Constitution of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges
Preamble
In 2006, the journalism departments of two year colleges incorporated as the nonprofit corporation Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) to exchange ideas and opinions, develop and maintain effective curricula, render mutual aid, host conferences, offer professional development opportunities, provide direct connections with industry and bolster a free student press.
It is the philosophy of the Association to encourage equal student and faculty participation.
Article I: Name and Membership
Section 1: The name of this organization will be the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC). Any accredited community college may become a member of JACC, and any person or organization interested in community college journalism may become an associate member. All members must pay annual dues and agree to abide by the JACC Constitution, the Canons of Community College Journalism and the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Section 2: College dues will be established for the ensuing academic year each spring. Upon payment of dues by a college, all student publications produced as part of the journalism program and all journalism students and faculty of the college are JACC members.
Section 3: The association will include a student section and a faculty section, and members will convene in a General Assembly at the annual spring conference or other yearly meeting.
Article II: Geographic Sections
JACC will consist of two or more geographical regions based on California membership. The Association will consist of a Northern Region and a Southern Region. Assignment or reassignment of a member college to a given region will be at the discretion of the college upon approval of the Board of Directors.
Article III: Directors
Section 1: The elected student directors will be a student president and one student director from each geographical region, who will serve as vice presidents. The region electing the state student president will alternate annually. At the time of election and throughout the director’s term of office, the student will be in a journalism program of a JACC-member college and adhere to the JACC Canons of Journalism.
Section 2: The elected faculty directors will be the JACC president and one faculty director from each geographical region, who will serve as vice presidents, and a faculty member at-large.
Section 3: At the time of election and throughout the director’s term of office, the faculty member will be a teacher in a journalism program of a JACC-member college and adhere to the JACC Canons of Journalism.
Section 4: Four additional voting directors from outside the organization – three representing industry and one representing four-year colleges or universities—will be appointed by the Board of Directors.
Section 5: The Board of Directors may accept proxies from directors who cannot attend board meetings if directors request them. Only faculty members may serve as voting proxies for faculty directors and only students may serve as voting proxies for student directors.
Section 6: The Secretary, the Treasurer and the Communications Director will be appointed nonvoting directors.
Section 7: Appointed nonvoting associate directors will be the immediate past faculty and student presidents.
The above differs slightly from what we’ve been doing in practice, it seems. One idea for restructuring more in line with what we have:
Faculty directors (elected) would include:
President (or co-presidents with one vote)
Two Vice Presidents (NorCal and SoCal)
Secretary-Treasurer
Communications Director
Student directors include:
President
Two Vice Presidents (NorCal and SoCal)
Non-faculty directors (appointed by the board) include:
Three representing industry (one of these must be a community college alum except by waiver of the board)
One representing four-year colleges or universities
*This provides a total of 12 members of the board of directors, or 13 if we separate Secretary, Treasurer and Communications Director
Article IV: Election of Student Directors
Section 1: Election of the three student directors will begin at the college student regional delegations at the statewide spring conference. Ballots shall be made available to students for one week after the conference to ensure schools that cannot attend the conference have access to voting.The nomination period for candidates will be open for one week. Only one student from each school will be eligible to take office as a student director.
Section 2: Each college delegation will have one vote per office. The candidates from each region receiving a plurality of votes will be elected.
Article V: Election of Faculty Directors
Section 1: Election of the faculty president (or co-presidents) will be by faculty members each spring. The nomination period for the president will open at the first general membership meeting of the spring and remain open through the conclusion of the statewide spring conference, when a majority of faculty delegates will vote to elect the president.
Section 2: Each member college will have one vote (via one delegate), and the election of the president will be by a majority of delegates voting. In the case of the election of co-presidents, one vote will be recorded for both.
Section 3: The nomination period for the two regional directors (vice presidents), the secretary, treasurer or communications director will open at the first general membership meeting of the spring and remain open through the conclusion of the statewide spring conference, when a majority of faculty delegates will vote to elect the regional directors. The regions each may elect from their faculty members a regional vice president and a regional secretary to conduct region-specific business and to help operate the fall regional conference, which each region’s finances.
Article VI: Appointed Directors
Section 1: Four outside directors, one representing universities and three representing industry, will be appointed as voting members for two year terms.
Article VII: Term of Office, Removal, Vacant Positions
Section 1: Elected faculty directors will serve for two years and will take office at the conclusion of the statewide spring conference. Elected student directors will serve for one year and will take office at the conclusion of the statewide spring conference.
Section 2: By two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors, any director may be removed from office for non-performance of duties or for nonattendance at meetings.
Section 3: Student directors of the Board of Directors will fill any vacant student position by appointment, and faculty directors of the Board will fill any vacant faculty positions by appointment.
Section 4: Directors may also be removed for not upholding the JACC Canons of Journalism.
Article VIII: Board of Directors
Section 1: The JACC Board of Directors will be composed of the student president, the regional student directors, the faculty president and the regional faculty directors, an elected at-large faculty member, and two appointed outside directors.
Section 2: In Board of Directors meetings, each director will have one vote. A quorum for conducting official business will be a majority of the voting members of the Board of Directors.
Article IX: Duties of the Board of Directors
Section 1: The Board of Directors will meet at least four times during the term of office. Duties of the board include passing legislation necessary to fulfill the functions of JACC, carrying out tasks that serve member colleges and the journalism profession.
