Ratified March 24, 1998

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

PRINCETON MOCK TRIAL TEAM

Article One: Name

The name of this organization shall be Princeton Mock Trial.

Article Two: Purpose

Princeton Mock Trial (henceforth, "the Team") is organized to promote knowledge of the law, foster excellence in speech and persuasion, and help develop logical thinking skills. The Team shall compete formally and informally in mock trial competitions on the state and national levels, and host tournaments for both high school and college students.

Article Three: Membership

  1. Any Princeton University undergraduate (henceforth, "Student") shall be eligible to try out for open positions on the Team.
  2. Tryouts shall be conducted before October of each academic year. Members from previous years may be assigned squad positions without a tryout. However, membership from previous years does not guarantee membership on the current year's Team.
  3. All Students assigned to the Team must be members of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society (henceforth, "the Society").
  4. Members of the Team are those who participate on a competing squad and have attended at least 50% of Team meetings in that academic year.
  5. Students who help with tournaments sponsored by the Team need not be members of the Society.

Article Four: Officers

The Mock Trial Team shall have three elected officers: the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary. The President in consultation with the Vice President shall appoint the Treasurer and any necessary Tournament Director(s). All officers must be Team members.

  1. The President: The President is responsible for:
    1. general functioning of the Team;
    2. arranging and chairing Team meetings;
    3. acting as the Team representative on the Governing Council of the Society;
    4. acting as a Team representative to outside parties such as: the American Mock Trial Association; potential attorney, faculty, or other advisors; high schools and other colleges. The President may delegate this responsibility as necessary;
    5. managing assignments of team members to squads and designating members to attend national competitions, in consultation with the Vice President;
    6. appointing, in consultation with the Vice President, a Team Treasurer, at least one Tournament Director for each tournament hosted by the Team, and any other officers as he or she deems necessary;
    7. preparing any necessary reports for the Trustees of the Society;
    8. preparing, in consultation with the Vice President and the Treasurer, annual budgets for the Team;
    9. designating one or more attorney, faculty, or adult advisors, if he or she considers it necessary.
    10. The President shall be one of the only three officers able to sign checks drawn from the Mock Trial Account.
    11. The President shall be able to delegate the above responsibilities to Team members if he or she finds it necessary
  2. The Vice President: The Vice President is responsible for:
    1. assuming the duties of the President in his or her absence;
    2. supervision of Mock Trial education for Team members;
    3. advising the President in managing assignments to Team squads and designating members to attend national competitions;
    4. advising the President in appointing other officers as might be necessary;
    5. preparing, in consultation with the President and the Treasurer, annual budgets for the Team.
    6. The Vice President shall be one of the only three officers able to sign checks drawn from the Mock Trial Account.
  3. The Secretary: The Secretary is responsible for:
    1. giving notice to all team members of general Team meetings convened by the President or Vice President;
    2. ensuring that all team members receive copies of necessary materials;
    3. preparing and copying any case books that must be prepared prior to competition;
    4. enlarging any evidence and creating other exhibits to be used during competition;
    5. publicizing activities of the Team;
    6. keeping attendance at Team meetings;
    7. acting as the Team representative on the Governing Council of the Society in the absence of the President and the absence or ineligibility of the Vice President.
  4. The Treasurer: The Treasurer is responsible for:
    1. preparing, in consultation with the President and Vice President, an annual budget for the Team;
    2. maintaining accurate and detailed records of the Team's revenues and expenditures;
    3. preparing financial reports as might be requested by the President, the Society, or Trustees of the Society.
    4. The Treasurer shall be one of the only three officers able to sign checks drawn from the Mock Trial Account. The Treasurer shall have primary responsibility for writing checks.
  5. The Tournament Director:
    1. There shall be at least one tournament director appointed by the President, in consultation with the Vice President, for each tournament run by the team.
    2. The specific duties of the tournament director(s) will be outlined by the President upon appointment, according to the specific requirements of the tournament.
    3. Tournament Directors have discretionary powers over their tournaments, within reasonable limits set by the President upon appointment.
  6. Replacement of Officers:
    1. The Treasurer of the Team, as well as any Tournament Directors and other appointed officers, serve at the discretion of the President, and may be removed by the President upon consultation with the Vice President.
    2. If in the event that the removal of the President, Vice President, and/or Secretary becomes necessary, a publicized assembly of Team members shall be convened. At this assembly, a two-thirds affirmative majority vote of the full Team membership (regardless of attendance) to remove the said elected officer(s) shall be required.
    3. Vacation of Position:
      1. Upon the removal, extended incapacitation, or resignation of the Vice President and/or Secretary, the President shall appoint a Team member to temporarily fill the vacancy/vacancies. The President shall call for election to occur within 30 days of the vacation of office for any vacated or changed offices.
      2. Upon the removal, extended incapacitation, or resignation of the President, the Vice President (unless that office is also vacant, in which case the Secretary) shall assume the office of the President. The new President shall delegate any duties for which he or she is ineligible. The new President shall appoint Team members to vacant positions temporarily, and shall call for general elections for all offices to occur within 30 days of the original President’s vacation of office.
      3. Upon the removal, extended incapacitation, or resignation of the President, Vice President, and Secretary, the President of the Society shall appoint a Team member to fill the office of the President. The new President shall then act as stated in subclause (3b) above.

