The Student Council

[Mimi]

The current Student Council are:

May 2009 - September 2009
Blitzen - Membership Coordinator
Katabatik - Sergeant at Arms
Lagomorph - Continuity Wrangler
Laurel Fitte - Storyline Marshal
Vesper Fiend - Activities Coordinator

[Mimi]

The Student Council at Saint Joseph School
Three times each year, the student community elects a five-person Student Council. The primary responsibility of the Student Council is to assist with the day-to-day and week-to-week administration of the supergroup, though their specific responsibilities are listed below.

Student Council Powers
The Student Council are empowered in the following ways.

• They can add, promote, demote, and kick members of the supergroup.
• They can edit the base.
• They have access to the Student Council forums, a special section of the forums to facilitate discussion and planning.
• They are granted moderator status on the forums for all forums except the Student Council forums.
• They are given authority over broad areas of the supergroup as outlined in Student Council Positions.
• They have voting privileges on matters of policy in discussion with the Student Body President.
• They may create Deputies from among Sophomores and Upperclassmen to assist them with supergroup administration.

Student Council Responsibilities
Aside from the Code of Conduct, and specific duties associated with the five Student Council Positions, members of the Student Council have the following general responsibilities.

• Student Council are required to read the forums regularly.
• Each member of the Student Council is expected to maintain active communication with both the student community, with the Student Body President, and with each other.
• Student Council are expected to attend Office Hours whenever possible.
• Student Council must respond in a timely and professional manner to conflicts, disciplinary issues, and problems that arise on a sometimes daily basis.
• Student Council must be willing to take on additional responsibilities during their term, as dictated by the needs and desires of the supergroup.
• Should any Student Councilmember take Academic Leave, the remaining Student Council will be entrusted with any specific responsibilities carried by the absent member.
• Should any Student Councilmember resign, their responsibilities will be entrusted to the remaining Student Council until a replacement is elected.

Student Council Positions
In addition to the general Student Council responsibilities listed above, each Student Councilmember has a title and specific responsibilities. These specific positions are intended to take between 2 and 5 hours each week, though they can certainly be lessened by recruiting Deputies.

• Activities Planner
  Plan and schedule dances and other roleplay events.
  The activities planner is responsible for organizing and planning in-game events, and for collecting any donations to fund contests that may or may not run in conjunction with these events. The activities planner should maintain contacts with SJS student clubs and groups to support those groups with their own events. The activities planner should work in concert with the storyline marshal to tie in-game events to forum-based story threads whenever possible. During their four-month term of office, the activities planner should arrange a minimum of 2 dances, and any number of smaller costume contests or roleplay events (approximately one smaller event every two weeks, if possible).
  
  Continuity Wrangler
  Maintain close watch on the evolving canon of Saint Joe’s.
  The continuity wrangler must closely monitor the campus life and in character forums and make updates to the master and/or collected lists, including but not limited to: NPCs, classes, extracurriculars, teams and dormitory arrangements. It is the responsibility of the continuity wrangler to make sure that the changing, evolving environment of SJS stays on track, up to date, and can be easily absorbed by new students. The continuity wrangler should also anticipate and respond to the needs of the growing school by fostering the creation of new NPCs and facilities as they are warranted. The continuity wrangler works closely with the storyline marshal, making sure that the setting is reflected in the fiction, and vice-versa.
  
  Membership Coordinator
  Track and manage the roster.
  The membership coordinator is chiefly responsible for tracking and recording the comings and goings of the student body. The membership coordinator is the authority on enforcing the alt policy, the activity policy, and academic leave, and will maintain a spreadsheet for this purpose. In addition, the membership coordinator is responsible for the maintenance of the Upperclassmen usergroup on the forums, adding members as they are promoted and removing members who leave the supergroup. Finally, the membership coordinator is responsible with scheduling interviews and assuring that the application and interview process is running smoothly. The membership director is the only Student Councilperson who cannot deputize Upperclassmen and must not parcel out their responsibilities to them—only to other Student Council.
  
