Title 1, Chapter 1 - General Provisions

§1. Definition of Terms

  1. The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in the IETF’s RFC 2119, excluding the changes made in RFC 8174 (both UPPERCASE and lowercase usage of the key words have the defined special meanings).

  2. The term “SUPERMAJORITY” is defined as 60% of the allocated votes. If there are no class representatives and the Vice President also holds another position, this would be 5 votes, which is equal to 5 members of the Board. In the case that there are board positions which are unfilled, the supermajority is 60% of the allocated votes which are allocated to filled positions.

§2. Purpose

  1. The purpose of Epoch is to create a student-run cluster for the education of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (“IMSA”) students in machine learning and other computationally intensive fields.

§3. Management Divisions

  1. Epoch shall consist of three Management Divisions: Services, Technical, and Community.

  2. Services Division’s main purpose shall be to:

    1. Build, configure, manage, and secure the cluster.

    2. Operate services on the cluster and in the cloud for educational and operational use by the other Divisions and by the IMSA community.

    3. Train students on cluster operations.

  3. Technical Division’s main purpose shall be to:

    1. Engage in technical projects to produce useful and impactful software, and/or to educate students undertaking said projects.

    2. Train and educate students on software engineering, machine learning, and other topics in computing.

    3. Provide a space for students with technical interests to collaborate, learn about new technologies, and work on individual technical problems.

  4. Community Division’s main purpose shall be to:

    1. Conduct interactions with other groups within IMSA, including administration and other student groups.

    2. Raise funds.

    3. Conduct relations with individuals and groups outside IMSA.

  5. Each Division must be allowed to operate with a high level of autonomy when working toward their goals, and must be able to adopt their own bylaws and policies as long as they are compatible with this document.

  6. Within this document, some rules may be designed to interact with a Division’s bylaws, and shall have no effect until that Division adopts the implementing bylaws.

  7. The enumeration of purposes within this section shall not be construed to limit a Division’s goals and abilities.

  8. The enumeration of purposes within this section shall not be construed to limit Epoch’s goals and abilities. Additionally, elements of Epoch may be unaffiliated with any of the Epoch Management Divisions.

§4. Membership and Board Structure

  1. Membership shall be open to all members of the IMSA community who have a interest in the computational and data sciences.

    1. Recruitment programs shall be created that emphasize recruitment and retention of students from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse populations, as well as historically marginalized populations in technical fields.

  2. Members must be in good standing with IMSA administration and the community, unless an exception is made by the Board with a super-majority vote. This exception shall be made on a case-to-case basis.

  3. Membership shall be granted through request at any meeting, via email, or through joining the Epoch chat server.

    1. While this chat server is currently on the Discord platform, this platform may be changed in the future. In the event that it is, the Board shall notify members through by broadcasting a Notice of Platform Change to all members of the previous chat platform, and provide a minimum one week transition period before the previous chat platform may be considered deprecated.

  4. Epoch must have a Board of Directors (“Board”), consisting of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a Chief Services Officer (CSO), a Chief Technical Officer (CTO), a Chief Relations Officer (CRO), a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and a Vice President / Shadow CEO (sCEO).

    1. While the Board is only defined as the Main Board and does not include Shadow Board members, the Main Board members may choose to involve their shadows in Board actions.

    2. This Board should consist of members from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds.

    3. No member of the board may hold multiple positions, except that the Vice President may hold up to 1 other position. If the Vice President holds another position the role of Vice President is allocated 0 votes. If the Vice President does not hold another president the CEO is allocated 0.75 vote and the Vice President is allocated 0.25 vote.

    4. If the board deems it necessary, it may include any of the following as additional positions on the board, and may choose to allocate to each of the following positions either no vote, 0.25 vote, or 1 vote. In any case, the following positions if they exist may additionally hold another seat on the board but if they do so their role will be allocated 0 votes.

