Bylaws

These are the official Bylaws of the Open Computing Facility, as last amended at the Board meeting of May 7, 2025.

  1. [Repealed]

  2. The OCF Board of Directors shall meet at least once every two weeks while the OCF is formally in session.

  3. Any Director appointed to the Board by the Decision Making Process missin two regularly scheduled meetings will be removed from the Board, regardless of whether the meetings achieve quorum. The only exception to this is if the Director informs the General Manager before the meeting of an emergency, including, but not limited to: a conflicting examination, a medical emergency, or a family emergency.

  4. OCF Board meetings must be announced to all Directors at least twenty-four hours in advance.

  5. Resolutions by the Board of Directors can be put to a vote electronically. When putting a resolution to the Board in this manner, all Board members must be included in the request for votes. To pass an issue this way, either at least half of all the Board members agree, or, quorum is achieved and a majority of voting Board members agree after allowing a period of forty-eight hours for Board members to vote. If the motion fails to achieve quorum with a majority of voting Board members agreeing after forty-eight hours of being called to such a vote, the motion fails. The results of the vote will be posted in roll call form.

  6. Attendance lists and minutes for all OCF meetings shall be maintained for the decisions of that meeting to be valid.

  7. BoD appointments and removals will take effect immediately after the vote at which the appointment or removal took place.

  8. [Repealed]

  9. The Cabinet

  10. The Cabinet of the Open Computing Facility shall consist of the General Manager, Site Manager, committee heads, and Deputy Site Managers.

  11. The General Manager shall be chair of the cabinet.

  12. [Repealed]

  13. [Repealed]

  14. Deputy Site Managers

  15. Deputy Site Managers shall be appointed and removed by the Site Manager, subject to the OCF Decision Making Process.

  16. Deputy Site Managers shall assist the Site Manager with their duties.

  17. The term of office of a Deputy Site Manager shall expire at the beginning of a new term of a Site Manager.

  18. [Repealed]

  19. Officers

  20. All Cabinet members shall be Officers of the Open Computing Facility.

  21. Any non-Director member who attends a Board meeting can request to be appointed as a Director at that meeting. A current Director must then nominate them, before it is put to a discussion, then the candidate will be appointed under a majority vote of present Directors. The candidate may be asked to leave the facilities during Director deliberations.

  22. The Board of Directors may select and recall a Faculty Sponsor for the OCF.

  23. Initial Board Members

    1. At the initial meeting of each Fall and Spring semester, the Board of Directors shall consist of the Cabinet. This shall be termed the “interim Board of Directors” or “interim BoD”.

    2. Any other previous Director able and wishing to continue their directorship for that semester shall indicate such intent at the initial meeting. At that point, the interim BoD shall vote to continue such directorships.

    3. It is assumed that the interim BoD shall not unreasonably withhold consent for a previous Director to continue their directorship. An example of reasonable grounds to withhold consent is if there are serious reasons that a previous Board member will not be able to fulfill their duties (e.g. due to medical or other concerns).

  24. Any director who is banned from the OCF or has their account disabled due to misuse will be removed from the board and is not eligible for membership on the Board of Directors.

  25. Committees

    1. The Board of Directors includes the following permanent committees in no particular order:

    2. The Internal Committee promotes the interests of staff within the OCF and empowers staff to make meaningful contributions to the OCF, including training and onboarding. The Internal Committee is responsible for communicating with staff members.

    3. The External Committee promotes OCF services and events to the broader campus community as appropriate, and manages relationships with companies, OCF alumni, and other individuals or groups that are external to UC Berkeley, and manages OCF public relations and image.

    4. The Finance Committee oversees the finances of the OCF and ensures that the OCF is adequately funded. The Finance Committee should also routinely explore funding opportunities.

