Quest Bylaws
Amended by the Student Body Senate 10-7-03; 11-16-12, 9-12-13, 11-6-18, 2-5-20, 11-17-24
Article I. Governance
Section 1. The Editorial Board
A. The Editorial Board of the Reed College Quest
i. The Editorial Board of the Reed College Quest shall consist of one or more persons who have been elected to the position of Quest Editor(s) by vote of the student body, by means of the procedures set forth in Article II, Section 1 of these Bylaws.
ii. During the time that an Editorial Board serves as Quest Editor(s), no member of the Board may serve as a student body senator, senate secretary, the student body treasurer, the student body president, or the student body vice-president.
B. The Members of the Editorial Board
i. The members of this Board shall be the senior editors of the newspaper. Collectively, they shall have the exclusive right to make all final decisions concerning the affairs of the newspaper by whatever means they decide are appropriate, with two exceptions.
a. The members of the Board are expected to adhere to
generally recognized standards of journalistic behavior and ethics, as stated in Article VII, Section II of the Community Constitution, and shall be held accountable as a Board for violations of these standards.
b. Decisions in these areas of financial responsibility
and advertising shall follow the rules put forth in Article III, Section I of these Bylaws.
Article II. Selection of the Editorial Board
Section 1. Election and Succession of the Editorial Board
A. Election of the Quest Editorial Board
i. Nominations and elections of the Quest Editorial Board
shall be held each semester concurrently with the nominations and elections for Student Body President and Vice President. The Quest Editorial Board must consist of five people, consisting of the Finance and Advertising Manager, the Layout Editor, and four Copy/Content Editors. Of these five Editors, four General Editors shall be elected. The Financial and Advertising Manager and the Layout Editor shall be appointed according to Article II Section 1. A. iii. If the minimum of four people do not run for the Editorial Board, the Editors who are elected will appoint Editors to fill the other positions according to Section 1.B.
ii. The nomination requirements for the offices of Quest
Editor shall be by petition of 25 members of the student body. Members
of the editorial board shall be elected individually in accordance with the Student Body Election Code.
iii. The Layout Editor shall be selected by the four elected Editors following the election. This selection must then be finalized by Appointments committee according to article III section 1 F. The appointee must demonstrate proficiency with Adobe InDesign and receive Senate’s confirmation prior to taking office. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall be delegated from among the four General Editors after they have been elected.
iv. The Quest Editorial Board shall take office at the
conclusion of the semester in which they are elected, and serve a term of one year. In the time after their election, but before the end of the previous Board’s term, the Editors-elect shall serve as apprentices to the reigning Editorial Board.
B. Succession of Quest Editors.
i. If at any time during the Editorial Board’s tenure an editor leaves the board, the Editorial Board shall have the power to choose a new editor as a replacement. The Editorial Board must inform Senate of its decision within one week of making the replacement. The Editorial Board shall make these decisions by whatever method it deems appropriate.
ii. If an elected editor leaves the board during the first semester of their term, on or before the Monday following the conclusion of fall or spring break, the second semester of the departed editor’s term shall be filled by election according to the provisions of Section 1. A.
Article III. Staff
Section 1. Required Staff
A. Finance and Advertising Manager
i. There shall be two roles that must be filled in order for the newspaper to be recognized as a valid student body organization. These roles shall be Finance and Advertising Manager, and the Layout Editor as detailed in Section 1. F. below.
ii. The Financial and Advertising Manager shall be a member of the Editorial Board as a General Editor, and will therefore also edit the Quest for content and copy.
iii. Within two weeks of taking office, the Editorial Board shall report the Financial and Advertising Manager to the Senate.
B. Financial Duties of the Finance and Advertising Manager
i. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall be the chief financial officer of the Quest.
ii. The Finance and Advertising Manager must attend signator training at the beginning of each semester they are in office.
iii. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall keep accurate financial records of the Quest's budgetary and business transactions, including advertising revenue, publication costs, subscriptions revenue, and staff wages.
iv. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall with the consent of the Editorial Board make decisions in matters concerning the use of funds in the Quest's budget.
v. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall, with the consent of the Editorial Board, determine the size of each issue and the number of copies of each issue that is to be printed. If the Financial and Advertising Manager decides to change the number of copies to be printed, they will consult the Vice President, or Head Treasurer before finalizing this decision.
vi. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall hold the final responsibility for communicating with the organization that the Board chooses for printing the newspaper.
vii. As the signator of the Quest, the Finance and Advertising Manager shall be held liable for financial mismanagement of the Quest's budgetary and advertising funds.
