MS MUN Club Charter

Purpose

Bring invaluable opportunities that improve character, skill, collaboration, and leadership to middle schoolers at Lake Braddock.

Conduct

1. Treat people with respect

• No ad hominem (personal attacks)
• Respect thoughts, feelings, ideals and ideas
• Respect others (delegates, students, teachers, chairs)
• Respect the law of the gavel
• Use respectful language

1. Uphold Ms. Sypher’s Rules

2.  Uphold SR&R

3. Follow parliamentary procedures

   • In conference, refer to delegation name, not personal name
   • Do not speak out of turn, respect delegates while they are speaking

4.  Respect volume

AI & Plagiarism

Do not use AI to generate images or text for club purposes. Do not plagiarize for club purposes.

Club purposes are defined as background guides, position papers, resolutions, text written during committee, or text written within shared documents for the use of the Club (e.g., a planning Google Docs file for a committee)

Generate is defined as 

1. having images created with an image generation tool (ex. DALL-E), excluding minor use (<50% of an image) for editing or AI upscaling
2. Creating text entirely with a Large Language Model such as ChatGPT with little to no human changes,

Excluding:

1. Use of an AI grammar-correcting tool such as Grammarly
2. Use of AI for brainstorming or help not visible in the final product

Plagiarize is defined as

• Using the work of others without permission
• Not citing sources
• Attempting to claim work not created by yourself as your own
• Claiming AI text/images as human-made

Identification of improper AI usage or plagiarism shall be done as such:

1. A fellow club member or middle school coordinator suspects AI use or plagiarism
2. They contact club leadership with their accusation
3. Leadership assess the offending content with the help of Middle School Coordinators
4. They reach out to the offender for an excuse, explanation or comment.
5. The decision is reached to either:
1. Leave the content there, as it complies with the policy
2. Remove the content
3. For position papers, be considered plagiarized and disqualify the offender from awards.
4. For position papers, allow a second chance to rewrite it.
5. Remove the content and proceed with disciplinary measures if consistent non-following of the policy continues
6. Another outcome, by recommendation of the sponsor, secretariat, and/or the middle school coordinators.

Note that AI detectors do not guarantee accuracy and human work can read as AI. Be sure to understand this before making hasty accusations.

Officers/ Secretariat

Expectations

Members of the Middle School Secretariat are expected to fulfill the expectations listed below.

• Fulfill their roles
• Be Role Models
• Appear at all club meetings that they can attend
• Go to as many conferences as possible
• Be active in the club
• Respond to communications in a timely and on-topic manner
• Be responsible and respectful individuals

If a member of the secretariat fails to meet these expectations, they may be impeached (see Elections)

The positions in the Middle School Secretariat are as follows:

• Secretary-General
• Leader of the club
• Works with the High School club to organize
• Organizes events
• Under-Secretary-General
• Assists the Secretary-General
• Works with the High School club to organize
• Parliamentarian
• Knows the rules of Model UN well
• Assists with making sure everyone knows the rules
• Often chairs mock committees
• Secretary
• Assists the Secretary-General and Under-Secretary-General
• Takes notes
• Sends internal emails
• Sends emails to members of the club with important information
• Social Media Manager
• Manages social media accounts

Other specialized roles may be assigned by discretion of the rising 9th graders running elections (see Electoral Procedure) (ex. Elementary School Outreach)

Electoral Procedure

Elections

The Secretariat are elected by rising 9th graders at the end of the year

• 5 minute or shorter presentation speech to electoral committee 

↳Reccomended length of 2-3 minutes

• Q&A by electoral committee, 8 minute time cap

↳Reccomended length of 3-5 minutes

At the beginning of the speech, the candidate states their top 3 choices for positions. The electoral committee of rising 9th graders, after listening to each speech and asking questions, places people in the places they would do best in (ex. A candidate for secretary general who did not get that position might be placed in under secretary general or social media manager based on their skills). The Middle School Coordinators help advise the electoral committee, but in case of disagreement, do not vote. Important issues considered in elections include but are not limited to:

• Commitment
• Actual skill in mock and conferences 
• Character
• Leadership skills
• For social media manager, knowledge of Canva or a similar tool
• Problem-solving skills
• Ability to interact with the High School Secretariat
• Past history of violating Code of Conduct (see Conduct)

Impeachment

To ensure the club doesn't have stagnant or disobedient officers, there will be a process of impeachment where the club sponsor could ultimately remove an officer from office. The criteria and rules for impeachment are as follows.

1. Impeachment should only be suggested to happen if officers are to:

• Not fulfill their assigned roles (or infringe upon others)
• Not appear at club meetings to the best of their ability
• Act disrespectful towards other delegates
• Be unable to work coherently with other officers

1. Impeachment can only be exercised by club sponsor
2. Impeachment will only happen if:

• The accused member is an officer (removing ordinary members from the club is prohibited). However, the club sponsor is able to permanently remove a club member if they infringe upon the school/classroom rules.

• The accused officer has a chance to defend themself privately via
•  Private email to club sponsor or secretariat
• Or publicly via
• Speech (in front of club)
• Presentation/Video (in front of club)
• Debate against accusing party (in front of club)
• Debate must be shorter than 10 minutes in the interest of time
• Both arguments will be addressed towards the Club Sponsor
• Recommended format is 2 minutes defense , and 1 minute offensive rebuttal, 2 minutes offense, 2 minute offensive rebuttal, and finally closing statements from each side.

1. If the impeachment is suggested by members, then it must be proposed by a party of 2 or more club members.
2. There will be a poll to see the rest of the club’s opinion on the impeachment to guide the club sponsor towards their final decision
3. Impeachment does not have to be suggested, and the club sponsor can remove from office whoever, and whenever, they see fit.
4. If either party breaks the rules of Conduct during impeachment, the party will be dismissed or impeached, depending on what they are supporting.

• If the prosecution is dismissed, then that member is prohibited from ever starting an impeachment process on the officer they originally suggested being impeached
• The dismissed prosecution may not be affiliated with any other parties who may attempt to impeach the officer

To replace the impeached person, a special election will be held. 8th graders will get to elect someone to replace them through the same electoral process as a normal election.

Amendments

If a club member wishes to amend this charter, the process for doing so is as follows:

1. Write your amendment
2. Bring it to the next meeting. 
3. At the beginning or end of the meeting, present it.
4. Every present middle schooler will vote. A ⅔ supermajority is required to pass.
5. The Secretary-General, Middle School Coordinator(s), and the Club Sponsor must approve the amendment if they do not find serious objection to it.
6. If an amendment is vetoed by the Middle School Coordinator(s) or the Secretary-General, the veto can be overridden by ¾ supermajority.
7. If it passes, it is added to the charter.