Preamble: We, the Assembled Pagans of the University of Iowa and surrounding area, form the ‘Society of Pagans Invested in Reviving Ancient Lifestyles´, an organization of the University of Iowa, and thus adopt this constitution.
Date: This constitution was submitted to the Office of Student Life, this 4th day of December, 2002.
Purpose
The members of SPIRAL come together as an organization to establish a safe haven and open forum for the discussion of ancient lifestyles relevant to modern Paganism and it´s various religious faiths/ ways of life (see Article X, "Article of Faith"). This haven and open forum is available to those University of Iowa students, as well as members of the surrounding community, who wish to study and learn more about ancient lifestyles now relevant to modern Paganism. This forum is open to people from all walks of life, and through it, we of SPIRAL intend to promote the tolerance and acceptance of those who identify themselves as Pagan within the Iowa City community and beyond, as well as exemplify our unique diversity as we distribute information regarding Earth Based Spiritualities and the various faiths of Paganism.
Membership
a) "In no aspect of its programs shall there be any difference in the treatment of persons because of race, national origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preference, or organization will guarantee that equal opportunity and equal access to membership, programming, facilities, and benefits shall open to all persons."
b) Any person may be a member of SPIRAL, provided that: 1) they identify themselves as following a path of Paganism, or have shown that they are genuinely friendly and of good will towards Pagan ways of living, and 2) they agree with SPIRAL´s statement of purpose, to spread tolerance and acceptance and the knowledge of what Paganism is in all its forms.
c) Members may be considered a ‘Member in Good Standing´ if they have maintained good attendance for at least three consecutive months. Good attendance is defined as having attended at least one meeting per month where attendance is required to be in consideration as a ‘Member in Good Standing´. Those Members in Good Standing shall be eligible to nominate, elect, and/or be elected to the position of Officer. Special exemptions may be made for hardship or circumstance, with the approval of a quorum of members considered to be in Good Standing within the Society.
d) Membership shall be considered once a candidate has identified themselves as Pagan, or have shown themselves to be supportive and accepting of those Pagans and their lifestyles. Membership shall be granted once the before said person has expressed a sincere interest in the beliefs, foundations, and interests of SPIRAL within Iowa City.
Officers and Duties
a) There shall be four offices within the Society of Pagans Invested in Reviving Ancient lifestyles: The Keeper (President), The Chancellor (Vice-President), The Scribe (Secretary), and The Liaison (Public Relations). Additional titles may be added by a majority vote of Members in Good Standing, as needed.
The duties of the Keeper (President) and the Chancellor (Vice President) shall be to conduct all meetings, preparing the agenda beforehand and implementing the agenda. The moderators shall conduct the meeting in such a way that all present may participate fully and equally in any discussion. Specifically, the Keeper, shall be responsible for the maintenance of a contact phone number and physical mail address; The Chancellor shall be responsible for the maintenance of the SPIRAL website, on which the minutes of the meeting shall be posted, times of following meetings announced, and contact information of Members made available to all other SPIRAL Members, if they so wish it to be given.
The duty of the Scribe shall be the maintenance of SPIRAL´s official club Binder. Therein shall be held the minutes of each meeting, which shall also be archiving at the group website, any information gathered by means of the forum, any information presented in the forum to be up for discussion, the Constitution of SPIRAL, and any thing else official or not pertaining to SPIRAL that can needs to be displayed at meetings. The Scribe shall also be responsible for the coordination of resources for any activity, event, or project.
The Liaison shall be responsible for making available to the public (including the University of Iowa) information about SPIRAL, its activities, and Paganism in general. The Liaison shall also be responsible for any and all official public contact of SPIRAL. Further, the Liaison shall be responsible for official contacts between the University of Iowa and SPIRAL.
b) Any member considered to be in Good Standing may become an officer of SPIRAL. Officers must remain in exemplary attendance, attending at least one meeting a month where attendance is to be taken for purposes of determining which members are considered to be in ‘Good Standing´. Officers may be subject to review and recall at any time due to concerns of the Members in Good Standing regarding their attendance and/or performance.
c) All members considered to be in good standing may be nominated to fill vacant officer positions in the SPIRAL. Once nominated, a majority vote by those members in good standing shall place them in office. (The nominated may, at any time, choose to vacate - or at the time of nomination, decline - his or her office.)
d) An officer may be removed from office if there is a 3/4 majority in favor of such an action.
Advisor
The Society of Pagans Invested in Reviving Ancient lifestyles shall not have an advisor.
