Constitution of the Dalhousie Gazette Publishing Society

Purpose
1. The name of the society is the DALHOUSIE GAZETTE PUBLISHING SOCIETY.
2. The objectives of the society are:
2.1. To publish a student-run newspaper to report fairly and objectively on issues of importance and
interest to students of Dalhousie, as well as the rest of the Halifax and Atlantic Canadian
university community and community at large.
2.2. To provide an open forum for free expression of ideas and opinion, in order to stimulate
meaningful debate.
2.3. To provide mentorship and training to student writers and journalists, through a skilled staff of
university students and young professionals.
Definitions
3. In these bylaws, unless there be something inconsistent therewith:
3.1. society means The Dalhousie Gazette Publishing Society;
3.2. council means the Council of the Dalhousie Student Union;
3.3. Dalhousie means Dalhousie University;
3.4. student union means the Dalhousie Student Union;
3.5. publishing year shall mean the period from the first week of September to the last week of
April. Issues may be published at any time throughout this publishing year, or outside of it at
the discretion of the staff;
3.6. section editor means the head editor of a given content section of The Dalhousie Gazette.
Sections are determined by the Society from time to time;
3.7. manager means a member of the Gazette's skilled production staff hired by the hiring
committee, subject to the approval of the Publishing Board;
3.8. Executive means the group of people that consists of the the editor-in-chief, business
manager and section editors. At least one executive must be a Dalhousie student and a signing
authority. This group will exercise executive authority over the Society at the behest of the
Publishing Board.
3.8.1. The Editor-in-chief shall act as president of the society.
3.8.2. The business manager shall act as treasurer of the society.

3.8.3. A secretary will be nominated from amongst the section editors.

3.9. conflict of interest is when a member of the society is involved in multiple interests, such as
a friendship or formal association with a candidate for hiring, which could possibly corrupt the
motivation for an act in the other;
3.10.
Publishing Board means the Publishing Board of the Dalhousie Gazette Publication
Society and is the highest authority in the Society
3.11.

newspaper means The Dalhousie Gazette;

3.12.

staff means the executive as well as the staff contributors.

3.13.

editor means and indicates a section editor or an assistant editor

Membership
4. All Dalhousie students who pay a levy towards The Dalhousie Gazette are members of the society,
and are able to vote in-person at all general meetings of the society by issuance of a ballot provided
by the society.
4.1. Any other person holding office as an editor or manager of the society will hold status as an
honourary member of the society, but will not be able to vote at general meetings of the
society.
4.2. All members of the society are eligible to contribute articles, photos or other content for
consideration by the staff of the newspaper. Additionally, the staff may occasionally consider
worthy articles from the larger community for publication, provided they are relevant to the
journalistic goals of the newspaper, as set out in section two of this document.
4.3. All professional managers of the newspaper will be hired by the Hiring Committee.
4.4. Any member who has contributed to the paper may apply for a manager position, however, the
Hiring Committee may hire the strongest managerial candidates, regardless of membership in
the society.
4.5. Any member who contributes five articles, photos, comics, or creative submissions in any
publishing year, or who has contributed ten articles, photos, comics, or creative submissions in
total shall be considered staff contributors and will be identified as such in their bylines, unless
they also hold a higher position (such as a columnist or beat reporter, as decided by the Section
Editors) within the paper.
4.6. Any staff contributor may apply for consideration for any Section Editor position, for selection
via the Hiring Committee, providing that staff contributor will be a member of the Dalhousie
Student Union or a King's Students' Union member during the publication term when they will

serve as an editor.
4.7. Any member may apply for consideration as Editor-in-chief for the next publishing year, for
selection via Hiring Committee, providing that the member has been an editor within the last
three years, and that the member will be a member of the Dalhousie Student Union or the
King's Students' Union during the publication term when they will serve as editor-in-chief.
Additionally, no editor-in-chief may hold a position on the Dalhousie Student Union council,
the Dalhousie Board of Governors, or the Dalhousie Senate during the publication term for
which they are editor-in-chief.
4.8. In the event that vacant positions cannot be filled, whether because of a lack of required
qualifications as per sections 4.6 and 4.9, or for any other reason, the Hiring Committee will
determine the most suitable candidate, in accordance with section 17 of this document.

