Charter of the International Relations Student Association

Working document

The International Relations Student Association (IRSA) is the official graduate student organization representing the needs and interests of graduate students within Syracuse University’s International Relations Program in the Maxwell School.  It is a student run organization that functions under the guidance of a student elected executive board and with the membership of all International Relations graduate students.

In its organizational capacity, IRSA exists for the purposes of fostering an environment conducive to communal significance. IRSA charters itself to provide an open forum through which the legitimate concerns of the International Relations graduate student community can be addressed. Additionally, IRSA obligates itself to the provision of opportunities and activities that stimulate a growth of both IR graduate students and the Graduate Program in International Relations in perpetuity.

To accomplish its self-chartered mission, IRSA composes itself in an inclusive, open organizational format. This format takes form in a number of issue-oriented Standing committees as well as in IRSA’s general membership. The open committees are bound together by the IRSA Executive Board. IRSA believes that this structure provides a unique sense of communal leadership that suits the vast needs of the growing IR community. In its incarnate capacity, IRSA pledges to represent the views of its constituency to all inquiring parties in matters before the IR community.

Article I

Name: The name of this organization shall be the International Relations Student Association, hereinafter IRSA.

Article II

Membership: All students currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in International Relations Program of the Maxwell Scholl of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University are considered active members of IRSA.

Article III

Leadership: IRSA’s Executive Board consists of the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Graduate Student Organization (GSO) representative, Cultural Affairs Representative, MAXPAC liason, and Webmaster. 

Article IV

Executive Board

Mission and Duties of the Executive Board:

The Executive Board exists for the purpose of establishing organizational accountability. Within IRSA, the Executive Board is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that all Standing Committee projects- from initial planning stages to completion- are carried out in a manner consistent with the wishes of the International Relations Student Body. Additionally, the IRSA Executive Board retains the ultimate liberty to pass judgment on the nature of Standing Committee business that may be perceived by the general Maxwell Community as incompatible with appropriate professional behavior. The Executive Board is directly accountable to the International Relations Program Administration and to the Maxwell School Administration in all matters pertaining to IRSA. As such, The IRSA President is charged with answering to the Department and to the Maxwell School Administration if questions are raised as to the scope and nature of any business being carried out at any time by IRSA in whole- or in constituent part. In the event the President is involved in the allegation, the responsibility falls to the Vice-President to speak for IRSA if IRSA finds unanimous fault with the President’s position. This demonstrates IRSA’s committed effort to comply with requests to establish singular responsibility for Organizational failure within our open Committee structure.

The duties of the Executive Board, in carrying out its mission, are distributed to the following official posts:

President:

1. The President will organize, coordinate and preside over general IRSA meetings.
2. The President will maintain the agenda of each meeting and ensure that unresolved items from previous meeting are resolved with prompt completeness.
3. The President will provide a neutral report of any item placed on the agenda that does not have a Standing Committee representative present at the meeting, but will not be responsible for screening agenda items.
4. The President will guide and encourage adherence to the IRSA Mission Statement and will serve as the responsible party to any inquisition into the said document.
5. The President is responsible for communicating the events and processes relating to the MA/IR student community to the International Relations Program Office as well as to the Maxwell School Dean’s Office. The President shall act as the official liaison between the International Relations Program Office, the Dean's Office, and IRSA
6. The Committee will carryout, foster smooth debate and coordinate voting on issues before IRSA through the implementation of approved IRSA rules. This function is to be Parliamentarian by design.
7. The Executive Board will make every effort to resolve all pending matters before IRSA.
8. If deemed necessary to maintain the organizational integrity of the IRSA Charter, or after being so informed by simple IRSA majority, the IRSA Executive Board will require and administer a constituency-wide vote for the purposes of advising IRSA leadership on specific pending matters.  

Vice-President:

1. The Vice-President is responsible for maintaining the official roster of IRSA committee membership and contact information. This roster will be made available to the Chair of the Communications Committee for public dissemination.
2. The Vice-President of the Executive Board is in charge of maintaining the membership list.
3. The Vice-President is responsible for oversight of all IRSA committees and will act as liason between each committee head and the IRSA Executive Board, except for the Cultural Affairs Committee where the Cultural Affairs Representative is charged with direct oversight.
4. The Vice-President will be the best source for routing persons outside of IRSA to the appropriate contact.
5. The Vice-President will be the best source for routing persons inside of IRSA those outside seeking answers.

Treasurer:

1.       The IRSA Treasurer is responsible for the maintenance of and accounting for IRSA funds.

2.       Required finances shall be dispersed upon the simple majority vote of IRSA members unless otherwise established by requirements resulting from an open community vote requested by the majority vote within IRSA.

3.       The IRSA Treasurer is responsible for having available up-to-date account information to both the IRSA Executive Board and its membership.

4.       The Treasurer will work closely with both the President and GSO Representative to ensure timely dispersement and arrangement of IRSA accounts.

Secretary:

1. The IRSA Secretary will be responsible for taking notes and producing the minutes of all IRSA proceedings. If the Secretary is unable to attend a meeting or scheduled event, the duty will fall to the Vice-President(s) present.
2. The Secretary is responsible for directing the completed minutes to the Chair of the Communications Committee and Webmaster for dissemination in both written and electronic format to the IR and Maxwell Communities in a timely manner.

Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Representative:

1.       The IR Representative to the GSO is responsible for communicating the events and processes taking place in the Syracuse University Graduate Senate Organization.

2.       The GSO is required to report on a bi-weekly basis all information they have regarding current GSO matters. The GSO shall also act as the official liaison between the GSO and IRSA.

3.       The GSO is required to forward all IRSA requests for information, program support, and finances in a timely manner.

4.       The GSO is charged with representing the interests of the IR student community as a whole in the same capacity as does IRSA through its Charter.