Meetings
a) Meetings shall be held twice monthly, at a day decided upon at the first official meeting of SPIRAL as a University of Iowa Organization.
b) Special meetings along with auxiliary social gatherings shall be announced to members two weeks prior to the event by means of verbal and posted announcements in normal meetings, by means of an e-mail mailing list, or by phone, whichever the Member prefers. Attendance at special meetings or social gatherings shall not be required to attain the status of a Member in Good Standing.
c) A quorum shall consist of a majority of the total attendees, or 6 members, whichever is larger. All decisions are made, including elections, based on a consensus of those members considered to be in good standing.
d) Any member has the authority to call a meeting for social purposes. Only those members in good standing will have the authority to call special meetings, concerning SPIRAL and its goals. Only officers of SPIRAL will be granted the authority to call meetings at which attendance will be taken, and from which the status of a ‘Member in Good Standing´ is determined.
e) SPIRAL shall encourage people from all walks of life to attend their meetings. The forum, by design, is an information source for those wishing to learn more of Ancient lifestyles relevant to modern Paganism. However, visitors shall be requested to kindly leave if they show themselves and their purpose to be contrary to that of SPIRAL. Specifically, if the visitor(s) show that they have come to the forum to speak out against the various lifestyles of Pagans, and indeed had no intent of learning more of those Pagan beliefs by attendance, they shall be asked to kindly leave. If they have come to offer any type of ‘conversion´ to another faith, they shall be politely informed that Paganism refutes the idea that there is any one true path to the Divine and then politely asked to leave. Also, visitors shall be asked to leave if they attempt the distribution of pamphlets or other informational material not brought first before the Officers of SPIRALS and deemed relevant to the understanding of those Ancient lifestyles relevant to the modern faiths of Paganism.
May it be known that this clause has been added to this constitution so that a safe, friendly, non-threatening forum for the discussion of Ancient lifestyles may be established. In no way shall this clause be enacted to discriminate against those of other religions, as required by the University; it shall, instead be enacted to protect those who wish to study and learn of Ancient lifestyles relevant to modern faiths of Paganism without hindrance, and without being told what they are doing is wrong, or ruinous to their spiritual self.
Finally, may it be known that only the officers of SPIRAL shall have the authority to request visitors of this type, or types similar but not specifically expressed, to leave peacefully. It is they that shall be accountable if any such visitor objects to being sent away or considering their polite dismissal to be in any way discrimination.
Elections
Elections shall be held once a semester, on the closet meeting day to October 31. Elections are decided by a consensus of a quorum of Members in Good Standing.
Finances
a) SPIRAL shall require no dues for membership. However, money will be collected to fund any celebrations hosted by members of SPIRAL for those who wish to participate, if necessary. The amount of such dues shall be determined by a vote of all members two weeks before the event, or earlier if necessary. The primary contact person for the celebration shall then be responsible for the documentation of collection of funds, along with the expenditures for the celebration (receipts included), which shall then be given to the Scribe to record.
b) Therefore, the collection and disbursement of donated funds shall be the responsibility of the celebration´s contact person, or a second member appointed to the task by the contact person.
c) Upon dissolution state money and mandatory student fees revert back to the granting organization.
Group fees should be divided as stated in the constitution and carried out by the dissolving group´s members and officers.
If group has dissolved and group fees have not been divided as stated in constitution by 5 years from last account activity monies in group´s 00 account will revert to an account specified for this purpose within UISG. The funds will then be available for distribution through SABAC guidelines in compliance with University of Iowa policy.
Amendments
a) All eligible voting members, those members considered to be in good standing, shall be informed of the proposal of amendment to the constitution by means of notification by e-mail, posting on the Society´s website, and by verbal notification at meetings.
b) A 3/4-majority vote shall be required to ratify an amendment.
c) All amendments or changes to the constitution of SPIRAL shall, upon the finalization of their change, be submitted to the Student Activities Board for approval.
Ratification
Ratifications of this constitution have not yet been made.
Defining Paganism
Because of the requirement that those wishing to become a Member must identify themselves as follow a Pagan lifestyle, or who are themselves open and friendly to those Pagan and their lifestyles, SPIRAL has taken upon itself to define what we mean when we say ‘Paganism´.
As quoted from Religioustolerance.org, Paganism can be defined in many ways. In an article entitled "What do the words: ‘Pagan´ and ‘Paganism´ Mean?" the question of what is a ‘Pagan´ is answered:
"Pagan" comes from the Latin word "paganus" which meant "country dweller." However, this meaning is not currently in use. There is no generally accepted, single, current definition for the word "Pagan." … A reader must often look at the context in which the word is used in order to guess at the intent of the writer.