    5. The DeCal Committee runs the Linux System Administration DeCal.

    6. Additional committees may be established on an ad-hoc basis by the OCF Decision Making Process.

    7. Committee heads are selected by election at the final Board of Directors meeting in the Fall and Spring semester, with the following exceptions:

    8. Election dates for heads to the DeCal Committee and ad-hoc committees may be set by the OCF Decision Making Process. Election dates may not be set for fewer than 14 days in the future. Elections must be announced to all Board members at least 14 days in advance.

    9. The terms of permanent committee heads begin on the first day following the end of the semester in which they were elected. The terms of ad-hoc committees heads will be specified according to the OCF Decision Making Process.

    10. Each committee is required to maintain and follow a runbook which enlists specific responsibilities of that committee as well as all tasks needed to run said committee.

  26. Board Budget

    1. The Board of Directors may approve a semesterly budget that authorizes committees to spend funds according to the committee’s purpose as defined by bylaw.

    2. A committee may spend funds only upon approval by a committee head and a Director who is not a head of said committee.

    3. A committee head’s approval is void if there is a Director who makes their dissent known in a forum available to all directors within forty eight (48) hours of the approval, and that Director has not given their approval.

    4. Transactions of at least $100 require approval from the Board of Directors.

    5. The Finance Committee may upon approval by the Board of Directors add additional restrictions to the use of committee budgets.

  27. Manual Director Removal

    1. Should a Director be deemed to be malicious, unfit to be a Director, inactive, or some other concern, another Director may initiate a proposal to remove that Director from BoD:

    2. The proposal should be accompanied by reasons that would make the nominated Director unfit for the position.

    3. The proposal should have a second from another current Director.

    4. The floor will be open to discussion. The nominated Director may be asked to leave the facilities during Director deliberations.

    5. A blind vote will be taken from all Directors, excluding the nominated Director. If a majority of Directors finds the nominated Director to be unfit for the position, the nominated Director will be removed from BoD immediately. Otherwise, they will remain on BoD.

    6. Nominations against a Director may only occur once per meeting for that given Director.

  28. Director Appeal

    1. If a Director is removed from the position, they will be able to submit a written appeal to the GM, which will be discussed at the next BoD meeting. A removed Director wishing to rejoin BoD must appeal, and may not be nominated for the position:

    2. The appeal will be shown to BoD.

    3. The floor will be open to discussion.

    4. A blind vote will be taken from all Directors.

    5. If a majority of Directors believes the former Director should be reinstated, they will return to BoD. Otherwise, they are free to appeal again after 2 BoD meetings.

Bylaws 1–4 amended at the general meeting of March 21, 2008. Bylaws 5–6 from the revision of the bylaws last amended February 7, 1995. Bylaw 8 added at the Board meeting of April 30, 2014. Bylaws 9–13 added at the Board meeting of October 10, 2016. Bylaw 14 added at the Board meeting of October 17, 2016. Bylaw 7 amended at the Board meeting of October 31, 2016. Bylaws 1 and 8 repealed, bylaw 7 amended, and bylaw 15 added at the general meeting of November 14, 2016. Bylaws 13.2, 11.3, 12.3 amended, and bylaws 10.4 and 10.5 added at the Board meeting of March 6, 2017. Bylaws 13.2 and 13.3 repealed and Bylaw 14 amended at the Board meeting of August 28, 2017. Bylaws 9.1 and 13.1 amended at the Board meeting of February 26, 2018. Bylaws 7 and 14 amended and bylaw 16 added at the Board meeting of November 4, 2019. Bylaw 7 amended and bylaw 17 added at the Board meeting of November 18, 2019. Bylaws 9.1 and 13.1 amended, bylaws 10, 11, and 12.4 repealed, and bylaw 18 added at the Board meeting of December 2, 2019. Bylaw 12.2 amended and bylaws 18.1.7, 18.3.3, and 19 added at the Board meeting of September 9, 2020. Bylaws 18.1.8 and 18.3.2 added at the Board meeting of April 13, 2021. Bylaw 5 and 18 amended at the Board meeting of November 17, 2021. Bylaws 3, 7, 14, and 16 amended, and bylaws 20 and 21 added at the Board meeting of May 7, 2025.