Article Five: Elections

  1. Any Team member is eligible to run for Vice President, or Secretary. Any team member is eligible to run for President unless he or she:
    1. is the head of another subsidiary, organ, program, or project of the Society; or
    2. holds an appointed position with a voting seat on the Governing Council of the Society. (This restriction does not apply to members holding offices in organization not affiliated with the society, or to members holding office in independent organizations which receive funding from the Society).
  2. General elections for all elected offices shall be held each academic year at a date to be determined by the President. Elections must occur before May 1.
  3. The Secretary must announce elections to all Team members at least two weeks in advance of the meeting.
  4. Terms of elected officers shall commence once general elections end and shall expire once general elections begin the following academic year, unless ended prematurely by removal, extended incapacitation, or resignation.
  5. The President shall preside over elections, but shall delegate this responsibility to a Team member during the election of an office in which the President is a candidate.
  6. Elections shall proceed in the order of President, Vice President, and Secretary. Candidates shall announce their intent to run for office before elections for that office begins.
  7. No candidate shall be permitted to spend money on campaign materials.
  8. All elections shall proceed by secret ballot, and a candidate must receive a majority vote of Team members present to be elected. If no candidate receives a majority, a run-off election between the top two candidates will determine the election.

Article Six: Structure

  1. The team shall be composed of a number of squads to be determined by the President in consultation with the Vice President and Treasurer.
  2. Each squad shall have a Captain, appointed by the President in consultation with the Vice President. Any Team member, including officers, may serve as a Captain of any squad. No one may serve as the Captain of more than one squad, in absence of exigent circumstances.
  3. Captains may be removed or reassigned at the discretion of the President, in consultation with the Vice President, or by a two-thirds majority of his or her squad at an assembly for this purpose.
  4. The Captain of each squad shall be responsible for assigning witness, attorney, and timekeeper roles, in accordance with the rules of competition. Team members may appeal unreasonable assignments to the President, who shall make the final determination.
  5. The Captain of each squad shall act as the squad representative during captains' meetings at tournaments.

Article Seven: Replacement or Removal of Squad Members

The President has the responsibility to manage squad assignments as stated in Article IV Section A Clause 5. If the President must expel a Team member from a squad, the squad Captain, the President, and the Vice President shall convene in private to discuss the situation. If the squad Captain is one of the two elected officials, then the President shall invite a member of the squad to participate. Upon a unanimous agreement of these three, the member may be expelled from the squad, and be either switched to a different squad, or removed from the Team. This shall not affect the person's status as a member of the Society. The President, in consultation with the Vice President, shall then fill the opening, if necessary.

Article Eight: Amendments

This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of Team members present at a meeting called for this purpose and a majority vote of the Governing Council of the Society. The Secretary must announce a meeting to amend to all Team members no less than two weeks in advance. Advance balloting may be permitted, on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of the President.

Article Nine: Ratification

This Constitution shall be ratified by a majority vote of the Governing Council of the Society and a 60% positive vote of all Team members. All Team officers shall retain their positions until the first elections occurring after ratification.

