrictive services on offer are provided in Section 7. Furthermore, a declaration about the nature of the association is in order.
Declaration:The Geekonix Alumni Association shall remain a non-profit, apolitical and voluntary organization cooperating with the college authorities at all times. Participation in the activities of the association are voluntary but restricted to (as defined in Section 1). The activities of the association shall at no point interfere with the normal functioning of the academic activities of Techno India. The services offered by the association shall be availed by students on a voluntary basis only.
The proposed Geekonix Alumni Association shall act as an interface between members and students. It must be noted that although there is an entry criterion for Members of the association but no such criteria exist for students to avail services offered by the association. All students of Techno India can avail the services of the association. The association shall make available at the students’ disposition information such as information about admissions to universities for higher education both in India and abroad through personal experiences of relevant Members, information about job experiences of Members, information about hiring programs in companies for full time or internship positions and other relevant information.
Conversely, the association will also allow alumni to keep abreast with activities and developments in the college. All of this information shall be made available to students through a website that the association shall put online and announced at a later date.
Members of the association shall help administer and maintain the activities of the association. All activities partaken by each Member shall however, be voluntary. This section describes the roles of Members and guidelines for membership. Decisions internal to the association shall be considered passed when agreed upon by at least three Members excluding Associate Members. Decisions to be proposed to the college authorities or current Student Members of Geekonix or Edge teams by the Geekonix Alumni Associations may be consid- ered for a formal vote among members. A winning vote shall have the consent of a majority among at least three members of the association. Decisions relating to finances of the association however, must be considered for formal votes and require consent of a majority among at least five members of the association.
Associate Member: Associate Members of the association shall not cast a vote should there be a matter up for voting and consultation. They may change their membership status to a normal Member at any time. They may not change their membership status again for one month after the previous change. Associate Members may otherwise participate in all activities of the association unless otherwise specified.
Administrative Executive: The association shall carry out any negotiations with, request for authorizations or permissions to, and communicate decisions to the Administrative Executive only. Word from the Administrative Executive shall be considered the final wish of the college authorities and no external interference or overruling opinions shall be entertained from any other faculty or staff of the college unless explicitly specified by the Administrative Executive. The Principal or Director however, are granted the authority to overrule the decisions of the Administrative Executive.
Associate Administrative Executive: The Associate Administrative Executive shall carry out full responsibilities of the Administrative Executive in his/her absence.
Members: Members are alumni who possess active voting rights in all decisions of the association. They shall also be expected to be active contributors to the services offered by the association to the students. This expectation is however, not binding.
Students: All students of Techno India are welcomed to avail the services offered by the association. The services as defined in Section 7 shall be made available through the website of the Geekonix Alumni Association.
Faculty: All faculty members of Techno India are welcomed to avail or offer services on the association’s website.
The administrative committee shall be responsible for active decisions about involvement of the association in activities planned in the college. The committee shall be headed by the Administrative Executive and the Associate Administrative Executive, one or two Representative Members and three or four Student Members (as defined in Sections 1 and 4). The committee shall participate in meetings and define requests and expectations for the association including administrative, financial and organizational activities.
All funds collected by voluntary donations by the Alumni Association shall be credited to a bank account designated for the association. The account shall be held jointly by the association with signing authorities granted to the Administrative Executive, Associate Administrative Executive and two Representative Members. All funds, so dispensed by the association shall be accounted for and detailed books of expenses must be maintained by Student Members or Student Representatives. These books shall be made available to Members or Associate Members of the association upon request. It is recommended to make the books available on the website of the association for easy reference.
The Student Representatives or voluntary Members shall also conduct a quarterly funding drive whereby they may contact alumni by email, phone or online social networks to encourage them to donate to the Geekonix Alumni Association Fund. All Alumni whether Member or not, may be contacted in these drives however, those alumni who register on a Do-Not-Contact list either verbally, or in response to an email or by registering on the list through the association web- site shall not be conducted for two years. The funding drive should suggest a minimum amount however, should the alumni wish to donate a lower amount, it shall be accepted. The suggested minimum amount may be | 100 for Members living in India or $ 10 for Members living abroad.
The offerings of the “Association” will be categorized in the following fronts:
EDGE: The members of the association will have an opinion on the proceedings of the technical fest “EDGE” and the students will have an option to seek advice and support. The advice and support offered by the association can range from technical to financial but the final discretion lies in the hand of current Association’s Administration Committee.
KnowledgePool: The Association opens up a pool of talent in various fields. The students (every member) will have access to experience this huge knowledge pool both in India and abroad, to learn more about the industry and academia in general, which should help them to choose their career path more wisely. The workings of the KnowledgePool will be mostly based on generic question answer forums and not on a person-to-person basis. The students will interact with the members/pool through a forum and through formal discussions. The participants will be expected to adhere to the code of conduct of the forum published separately in the portal.
Office Hours: There will be certain periodic office hours with certain members of the association, where students will have the opportunity to have a one to one interaction with the member and clear any queries with them. (*just to confirm, this is something other than KnowledgePool interaction). The details of the office hours along with member detail and their expertise will be declared in the website beforehand. The views of the member should not be considered to be the view of the institution/organization/company he is associated with in his professional capacity.