Section 2: To establish and distribute a list of objectives for JACC during its term of office and to report on progress toward the objectives to members at meetings and conferences.
Section 3: To review and evaluate statewide spring conference planning and guidelines at each Board of Directors meeting.
Section 4: To disseminate information about the organization and its members.
Article X: Duties of the Faculty President (Chair of the Board of Directors)
Section 1: To set the agenda for and preside over all meetings of the faculty. To work with the student president to set the agenda for meetings of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. To serve as president of JACC and to serve as chair of meetings of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. To report regularly to members on the state of JACC.
Section 2: To establish standing and special committees and appoint faculty members to those committees. As requested or necessary, to represent JACC to other groups. To enforce the provisions of this Constitution.
Section 3: To direct, coordinate, and disseminate news of the state organization.
Section 4: To serve as a co-signee on JACC checking accounts.
Section 5: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XI: Duties of the Student President (Vice Chair of the Board of Directors)
Section 1: To set the agenda for and preside over student meetings of the region from which the president was elected. To set the agenda for and preside over meetings of the JACC’s students. To work with the faculty president to set the agenda for meetings of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. To serve as vice chair of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. To report regularly to members on the state of JACC.
Section 2: To establish standing and special committees and appoint student members to those committees. As requested or necessary, to represent JACC to other groups. To enforce the provisions of this Constitution.
Section 3: To work with the state president to disseminate news of the organization.
Section 4: To work with the regional student directors to announce and to present contest awards at annual and regional conferences.
Section 5: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XII: Duties of the Regional Student Directors
Section 1: To set the agenda for and preside over regional student meetings and arrange to have minutes recorded and distributed to member colleges of their regions.
Section 2: To be the state student president’s representative to the regions and to represent those regions to the Board of Directors and the General Assembly.
Section 3: To work with the respective regional faculty directors to disseminate state and regional news and to organize regional workshops.
Section 4: To work with the state student president to announce and to present contest awards at all JACC conferences.
Section 5: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XIII: Duties of the Regional Faculty Directors
Section 1: To set the agenda for and preside over regional faculty meetings and arrange to have minutes recorded and distributed to member colleges of their regions.
Section 2: To be the faculty president’s representative to the regions and to represent those regions to the Board of Directors and the General Assembly.
Section 3: To work with the respective regional student directors to disseminate state and regional news, and organize regional workshops and competitions as well as meetings at which regional student and faculty concerns can be addressed. Bylaws and special or standing rules in keeping with the JACC Constitution may be adopted by each region to govern conduct of the regional meetings.
Section 4: To appoint a fall regional conference coordinator, a fall regional mail-in contest coordinator and a statewide spring conference mail-in contest coordinators.
Section 5: To serve as co-signers on respective regional checking accounts.
Section 6: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XIV: Duties of the Secretary
Section 1: To issue an annual college-member directory of JACC. To furnish the JACC’s continuing address for listing by appropriate agencies.
Section 2: To record minutes at meetings of the faculty, Board of Directors and General Assembly, and to distribute the minutes to member colleges, and complete other related duties that may be assigned by the Board of Directors.
Section 3: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XV: Duties of the Treasurer
Section 1: To establish, and present for approval by the General Assembly, the JACC’s annual budget. To bill and record dues, to manage the financial records and funds of JACC, and to keep all JACC records in permanent form. To file appropriate paperwork for the nonprofit corporation with state and federal entities and to complete other related duties that may be assigned by the Board of Directors.
Section 2: The Treasurer will be paid an annual salary or stipend to be determined by the Board of Directors and approved by the General Assembly at the previous Annual Convention.
Section 3: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XVI: Duties of the Communications Director
Section 1: To maintain and manage the JACC’s electronic communication system, including official web sites, e-mail listservs and blogs, and to complete other related duties that may be assigned by the Board of Directors.
Section 2: To serve as a resource person for the organization’s members on use of the JACC’s electronic communication system.
Section 3: To maintain currency in appropriate communication technology and report periodically to the board.
Section 4: To perform other duties as set forth in the corporation by-laws.
Article XVII: Meetings, General Assembly
Section 1: JACC members will assemble during the statewide spring conference in the spring of each year.
Section 2: The General Assembly will consist of the delegates from each member college present at the statewide spring conference. Each college will have two voting members, with one vote representing student members of the delegation and one vote representing faculty members.
Section 3: The General Assembly may pass legislation necessary to fulfilling the functions of JACC as well as make recommendations to the incoming Board of Directors.
Section 4: Each region of JACC will meet annually in the fall and at such other times as agreed by region members.
Section 5: JACC will establish and adhere to the Annual Convention Guidelines, which may be amended by the Board of Directors or the General Assembly. Changes through the Board of Directors will be enacted no later than November before the Annual Convention. Changes through the Board of Directors not receiving at least a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors must be referred back to the General Assembly for approval before enactment.
Article XVII: Amendments
Amendments or revisions to this Constitution may be proposed to the General Assembly, with enactment requiring two-thirds of the voting delegates.
Amendments to this Constitution may be proposed to the General Assembly, with enactment requiring two-thirds of the voting delegates.
As amended August 2024