Whitman College Fencing | Leadership Positions

All positions should be determined by a vote of the club membership, weighted by rank in the following manner (unless otherwise noted):

0.5 votes shall be granted to a regularly attending member who has not yet reached the 1st rank.
1.0 votes shall be granted to members of the 1st rank.
1.5 votes shall be granted to members of the 2nd rank.
2.0 votes shall be granted to members of the 3rd rank.

All positions are intended to be held in 2 semester blocks.

Head Instructor (top)

Election should occur in May to take effect for the beginning of the next school-year, giving the new instructor time to plan for events and meetings early in the next semester.

Requirements:

1) Must have been of the 3rd rank for at least 1 semester.
2) Must be elected by a club vote, with the additional stipulation that the previous Head Instructor's vote is weighted as 3 votes.
3) Must have a firm familiarity with ranking system.

Responsibilities:
1) The HI is responsible for the existence and approximate following of a yearly lesson plan for the bi-weekly foil lessons.
2) The HI need not always teach the lesson if a situation arises that keeps him/her from attending a meeting. However, she/he is responsible for making sure that there is a 3rd/4th star present and ready to teach any foil lesson which he/she is not leading.
3) The HI serves as the default director for all tournament bouts held at Whitman.
4) It is the HI's job to oversee all rank testing, and determine if a candidate passes their testing. The HI is on her/his honor to ignore personal likes or dislikes and judge objectively during rank testing. If a candidate is refused their attempted rank, and has undergone at least the suggested training time, the HI's decision can be appealed in the following manner:

If the candidate was attempting the first rank, the appeal is to an unweighted vote by the current instructors, including the HI.

If the candidate was attempting the second rank, the appeal proceeds by challenge bout. The bout is for 15 points and follows the club's Standard Foil Rules, without time limit. The bout is fenced between the candidate and another club member of the head instructor's choice. Notice, the HI can serve as the opponent.
The bout is adjudicated by an instructor (not the HI) voted from among the instructors by the instructors. If at any point during the bout the instructors, as a group, decide that the candidate is purposely and repeatedly failing to acknowledge touches or accepting unclear touches against his/her opponent, the candidate automatically loses the bout. The 3/4 stars then vote regarding the candidate's proficiency in foil fencing. The candidate is passed if a two-thirds majority, having watched the bout, feel the candidate is proficient enough to be given the 2nd rank permissions.

If the candidate was attempting the third rank, the appeal is to a vote of the entire club, weighted normally, and requiring a two-thirds majority. This allows the people who are to be taught a chance to express their opinion about the qualifications of the potential instructor.

If the candidate was attempting the fourth rank, the appeal is to a vote of members of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ranks, weighted normally, and requiring a two-thirds majority. 1st ranks are excluded from the vote because they are not yet ready to study anything but foil, so have no say in a vote regarding non-foil instruction.

If a candidate appeals a decision and fails to win the appeal, they must wait 1 semester to attempt the rank again, unless the HI offers an earlier attempt at her/his discretion.

President (top)

Election should be held in May.

Requirements:

1) Must be of at least the 2nd rank.
2) Must have regularly attended the club meetings for at least 2 semesters.
3) Must have attended at least 3 additional events beyond weekly lessons.
4) Must have a firm familiarity with the club's leadership positions and organization.

Responsibilities:

1) The President is responsible for making sure the recognition form is filled out and turned in at the beginning of each semester.

2) The President is in charge of researching/creating new events for Whitman Fencing to participate in.

3) The President is in charge of planning and logistics for symposiums, tournaments, demonstrations, and other events the Club plans to participate in.

4) Each semester the President is responsible for making sure the Club has the needed space reserved at the appropriate times to hold lessons in.

Vice President (top)

Requirements:
1) Chosen (with consent!) by the president.

Responsibilities:
1) The VP serves as the right hand of the President, serving as the President when/if she/he is unable to do so, and helping the President with his/her responsibilities when/if needed.

2) The VP is in charge of recruitment and publicity.

ASWC/Budget Representative (top)

Election can be held in September, but May is preferable.

Requirements:

1) Must attend ASWC training after election if not already trained.

Responsibilities:

The ASWC/Budget Representative forms the interface between ASWC the Club.

1) They are responsible for attending all ASWC House meetings to represent the club and make sure we don't lose our funding. In the event that they cannot attend a meeting it is their responsibility to make sure an alternate club member attends the meeting.

2) They are responsible for turning in all receipts and money requests to ASWC, and knowing how much money we have at any given time to speed up purchasing decisions.

3) They are responsible for helping plan the next year's budget and turning in all related forms, including speaker request forms.

Alternate ASWC/Budget Representative (top)

Election can be held in September, but May is preferable.

Requirements:

1) Must attend ASWC training after election if not already trained.

Responsibilities:

The Alternate ASWC/Budget Representative helps form the interface between ASWC the Club.

1) They are responsible for covering any of the ASWC/Budget Representative's duties that the latter is unable to perform. Most commonly this involves going to ASWC House meetings when the primary representative is unavailable.

2) They are responsible for getting in touch with the primary ASWC/Budget Representative during the week before any required ASWC House meeting and making sure the club will be represented at the meeting. Moreover, they should get in touch with the primary representative on the day of the meeting (prior to the meeting) to confirm that it will be attended.

Secretary (top)

Election can be held in September.

Requirements:

1) None.

Responsibilities:

1) Attending nearly all meetings and events so as to send out weekly minutes to the listserve.

Weekly minutes should include:

A) Any business dealt with on Mondays.
B) What material was covered that week in the lessons.
C) What material will be covered next week during the lessons. (notice B) and C) should be copyable from the Lesson Schedule on the website)
D) Information about any upcoming events, including times and registration information, which should be available from the President.
E) Information about events that occurred during the last week.
F) Announcement of any member's successful rank testing to the listserve (after it is announced in lessons by the HI).
G) Any entertaining quotes or tidbits that they saw/heard during that week's events or lessons.

Key Bearer (top)

Election should be held in May.

Requirements:

1) 1 semester of very steady club attendance.

Responsibilities:

1) Governance of the Fencing Storage Room Key.
2) Attendance at every meeting and event to make sure members have access to the fencing room. In the _rare_ circumstance that the Key Bearer cannot attend, it is their job to make sure an attending member possesses the key prior to the meeting/event.
3) The Key Bearer is in change of making sure the fencing room stays well organized and clean.
4) Tracking inventory and equipment borrowing.

Webmaster (top)

Election should be held in May.

Requirements:

1) An adequate knowledge of HTML and related web design skills.

Responsibilities:

1) Maintaining and expanding the Whitman Fencing website, including making sure the leaders, meetings, lesson schedule, and events pages are up to date.