C. Advertising Duties of the Finance and Advertising Manager
i. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall be the officer of the Reed College Quest that solicits and receives advertisements for publication in the newspaper, advertisements for placement on the Quest’s website, and the revenue that these advertisements generate.
ii. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall keep accurate records of these advertisements and their revenue. These records shall include as a minimum: the contact information of the client; the size of the client's advertisement; a copy of the advertisement, prior to publication, as it is to appear in the Quest; the issues the client wishes the advertisement placed in; the total amount that the client is charged for the advertisement's placement; copies of the invoice or bill sent to the client as notification of required payment; whether or not a client has paid for the placement of an advertisement; and copies of all checks received from clients in payment.
iii. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall hold the final responsibility for making sure a client's advertisement is printed in the issue that the client has designated.
iv. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall set the rates for advertising in the Reed College Quest. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall set these rates immediately upon taking office and shall have final authority over adjusting these rates in special circumstances, such as discounts for a client in return for advertising in multiple issues.
v. If required by the client the Finance and Advertising Manager shall send a client proof that an advertisement has been placed as ordered. This proof shall consist of one or more copies of the page on which the advertisement was placed in the selected issue (tear sheets), or whatever items the client requests as proof. There must be a printed notification of the date of the issue somewhere on the proof of publication sent to the client.
vi. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall send an invoice or a bill to a client for the total amount of the client's advertising for the semester term and keep copies of these invoices for financial records. A client's invoice must be sent within one week after the final publication date of the client's advertisement.
vii. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall hold the final responsibility for making sure a client pays the amount he or she is charged for an advertisement. This responsibility shall continue up to three months after the last publication date of a Board's tenure. If all clients have not paid at this point and the Finance and Advertising Manager wishes to cease the responsibilities of their position, the Advertising Manager must make arrangements with the Student Body Treasurer concerning the pursuance of these payments.
D. Clerical Duties of the Finance and Advertising Manager
i. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall set a time as a deadline for reception of advertisement copy for placement in the Quest. ii. The Finance and Advertising Manager shall prepare and keep a Copy Statement of the coming issue as part of the Quest’s financial records. The Copy Statement shall include, as a minimum: the name of the client and an identification of the client's advertisement for that issue; the size of the advertisement; the amount of money charged the client for placement of the advertisement in the issue (the gross revenue); the amount, if any, charged to the client for graphic work on the advertisement; the final amount to be received by the Quest as revenue from the advertisement for that issue (the net revenue).
iii. Upon receiving checks from clients for payment of advertising, the Finance and Advertising Manager shall deliver the checks to the Student Body Treasurer within two weeks of their receipt. If the client pays in cash, the Finance and Advertising Manager shall make note of this in the Quest’s records and deliver the cash to the Student Body Treasurer within two weeks of its receipt.
E. Duties of the Layout Editor
i. The Layout Editor shall be responsible for creating the layout of the newspaper each week.
F. Appointment of the Layout Editor
I. The layout editor shall be appointed by the Senate, through Appointments Committee, based on the recommendations of the 5 general Editors.
Section 2. General Editorial Staff
A. Role of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board shall have the power to create any positions which it deems necessary or vital to the production of the newspaper, other than the ones previously set forth in these Bylaws. The Editorial Board shall make these decisions by whatever method it deems appropriate. It is recommended but not required that at least one of the Copy/Content Editors have experience with Adobe InDesign to assist the Layout Editor.
B. Tenure of the Editorial Board. The tenure of the Editorial Board shall terminate at the end of the year for which the Editorial Board was elected to serve. The Editorial Board shall be responsible for the publication of all issues of the Quest in the year for which they have been elected to serve, except for the last issue of the year, which the incoming Editorial Board shall be entirely responsible for publishing. On the penultimate issue, the incoming Quest board will apprentice with the outgoing Quest board and on the final issue the incoming Quest board will take over responsibility, with direct guidance from the outgoing Quest board.
Section 3. Dismissal of members of the Quest Editorial Board.
If a member of the Editorial Board is found to be incompetent in the accomplishment of their responsibilities, as set forth in these Bylaws, or is found to be disruptive to the internal administration of the Quest, the Editorial Board has the option of removing the specific member of the Editorial Board from their role as a member of the Editorial Board through a simple majority vote of its members. The Board shall provide the reasons and evidence behind the dismissal if requested to by the member in question. The Board shall notify the Senate of the member of the Editorial Board’s dismissal and indicate their replacement within 48 hours of the Board’s vote.