      1. Sophomore Representative, who must be a sophomore

      2. Junior Representative, who must be a junior

      3. Senior Representative, who must be a senior

    5. The following definitions of alternate names of Board members apply whenever the following terms are used. They have been adopted for convenience when interacting with other clubs and StudCo, which prefer these terms, and for historical reasons.

      1. The term “President” shall be equivalent to CEO.

      2. The term “Vice President” shall be equivalent to Shadow CEO.

      3. The term “Treasurer” shall be equivalent to CFO.

      4. The terms “Cluster team head” and “Cluster manager” shall be equivalent to CSO.

  5. The officers’ roles are as follows:

    1. The CSO shall be the head of the Services Division.

    2. The CTO shall be the head of the Technical Division.

    3. The CRO and CFO shall jointly lead the Community Division.

    4. The CEO, as head of Epoch, must not be affiliated with any Division.

  6. The Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Representatives are responsible for advocating for the students of their class, including those not currently interested in Epoch, for reporting to the Board the views of students of their class, and for advocating for the students of any classes for which representatives have not been chosen. They may be affiliated with one or more divisions, and may or may not be part of that division’s leadership.

  7. Each officer on the Board must choose a Shadow by the end of the first quarter. This Shadow need not be somebody highly qualified in the field, but somebody who is willing to learn the necessary information. Enthusiasm and consistency should be rewarded.

    1. Extensions may be granted by a supermajority vote of the Board.

    2. Shadows may be current members of the board in other positions, but this is not recommended except for the Shadow CEO / Vice President and the Shadow Junior and Senior Representative.

    3. The Sophomore Representative is not permitted to choose a Shadow, as such a Shadow would have to be a freshman and IMSA does not admit freshmen.

  8. Shadows shall be appointed by the Board officer with the advice and consent of the full Board and the Officer’s division. The Shadow CEO shall be chosen by the current CEO and be certified by a vote of all active Epoch student members. A Shadow must be a Sophomore or Junior when they are instated.

  9. If a officer of the Board leaves Epoch (or graduates from IMSA), that officer’s Shadow shall take over his/her role if the officer’s Division provides a successful vote of confidence in the Shadow, or in the case of the CEO, a successful vote from all active Epoch Board and Shadow Board members. In the case that the vote fails, a new member shall be chosen by the Board and the voting process shall repeat.

  10. In Epoch Board meetings, each division shall have an assigned number of votes.

    1. The Services Division shall have one (1) vote assigned to the CSO.

    2. The Technical Division shall have one (1) vote assigned to the CTO.

    3. The Community Division shall have one (1) vote, with half (0.5) vote assigned to the CRO and half (0.5) vote assigned to the CFO.

    4. The CEO shall have one (1) vote.

    5. In the event that a Board position cannot be filled, a supermajority vote of the remaining positions shall be used. It is the Board’s responsibility to fill unfilled Board positions. If the Board, due to having multiple unfilled positions, cannot reach quorum, it may make majority votes to confirm new board members but may not take other actions except in emergency.

    6. See §4.4.3 and §4.4.4 for the votes of the class representatives and of the Vice President.

  11. The Board must have the funding, resources and authority appropriate to discharge its responsibilities, and shall, as it deems appropriate and at the expense of Epoch, engage and obtain advice and assistance from outside advisors.

§5. Meetings

  1. Epoch must hold a general meeting at least once every two weeks during the school year, with an agenda agreed upon beforehand by the Board of Directors. This time can be revised at any point in the year. Meetings shall take place on the IMSA campus or via a digital platform, in areas accessible to all students.

  2. Epoch general meetings shall be announced at least 48 hours in advance, and notice of meetings and any record thereof shall be posted to the Epoch chatroom and website.

  3. Divisions may choose to have meetings whenever they choose in places accessible to all members of that Division.

  4. Epoch Board or the leadership of a Division may choose to hold a closed meeting to discuss on sensitive topics. It is expected that if a meeting is closed to an officer or shadow officer, that officer should not directly join the meeting. However, this does not bar them from asking questions.