Cultural Affairs Representative:

1.       The Cultural Affairs Representative is the direct supervisor of the Cultural Affairs Committee (See description in Article V.)

2.       The Cultural Affairs Representative is responsible for organizing all IRSA sponsored cultural affairs activities in association with Syracuse University’s One World Culture Celebration. 

3.       The Cultural Affairs Representative will attend all Syracuse University One World organizing meetings in preparation for the Annual Cultural Celebration.

4.       The Cultural Affairs Representative will work closely with the International Relations Program Administration officials and the IRSA treasurer to plan and budget for anticipated One World Cultural Celebration events and activities.

MAXPAC Liason:

1.       The MAXPAC Liason should be a joint MPA/IR graduate student.

2.       The MAXPAC Liason will attend all IRSA General meetings, IRSA Executive Board meetings, and MAXPAC meetings (either General or Executive Board, with the permission of the MAXPAC Executive Board).

3.       The MAXPAC Liason will work to inform both IRSA and MAXPAC of the various activities and events being planned by each group that are of mutual interest so as to facilitate a collaborative professional environment where all students can benefit.

IRSA Webmaster/ Webmistress:

1.       The Webmaster is responsible for posting all pertinent information (including: announcements, meeting minutes, pictures, research tools, etc.) to the official IRSA website in a timely manner.  http://student.maxwell.syr.edu/irsa/

2.       The Webmaster will update and revise the official IRSA website as necessary and with the approval of the IRSA Executive Board.  (I.e./ website aesthetic, archival information, navigation, photo galleries, etc.)

3.       The Webmaster is responsible for all website inquiries regarding the IRSA website design, construction, and facilitation.

Article V:

Standing Committees

The Standing Committees detailed below may be amended as seen fit by each standing committee and its membership to better suit the needs of the current MA/IR class.  If the situation arises where any of the following committees have no membership, the duties of said committee falls on the entire Executive Board.

If there is interest in the creation of a new Standing Committee, IRSA members may do so with the support of the IRSA Executive Board and majority consent of IRSA membership.  Before a vote for the creation of a new committee can be held, the committee must submit in writing to the Executive Board a memo regarding the mission and duties of the proposed new committee.

Mission and Duties of the Standing Committees

Communications Committee
As the primary information liaison for IRSA, the Communications Committee:
* Provides International Relations students with timely information on International Relations Student Association (IRSA) activities and organizational developments;
* Promotes and facilitates student involvement in Syracuse University, Maxwell School, and IR community events;
* Publishes InsidIR - The official International Relations student newsletter. The communications committee will provide this in both electronic and hardcopy formats.

Cultural Affairs Committee
The Cultural Affairs Committee of IRSA pledges to:
*  Increase the International Relations students' educational opportunities through the knowledge available from the variety of international and native students within the program;
*  Promote cultural diversity and understanding between students within the program;
*  Transmit our goals to the Maxwell community to foster an global environment truly representative of the International Relations program.
*  To accomplish these goals, the committee will attempt to sponsor the following annual activities: 

Social Committee
First and foremost, IRSA's Social Committee seeks to foster a sense of community among International Relations students. Community building should start with a familiarity of our shared environment. Events that encourage festivity, are culturally diverse and intellectually stimulating must be encouraged by our community. Activities should occur in a hassle-free zone and responsibility for each other should be a major concern.

The Social Committee will attempt to sponsor at least one event per month. These IRSA sponsored events will likely include:

AV Committee
The primary goals of this committee are:
*  Beautify the Academic Village so as to provide a decorative environment for the IR student community;
*  Enhance the quality of study area by means of rearranging, adding or removing furniture and computers;
*  Ensure that the AV kitchen area is regularly cleaned by the designated group of people for a period of one week;
*  These goals are to be accomplished jointly with the help of MAXPAC’s AV Committee.

Academic Affairs and Special Events Committee
The Academic Affairs Committee is in charge of evaluating the quality and quantity of classes related to all areas of international affairs and required courses.

The Committee may survey the IR student body to get a feedback on what areas need improvements. The Chair of the Committee is responsible shall meet the faculty to represent IR students’ concerns as needed

Article VI:

Meetings: IRSA shall meet as needed, yet is required to meet bi-weekly. Meetings may be called by any member of IRSA, but are generally determined by the Executive Board as a whole. Minutes shall be recorded as provided under the authority of the Executive Board. Meeting proceedings represent the official record of IRSA to its constituency.

Article VII:

Quorum and voting procedure: A quorum shall consist of the Executive Board and two Standing Committee member Chairs or proxy-Chairs. One additional IRSA member must be present, bringing the quorum total requirement to eleven. Voting shall be exercised as follows: Simple majority of quorum present on procedural matters. Simple majority on financial matters requiring minimal output. Two-thirds majority on financial matters requiring moderate output. Unanimous approval required for either procedural matters or financial matters requiring significant output. Output level shall be defined by the Executive Board in conjunction with the Financial Chair, and the applicable Standing Committee Chair(s). IRSA retains the right to open any vote so deemed as "requiring the vote of the constituency in entirety." This is defined as any matter deemed by a simple majority of all IRSA members present in quorum to be of such relevance that it merits a decision by the entire IR student community.

Article VIII:

This Charter serves as a guide. It may be amended by the concurrence of two-thirds of the members of IRSA by means of a special meeting. A special meeting is defined as requiring a quorum representative of all Standing Committees, the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Cultural Affairs Representative, IR-GSO Representative, MAXPAC Liason and the IRSA Webmaster .  

Faithfully Signed,
David Matson, President ‘98-’99

Revised on 10.13.99 by
Alejandra Gomez, President ‘99-‘00

Revised on 9.02.03 by
Melissa Y. Rock, President ’02-‘03