… They have varied meanings to different people. In fact, they have so many meanings that they often cause misunderstandings wherever they are used.
Unfortunately, most people do not know this, and naturally assume that the meaning that they have been taught is the universal definition of the term.We recognize that many Wiccans, Neopagans, and others regularly use the terms "Pagan" and "Paganism" to describe themselves. They should definitely be free to continue this usage. However, the possibility of confusion exists -- particularly if one is talking to a general audience. … Otherwise, the speaker or writer will be referring to one group of people, while the listeners or readers will assume that another group is being referred to.
The article then continues to define six of the most common definition of Paganism, which we wish to include within our Constitution for clarification purposes.
First meaning: Pagans are Wiccans and other Neopagans:
Wiccans and other Neopagans sometimes treat Pagan and Neopagan (a.k.a. Neo-pagan) as synonyms. … Neopagan religions are modern faiths which have been recently reconstructed from beliefs, deities, symbols, practices and other elements of an ancient religion. For example, the Druidic religion is based on the faith and practices of the ancient Celtic professional class; followers of Asatru adhere to the ancient, pre-Christian Norse religion; Wiccans trace their roots back to the pre-Celtic era in Europe. Other Neo-pagans follow Roman, Greek, Egyptian and other traditions. Some typical quotations which demonstrate this meaning of "Pagan" are:
"…Wicca, is considered part of the occult, but has little relationship to Satanism. Wicca is pagan (pre-Christian, as opposed to anti-Christian) and is currently gaining popularity." 1
"[they] do not worship the devil...[they] are more interested in magical arts and the divinity of nature...Wiccans are considered pagans because they worship several nature gods instead of a single god." 2
"The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates 6 million Americans profess to be [Wicca's] and engage in practices like these. They are a sub-group of over 10 million persons the encyclopedia says call themselves pagans, who practice "primitive" religions such as Druidism, Odin worship and Native American shamanism."3
In this sense, "Pagan" refers to a group of religions, and should be capitalized.
Second meaning: Pagans are people to hate:
Religious and social conservatives sometimes use "Pagan" as a general purpose "snarl" word to refer to cultures or religions that are very different from the speaker's. There is no general consensus as to meaning. It can be seen directed at any religious or cultural group that the speaker hates.
Some examples:
Jerry Falwell appeared as a guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" program on 2001-SEP-13. He said that God became sufficiently angry at America that he engineered the terrorist attack on New York City and Washington-- presumably to send Americans a message. He said: "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ...all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' " Pat Robertson responded: "Well, I totally concur..." 15 [We have asked Falwell's office via repeated Emails to tell us exactly to whom he was referring with the word "Pagans." They have declined to respond.]
Third meaning: Pagans are ancient polytheists:
The term "Pagan" is sometimes used to refer to ancient polytheistic religions:
The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) contains many references to the societies surrounding the Israelites -- Babylonians, Canaanites, Philistines, etc. These are commonly referred to as Pagans: …
Some current examples of this usage are:
- Ancient faiths of ancient Celtic, Egypt, Greece, Norse, Rome, and other cultures are frequently referred to as Pagan religions. …Fourth meaning: Pagans are Aboriginals:
Paganism is occasionally used to refer to [earth based], spirits-and-essences filled belief systems. It is based upon direct perception of the forces of nature… Many native, aboriginal religions fit this definition.Fifth meaning: Pagans are non-Abramics:
A rare use of "Pagan" is to describe a person who does not follow an Abramic religion. That is, their faith does not recognize Abraham as a patriarch. The individual is neither Christian, Muslim, Baha'i nor Jew. This includes Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Humanists, Taoists, etc. About 45% of the people of the world are Pagans, by this definition.Sixth meaning: Pagans are Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, etc:
The term "Pagan" was widely used by Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, etc. to refer to themselves. The word was also used by others to describe these groups. The usage dropped after the rise of Neopaganism in the middle of the 20th century, and is rarely seen today.
Author: B.A. Robinson
In the case of SPIRAL and its members, we define Pagan as the first, third, forth, fifth and sixth meanings. It is because of this possibility for confusion that we of SPIRAL both include this excerpt from http://www.religioustolerance.org within our Constitution and wish to hold this open forum. We seek to then educate those who wish to know more of Paganism and its traditions concerning the observance of the changing seasons, the realization of the cyclical nature of all life, various methods of natural healing, and many other things. We come together to share our knowledge with each other, and with the Iowa City and surrounding community.