§6. Subcommittees, Subteams, and Classes

  1. The Board may authorize subteams or subcommittees for any purpose necessary.

  2. For the purpose of educating and training Epoch members and facilitating discussion and research, Epoch members may create classes in fields pertinent to Epoch operations with Board approval. The Board may invite guest lecturers. These classes shall be supervised and coordinated by those with extensive knowledge in the field.

  3. Project teams, subcommittees, and classes may request funds and materials from the Community Division. Purchase requests shall follow the policy set forth in Title 1, Chapter 2 of the Epoch bylaws.

  4. Subteams and subcommittees may operate under their own charters, provided that they do not conflict with this document.

  5. Subteams and subcommittees may add their own advisors which may not necessarily be Epoch advisors.

  6. On receiving their respective charters, subteams, subcommittees and classes shall be considered part of no Division, but they may petition to join a Division, in which case the petition may be approved or rejected by the Division’s leadership.

  7. At least once per semester, Epoch shall hold a meeting with Board, the heads of each subteam or subcommittee, and those responsible for running classes.

  8. As the Education through Competition subteam, the Titan Scouting subteam, and the AI in Medicine subteam no longer exist, Epoch does not recognize preexisting agreements with said subteams.

§7. Procedure and Ethics

  1. The CEO (or their designeee) shall chair all Board meetings.

  2. The supermajority of the Board members shall constitute a quorum for transacting official Board business. When members are unable to be physically present, they may fully participate by teleconference. The technology must enable Board members to hear the other member(s) not physically present and enable the member(s) not physically present to hear the Board discussion.

    • Rulings passed without quorum are null and void.

  3. Board meetings shall follow a predetermined agenda, if one exists, with the Board having the ability to add and remove items if needed.

  4. The Board shall not pass any ex post facto rulings.

  5. Due process shall be followed in all proceedings.

  6. Disputes within a Division shall be handled within that Division based on the Division’s policies. If the dispute is between two members of different Division, or if the dispute is within a Division and the Division is not able to handle the dispute internally, a Board or Shadow Board officer from the unaffected Division or an unaffiliated Board or Shadow Board officer shall mediate. The CEO should often take this position as an impartial party.

  7. Board officers may take a sabbatical (where their Shadow or another designated Epoch member temporarily assumes their position) or resign their positions by writing a letter to the CEO. If an officer resigns, they may not apply to be reinstated until four weeks after the date which their resignation letter takes effect.

  8. If the Board loses trust in an officer, they can pass a motion of no confidence (the text of the motion including “this body has no confidence in [name] fulfilling [his/her/their] duties as [position]”) with a formal Board vote to remove the officer from their position.

  9. All Epoch members shall follow all Epoch, IMSA, state, and federal rules, regulations, and laws when representing Epoch and shall hold themselves to a high moral standard. The Epoch Board may open investigations into any events involving Epoch that do not follow these standards.

  10. Any formal Board vote must pass with a supermajority among the Board.

  11. To open an investigation, Board shall pass a resolution outlining the scope of the investigation and appointing someone to build the case against those investigated.

  12. Those investigated shall have the right to be informed of nature of the investigation, to review all evidence and confront all witnesses against him/her and to introduce his/her own evidence and witnesses, to obtain counsel within Epoch, to not bear witness against himself/herself, and not to be investigated twice for the same charges.

  13. For each investigation, a panel of two Board or Shadow Board members and one non-Board individual (potential panel members may recuse themselves) shall decide on the guilt and punishment of those accused. Punishments may range from a formal censure to a removal and ban from Epoch. In extreme cases, the results of an investigation and any evidence used may be forwarded to IMSA formal disciplinary officers. The outcomes of each case shall serve as precedence for future cases.

  14. If the panel decides on a guilty ruling against a Board member, it may also recommend his/her removal on ethics. If such a recommendation is made, the Board shall vote on it at its next meeting and a majority vote shall result on the member’s removal.

  15. All non-confidential materials of an investigation shall be made available to Epoch members upon request.

§8. Advisors

  1. Epoch shall seek at least one faculty advisor to provide guidance and direction to Epoch members and assist in resolving any disputes.