Finances
5. The fiscal year of the Society shall be the period from May 1 to April 31 of the following calendar
year.
6. The Society must be audited by the Vice-President (Finance) of the Dalhousie Student Union each
academic year before receiving its levy.
7. There will be three (3) signing officers. These officers will be the chair of the Publishing Board, the
Editor-in-chief, and the Business Manager.
7.1. Each cheque issued by the society must be signed by at least two signing officers.
7.2. A signing officer may not sign a cheque made out in their name.
8. Salaries and honoraria will be determined by the Publishing Board based on consultation between
the outgoing Editor-in-chief and the Business Manager at the beginning of the fiscal year. The
Business Manager will submit a budget to the Publishing Board for approval within the first month
of every semester. At the end of each semester, the Business Manager will submit an overview of
financial transactions to the Publishing Board for their review.
Meetings
9. The annual general meeting of the society shall be held each year before the second week of March.
10. A special general meeting of the society may be called by the editor-in-chief or the chair of the
Publishing Board at any time and must be called if requested in writing by at least 50 members of
the society.
11. At least one weeks notice of a general meeting, specifying the place, day and hour of the meeting
and, in the case of special business, the nature of such business, shall be given to members by an
advertisement in the newspaper.

12. The date, time and place of the annual general meeting will be advertised at least two weeks in
advance.
13. The Gazette must also advertise all general meetings on the newspapers Facebook
(facebook.com/dalgazette) and Twitter (twitter.com/dalgazette) accounts. A 48-hour reminder must
also be issued on the front page of dalgazette.com and on the newspapers Facebook and Twitter
accounts.
14. At each annual general meeting of the society, the following items of business shall be dealt with:
14.1.
minutes of the preceding meeting; consideration of the financial statements, including
balance sheet and operating statement and the report of the auditors thereon;
14.2.

election of members of the Publishing Board

14.3.
annual report of the editor-in-chief, which can be submitted to all members of the
society electronically or delivered orally
15. The membership at a general meeting may:
15.1.

amend the constitution in accordance with section 16 of this document;

15.2.
conduct such other business of the society as the membership requires subject only to
the provisions for impeachment as specified herein. All other business requires a majority vote
to be formally ratified and adopted by the Society.
16. No business shall be transacted at any general meeting (annual or special, regardless of its reason
for being convened) of the society unless a quorum consisting of 25 members of the society is
present at the commencement of such business.
17. If within forty-five minutes after the time appointed for a meeting a quorum of members is not
present, the meeting, shall be dissolved.

Amendments to the Constitution

18. Amendments of more than five clauses of the constitution must be proposed in writing to the
Publishing Board and the Chair of the Publishing Board, at least three weeks prior to any general
meeting.
18.1.
The amendment will then be put before the membership annual general meeting and will
be passed by a two-thirds vote.
18.2.
At any general meeting of the society a motion for emergency amendment to the
constitution may be made, in writing, to the chair of the general meeting and the editor-in-chief
at any time. Each motion for amendment may not affect more then five specific clauses of the
constitution.
18.2.1. Any motion, excluding changes to the bylaws, may be passed with a majority of the

members present to vote as long a quorum is reached as per section 13.

Hiring
19. A Hiring Committee shall be formed annually to fairly hire the Editor-in-Chief, Business Manager,
the section editors, and the professional managers.
19.1 The hiring committee shall be struck annually at the annual general meeting, and will stand
ad-hoc throughout the year should any hiring matter arise.
19.2 The hiring committee shall consist of:
19.2.1 The outgoing/current Editor-in-chief
19.2.2 The Chair of the Publishing Board.
19.2.3 The Dalhousie Faculty member on the Publishing Board, who will sit as a nonvoting member
19.2.4 Two Dalhousie student members from the Publishing Board that are selected by
the Publishing Board;
19.2.5 A member-at-large that is elected at the annual general meeting
19.2.6 The current relevant section editor or staff member, who will sit as a non-voting
member. In practice, this means that if the hiring committee is considering applications
for the position of news editor, the current news editor will sit on the hiring committee.
The current relevant staff member will only sit on the hiring committee for the selection
of that relevant position.
19.2.7 The Hiring Board quorum will be three voting members.
19.3

In the event that the current editor-in-chief is a candidate for any position at the
newspaper, the a majority vote of the Publishing Board will be used to break ties on the
Hiring Committee.

19.4

In the event that a section editor applies for the same position, their ex-officio position
on the hiring committee will remain vacant.

19.5 All hiring committee members who have a real or perceived conflict of interest must
raise this with the executive before the committee meets and must remove themselves
from the voting process for the position in question.
19.6 The make-up of the hiring committee shall be confirmed annually at the annual general
meeting, and at any special general meeting where the committee is relevant, or where
request for its make-up is made by anyone present.
19.7 Additionally, the body of an annual general meeting may call on any member of the
hiring committee to answer questions of conflict of interest. Should the answer be

unsatisfactory, the member may make a motion for that hiring committee member to be
replaced. This motion must have a seconder and must be approved via a two-thirds vote.