AMENDMENTS

TO THE

CONSTITUTION OF PRINCETON MOCK TRIAL

Amendment One: By-laws

Written by-laws (regarding Team policy) shall take effect only after they are passed by a majority of Team members present at a meeting where a quorum (2/3 of full team membership) is established.

Amendment Two: Status of Tournament Directors

Tournament Directors need not be Team members, however they shall have Team voting privileges.

Amendment Three: Dual Presidency and Vice-Presidency

The offices of President and Vice-President may be held jointly by two Team members. In this case, both Students shall run together during the Election meeting.

Appendix: Charter of the Princeton Mock Trial Team

The American Whig-Cliosophic Society hereby grants this charter to the Princeton Mock Trial Team as a subsidiary of the Society.

The Team is hereby granted the authority to arrange, conduct and participate in activities related to mock trial, and to enter into national and international leagues as appropriate. The Team may also conduct other related activities including the organization and hosting of tournaments in mock trial, training programs, the publication of journals and other materials related to its activities, and exhibition trials.

The Mock Trial Team shall devise an appropriate procedure for choosing members of the Team. All Team members must be members of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.

The President of the Mock Trial Team shall represent the Team on the Governing Council of the Society. At the time of the issuance of this charter, the President of the Mock Trial Team shall not have a vote. However, the President shall have a vote immediately after the Team has had two consecutive years of zero-deficit performance. Such performance shall be determined by the Governing Council at its annual budget meetings.

The Mock Trial Team shall be governed by the resolutions of the Governing Council, by the Constitution of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, by this charter, and by its own constitution.

By-Law One

Whereas, the Charter of the Princeton Mock Trial Team requires the Team to "devise an appropriate procedure for choosing members of the team"; and

Whereas, the Princeton Mock Trial Team has not yet codified such a procedure;

THEREFORE, we, the Princeton Mock Trial Team, hereby establish the following procedure for choosing members of the team subject to conditions (i) and (ii):