  Sergeant-At-Arms
  See Paragon City, meet exciting and interesting villains, and defeat them.
  The sergeant-at-arms is responsible for organizing and coordinating weekly play events, such as trials and taskforces of all levels, as well as Spelunker teams or warwolf hunting expeditions. The sergeant-at-arms need not participate in all of the scheduled events, but should be ready to fill holes in the teams if necessary. The sergeant-at-arms should have a good working knowledge of badges, mission strategies, and the contact web.
  
  Storyline Marshal
  Coordinate roleplay storylines.
  The storyline marshal needs to keep constant watch on the in character and out of character forums and contact those students who are running their own storylines. It is the job of the storyline marshal to have as complete an understanding as possible about the goals and intent of each story so that the story stays on track and does not conflict unnecessarily with other stories or ongoing events. The storyline marshal also needs to foster the creation of new storylines that people can participate in, if they choose. These storylines are the only ones that are allowed to affect every student: only the storyline marshal can attack the school with a giant robot, for instance. The storyline marshal works in concert with the activities planner to tie forum-based story threads to in-game events whenever possible, and with the continuity wrangler to make sure that the fiction is reflected in the setting, and vice versa.

Deputies
Student Council are empowered to create Deputies from among the Sophomore and Upperclassman ranks to assist them in their weekly duties. Deputies are most often created because a student responded to expressed need by a member of the Student Council, or because the volunteer stepped forward with their own ideas.

Deputies can be granted limited powers in the forum or in-game to work on the project or projects they volunteered for, but they remain at their current rank and have no authority in and of themselves. They report to a specific Student Council member depending upon what area of the supergroup their project falls under. All deputized projects that fall outside the purview of a Student Councilmember will report directly to the Student Body President.

• For example,
• A Deputy who maintains the Chess Club thread reports to the Continuity Wrangler.
• A Deputy who is creating a Café Press site for SJS reports to the Student Body President.

Deputies are temporary, volunteer positions: ultimately, the responsibility of any projects deputies work on falls on their Student Councilmember. Though Deputies are intended to take weight off the Student Council’s shoulders, and can even be delegated to cover their responsibilities, it is unacceptable to let administrative tasks go undone and then lay blame on a Deputy. In the final analysis, it is the Student Council who are responsible for their weekly duties, and therefore it is up to the Student Council to make sure their Deputies are making headway.

Deputies may be created at any time, as the Student Council or Student Body President sees fit. Deputies will be announced on the Student Council Digest thread.

Running for Student Council
Any Upperclassman is eligible to run for the Student Council as long as they meet the following criteria.

• They have been an Upperclassman for at least three months.
• They are in good standing.
• They can enter the base.
• They are able to consistently maintain a higher level of activity in game and on the forums than is required for other ranks.
• They can agree to uphold the Code of Conduct Addendum for Student Council.
• They feel comfortable with authority and the responsibility authority brings.
• They are willing to devote at least 2-5 hours each week to Student Council duties.

If those qualifications are met, any Upperclassman can nominate themselves for Student Council when an election cycle begins. Using the Upperclassman forum, candidates should post a brief statement, introducing themselves to anyone in the group who may not know them, and elaborating on why they feel they are qualified for Student Council.

Specifically, each candidate must describe their ability to perform no fewer than two of the Student Council Positions. They may address all five, if they wish, but they must speak to at least two of the five positions. An Upperclassman who does not feel qualified to fill more than one of the positions should not pursue candidacy for the Student Council. Flexibility is important for the SC, and too narrow a focus for any candidate may make it difficult for them to adequately serve the supergroup.

The Student Body President will split the statements from the collected thread and post them in Supergroup Issues, where the entire group can look at them before voting begins. Elections typically last for a week, with the new Student Council being promoted at the next available Office Hours after the conclusion of the election.