20

19.8

In the event that an editor resigns or vacates the position or is terminated during the
publishing year, the editor-in-chief shall reconvene the currently standing hiring
committee and accept applications for the position.

19.9

In the event that the hiring committee cannot make a unanimous decision, then the
candidate with the highest number of votes is selected.

For editor positions, the positions of Editor-in-chief and all manager positions, a call for
applications must be posted on the home page of Dalgazette.com at least two weeks prior to the
beginning of the hiring period.
Publishing Board

21 There shall be a Publishing Board consisting of the following directors:

20.2

Four Dalhousie students elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Society;

20.3 A representative of the staff, elected by the editors by a majority vote. This representative
must be a Dalhousie Student
20.4

Dalhousie or Kings faculty member elected by the editors through a majority vote. This
director will be a member without a vote;

20.5 At least one member of the professional media, elected by the editors through a majority
vote. This director will be a member without a vote;
20.6 The Editor-in-chief. This director will be a member without a vote;
20.7 A chair, elected at a General Meeting of the society. The chair will not have a vote,
except in the event of a tie. The chair must be a Dalhousie student.
22 The Publishing Board shall meet at least three times during each the fall and winter terms, and as
necessary during the summer term. An emergency meeting of the Publishing Board may be
convened by the chair with appropriate notice.
23 A meeting of the Publishing Board may be held at the close of any annual or special general
meeting of the Society without notice. Notice of all other meetings, specifying the time and place,
shall be emailed by the chair to each member at least one (1) week before the meeting is to take
place. Publishing Board Members are obligated to provide a phone number and/or email address
where they can be contacted.
24 All Publishing Board meetings shall be open to members of the Society and the general public,
unless a motion to go in camera is approved via the procedures outlined in Roberts Rules of Order
25 Board members will be prohibited from failing to attend two consecutive meetings without a
reasonable excuse, on penalty of dismissal from the board.
26 The Publishing Board shall have responsibility for overseeing and ensuring the general

administration of the Society, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, shall:
a.

ensure that the Societys finances are responsibly administered;

b.

ensure the Society fulfills its obligations as stated in the contract between the Society and
the students union;

c.

investigate any formal charge of libel subject to litigation;

d.

investigate and mediate formal complaints;

e.

be responsible for dismissing the Editor-in-Chief, section editors, and professional

managers on grounds of incompetence or dereliction of duty;

27 Quorum for meetings of the Publishing Board shall be a majority of the total board, including at
least three voting members.
28 If Publishing Board members find themselves in a conflict of interest, they must disclose it to the
rest of the board and excuse themselves from voting, if the conflict merits so.
29 No Publishing Board Director May hold any other paid position in the newspaper.
Managers
30 The Publishing Board shall provide each manager with a job description and contract outlining all
society policies and expectations with regards to performance, discipline and compensation, as well
as any other contractual concerns of the parties. The original, signed copy of this document shall be
retained by the society, in the care of the editor-in-chief. A copy may be given to the manager in
question
31 The Business Manager must be hired by the committee following the processes set out in section 17
of this document.
32 The Business Manager shall be responsible for;
32.1

Serving as treasurer of the society;

32.2

Consulting with the editor-in-chief at the beginning of the fiscal year on the budget,
including salaries and honouraria;

32.3

Being available for consultation to the editor-in-chief throughout the fiscal year for
matters pertaining to the budget;

32.4 Keeping records of all spending within the Society in accordance with DSU
regulations;
32.5 Acting as a signing officer of the Society;
32.6 Managing the Society bank account;
32.7 Managing applications for Society Grants to the DSU, and aiding members
in applying for individual Member Grants through the DSU;
32.8 Reading and understanding the DSU Grants Policy;
32.9 Having the budget approved by the Publishing Board.

Sections
33 The paper shall have News, Opinions, Arts and Sports sections.
34 The executive of the paper may agree to include other sections in the paper.
34.1

The editor-in-chief may decide to hire an editor for any sections in the paper not listed in
item 23 of this document. New editors must be hired according to the processes described
in section 17 of this document.
Editors

35 The Publishing Board shall provide each editor with a contract outlining all expectations of the
position with regards to performance, discipline and compensation, as well as any other contractual
concerns of the parties. The original, signed copy of this document shall be retained by the society,
in the care of the editor-in-chief. A copy may be given to the editor in question.
35.1

Editors shall be signed to contracts for the duration of the publication year.