  2. The Board may add or remove advisors using a normal supermajority vote. The Board may select which advisors are considered advisors for the purposes of relations with other organizations such as Student Council and organizations of the administration of the Academy.

  3. The Services Division may add or remove official Services Division Mentors (which are not necessarily Epoch advisors or even within the IMSA community) with the consent of the CFO, shall control the application process for this role, and may send out invites to apply.

  4. The Technical Division may add or remove official Technical Advisors (which are not necessarily Epoch advisors or even within the IMSA community) with the consent of the CTO and CSO, shall control the application process for this role, and may send out invites to apply.

  5. The Community Division may add or remove official Community Division Mentors (which are not necessarily Epoch advisors or even within the IMSA community) with the consent of the CFO, shall control the application process for this role, and may send out invites to apply.

  6. The Board may add or remove official Education Advisors, responsible for reviewing classes and their curriculum, and providing help if necessary.

  7. If needed, the leadership of each Division may give temporary supervisor roles to those who hold the proper IMSA clearances. The leadership of a Division may delegate this power to the leadership of any subteam of that Division.

§9. System Administrators and the Cluster

  1. As the construction of a secure student-run cluster is necessary to fulfill Epoch’s purpose, the Technical Division shall set up a training and certification program for cluster hardware technicians and system administrators (sysadmins). These training and certification programs shall correspond with various professional certifications that are issued in the IT industry.

  2. The officers leading the Technical Division (CSO, CTO) shall be assigned the role of lead sysadmin and must thus be in charge of holding cluster root credentials.

    1. Main Board members may choose to extend this designation to their shadows.

    2. The Technical Division may choose to extend this designation to other technical division members, contingent on the consent of a supermajority of the officers leading the Technical Division.

  3. Head sysadmins may send out communications to whoever it may concern dictating current technical objectives and what is needed to fulfill them. When the cluster is undergoing development, expansion, or upgrade, these communications must occur at least biweekly.

  4. Head sysadmins are in charge of managing credentials, and thus may certify other members of Technical Division to hold admin access to some systems and manage their permissions.

  5. Since much trust must be placed in sysadmins and they have the power to cause extreme harm to Epoch in unique ways, Technical Division shall implement vetting processes of those holding admin access, and both Technical Division and Board have the power to recall a system administrator’s access privileges (including a head sysadmin) with a formal vote.

  6. Technical Division is in charge of distributing cluster access credentials and managing access. While the cluster is intended to be open for all who need it, head sysadmins may deny a potential user credentials if they deem that the user poses a security or ethics risk. These denials shall be documented.

  7. Head sysadmins may revoke credentials whenever deemed necessary. These revokals shall be documented.

  8. Technical Division may restrict higher-risk aspects of the cluster and create systems to decide which members may gain access to those parts.

  9. Technical Division may create policies regarding the usage of the cluster.

  10. Technical Division may open ethics investigations as described in Section 6 into potential misuse of the cluster or security breaches.

  11. The enumeration of powers within this section shall not be interpreted to limit Technical Division’s or its members’ powers to build, configure, manage, and secure the cluster.

§10. Adoption and Amendment

  1. These bylaws have been adopted by Board 1 (CEO JuWon Park, CTO Dev Singh, CSO Simone Angelov, CFO Archan Das, CCO Hamza Haq, and CRO Sage Owen) on August 5, 2020.

  2. These bylaws may be modified by a super-majority vote of all Board officers after a minimum 24-hour consideration period.

Changelog

  1. Adopted: Aug 5, 2020

  2. Amended: Nov 21, 2020

  3. Amended: Mar 13, 2021

  4. Amended: Dec 14, 2021

  5. Amended: Mar 26, 2025

    • by Board 5 (CEO Ethan Charoenpitaks, CTO Cinna Davis, all other positions unfilled)

  6. Amended: Jul 12, 2025

    • by Board 6, see PR#18

    • This amendment changed the composition of Board 6