  1. The following shall constitute the default procedure by which teams are composed at the beginning of each competition year;
  2. The default procedure shall be overridden when any of the following individuals: President, Vice-President, Secretary, any Team Captain presents an alternative procedure that is approved by 3/4 of the following voting members: President, Vice-President, Secretary, and all Team Captains. The alternative procedure shall only be in effect for the competition year for which it is approved. If the same alternative procedure is approved for three consecutive years, it shall replace the provisional procedure as the default procedure.
  1. At a date before the day of the Fall Student Activities Fair, the Team shall hold a general membership meeting of current members and the President shall officially name the Captains and Tournament Directors for that academic year Each team shall have no more than two captains, who shall be appointed by the previous year's captain(s) with the advice and consent of the President, as per the Mock Trial Constitution, 4(A)(6), 4(E)(1), and 6(B). During that meeting, the President shall select and announce the dates for tryouts for the Team for that academic year.
    1. At that meeting, the captains of each team shall fill out what shall be called a "needs list." Each list shall include, ranked in numerical order, the team’s needs for the upcoming year. Captains are advised to assume that the team will maintain its composition from the prior competition year minus any graduating seniors or members who have dropped out, although the team may not end up actually doing so. The potential categories for the "needs list" shall be: attorney/witness, gender or any combination thereof (examples: "male," "female attorney," "witness"). The "needs lists" shall be returned to the President for use during squad assignments.
  2. The following individuals ("tryout officials") shall be entitled to conduct tryouts for the Team: the elected officers and Captains. Each of these tryout officials may, if he or she so chooses, delegate the responsibility to sit at tryouts to another Team member if he or she finds it necessary; however, the responsibility must be delegated entirely or not at all. Persons occupying multiple roles are not entitled to multiple "seats." All tryout officials shall remain on their current teams for the purposes of selection.
  3. All individuals who have only been a member of Princeton Mock Trial for one year or less and are not tryout officials shall be required to try out for the team again. This is a firm requirement. Such individuals shall be referred to as "candidates."
  4. All individuals who have been a member of Princeton Mock Trial for two or more years and are not tryout officials shall be assigned to a team, although it may not be the same team to which they were assigned in the previous year. Such individuals shall be referred to as "veterans."
  5. Tryout officials shall be assigned to the same teams to which they were assigned in the previous year.
  6. Individuals who have not been a member of Princeton Mock Trial shall be referred to as "new candidates."
  7. Squad assignments will proceed as per 4(A)(5), the President presiding, with the assistance of the Vice President. If and only if tryout officials cannot amicably come to agreement over selection of members, the following process shall be conducted:
    1. If at any time a team
      1. Has eight members or
      2. Concludes that it has filled its roster, by means of a communication to the President
      then it shall not be entitled to draft again until each team fulfills this condition, at which point it may draft an alternate in accord with the procedure described in (8)(i).
    2. After tryouts, the tryout officials shall divide into their respective teams as per the direction of the President.
    3. First, each candidate or veteran shall be assigned an ID as an attorney, witness, or attorney/witness. Such assignments shall be made by the President, with input from the teams. Each candidate or veteran shall only be drafted as per his or her designated ID.
    4. Next, each team shall be entitled to "re-draft" any individuals (candidates or veterans) who were members of its team last year. All candidates not "re-drafted" shall remain members of the general pool, eligible for selection by any team or no team. All veterans not re-drafted shall remain members of the general pool, but they must be assigned to a team before squad assignments are completed.
    5. Next, each team shall decide on the individual from the general pool whom it most wishes to draft and shall write that name on a sheet of paper. The teams shall then return the papers to the President.
    6. If none of the names are the same, then each Team shall draft the person written on their piece of paper. If one or more names are written on multiple papers, then no Team shall draft yet. The teams desiring to draft individual(s) written on multiple papers shall confer amongst themselves for a length of time determined by the President.
      1. If they can agree that the individual should be assigned to one of their teams, that assignment shall be made, and the team(s) to whom the individual was not assigned shall name a new "most wanted individual." The process shall then be repeated among the remaining teams as described in (e).
      2. If they cannot agree, the President shall reference the teams "needs lists."
        1. If the individual in dispute fits the highest-ranked need for only one of the disputing teams, that team shall be allowed to draft that individual.
        2. If the individual in dispute fits the highest-ranked need for none of the disputing teams, the next-highest-ranked needs shall be used to complete the process in (1).
        3. If the individual in dispute fits the highest-ranked need for more than one of the disputing teams, the team with the more specific need shall be entitled to draft the individual. That is, if team "A" lists "attorney" and team "B" lists "male attorney," team "B" would be entitled to draft that male attorney.
          1. If more than one team has the same specificity of need (e.g., Team A lists "attorney" while Team B lists "witness" for an ID'd attorney/witness, OR Team A and B both list "female witness"), the entire body of tryout officials shall confer and discuss the situation for a period of time determined by the President. If no conclusion is reached and agreed to by the disputing teams at the end of that period of discussion, then the disputing team with the worse/worst performance at the AMTA Regional Competition the year before shall be entitled to draft the individual. The process shall then be repeated among the remaining teams, if any, as described in (e).
        4. Once a need is filled, it is removed from the official "needs list" by the President and Vice President and the other needs move up in rank accordingly.
    7. After each Team has selected a member in the round, the President shall determine which teams, if any, meet the requirements of (a). The remaining teams shall conduct another round of selection in accordance with (e).
    8. The President and Vice President shall note how many veterans remain in the general pool. When the number of veterans in the general pool equals the number of full membership positions remaining on the four teams (assuming eight members per team), the President shall inform the tryout officials of the fact that veterans must be selected for the remainder of the process. The general pool for full membership purposes only shall then be restricted to eligible veterans.
    9. When all teams meet the requirements of (a), the alternate selection process shall begin, following the procedure described in (e). At this point, the general pool shall be expanded to include all candidates not yet selected. If a team wishes not to select an alternate, they may "opt out" at any time in the alternate selection process. However, no team shall be entitled to select more than one alternate.
  8. If a vacancy occurs after initial squad assignments but before the Regional Tournament, as per 4(A)(5), the President shall be entitled to fill the vacancy with any individual not already assigned to a Princeton Mock Trial team, with the advice of the Captain(s) of the team with the vacancy.