36 Section Editors shall be responsible for:

36.1 Providing content for their section of the Dalhousie Gazette;
36.2 Submitting content to the Copy Editor via posting on an agreed filesharing
system of choice, usually Dropbox, no later than Sunday at 3 p.m.;

36.3

Coordinating and mentoring a group of contributors to whatever level they see fit, in
consultation with the Editor-in-Chief;

36.4

Editing their sections content for matters of correctness, ethics, legality and in
accordance with the Gazette Style Guide and the Canadian Press Style Guide;

36.5

Upon finding any matter of ethical concern, or upon finding any content which does not
operate according to best practices (be it in poor taste, libellous, offensive, racist,
discriminatory or for any other reason), alert the Editor-in-Chief and act as a liaison
between the Editor-in-Chief, Copy Editor and any given contributor;

36.6

Before Monday at 5:30 p.m. of a production week, forward a list of necessary

corrections from previous issue(s) to the Copy Editor, in written form and in accordance
with Gazette correction style

37 Other editor positions may be hired, including Copy Editor and Managing Editor. These editors
will have editorial responsibilities delegated to them by the editor-in-chief.
38 In addition to the responsibilities held with editors, the editor-in-chief shall be responsible for:
38.1
Maintaining professional relations within the staff;
38.2
Maintaining amicable relations with other societies within the union;
38.3 The content, layout, training of staff and general management of the newspaper;
38.4
Calling regular staff meetings which will decide editorial positions, content and other
matters concerning the newspaper, as well as chairing these meetings in a fair and
democratic fashion;
38.5
Providing direction and guidance to the managers, and communicating expectations,

changes and decisions to them in a clear and prompt manner;

38.6
Presenting a written annual report to the annual general meeting of the society;
38.7
Ratifying The Dalhousie Gazette Publishing Society as a society of the Dalhousie
Student Union before September 30 of each academic year;
38.8
Keeping the active profiles of the society up to date;
38.9
Penalizing or dismissing editors and managers provided they violate the responsibilities
set out annually in the contracts, and/or the ethics code and disciplinary policies set out and
made available online;
38.10 Delegating and assigning all tasks within the Society so that duties are performed in a
timely and effective manner;
38.11 Providing constructive and helpful mentorship to all editors and contributors should it be
needed;
38.12 Identifying key coverage areas and opportunities for the newspaper, and planning said
coverage across sections when necessary;
38.13 Acting to resolve internal conflicts of the newspaper or the society, and referring these
to Dalhousie Student Union counselling when necessary, in accordance with the discipline
policy;
38.14 Acting as a public head of the society for political and recruitment efforts; championing
the reputation and role of the Gazette within the Dalhousie and Halifax communities.
Impeachment
39 Any Publishing Board Director(s) or the Publishing Boards and Chair may be impeached for
consistently or seriously failing to fulfill any of the duties outlined in section 22 26 of this
document, as well as for any serious violation of the discipline policy or the ethics code.
40 The editor-in-chief may be dismissed upon the recommendation of two-thirds of Publishing Board
of the society.
40.1 The editor up for impeachment must be given the opportunity to speak at a general
meeting before the vote on the motion to impeach.
41 Any Publishing Board Director or the Chair may be impeached if a petition signed by no less than
125 registered members of the Dalhousie Student Union is submitted to any member of the
Publishing Board. In this event, the Publishing Board will call a special general meeting with that
must take place no less than one week and no more than two weeks after receiving the petition.
The meeting must be advertised on the Society website as per the procedures outlined in these
bylaws. Should two-thirds of present Dalhousie Student Union members present at the general
meeting uphold the petition, the Publishing Board Director(s) and/or Chair who are the subject of
the petition shall be impeached.
41.1 Within four weeks of the impeachment of any Publishing Board Director(s), the editorin-chief must hold an AGM advertised as per the bylaws outlined in this constitution. A
vote must be held at this AGM to re-elect the vacant Director position.
Student Members to the Publishing Board
42 Four Dalhousie student representatives shall be elected to the Publishing Board by a plurality vote
of the members of the Society at the Annual General Meeting each year before the second week of
March.
43 Dalhousie student representatives must be full-time or part-time Dalhousie students, and members

of the Dalhousie Student Union, for the duration of their term on the Publishing Board.
44 The three elected Dalhousie student representatives shall not hold a paid position at the Gazette for
the duration of their term on the Publishing Board, however:
44.1 They are permitted but not required to contribute to the paper;
44.2 They may resign before applying for a paid position.