• Preamble
• Member Schools
• Annual Convention
• National Committee
• Choosing a Country or Theme
• Workdays
• Joining Operation Day's Work
• Elementary School Participation
• Sponsorship Guidelines

We, the Youth of the United States of America, strongly believe that every child deserves the opportunity to choose his or her own path to success. We believe that knowledge and understanding are maps that lead down these paths. Operation Day's Work strives for local, national, and universal unity among all youth through friendship, service, and global financial support. After educating ourselves about our chosen culture and project, we work for a day to raise funds for this cause. We are youth helping youth to help themselves.

Operation Day's Work is a student run organization that seeks to improve the lives of young people around the world through education. Each year students across America will select a project that will improve the lives of our peers in one or more developing countries. We will raise money to fund our project by working for a day in our own communities. To demonstrate our respect for those we hope to help, the Operation Day's Work committee in each member school will work to educate themselves, other students, and their community about inequality of opportunity for youth in developing nations.

We have organized ourselves to remain flexible as we grow, and created a structure based on the concept that all local schools and their representatives will make decisions that are in the best interest of our organization. To reach our goals, our entire organization must work together in unison.

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Operation Day's Work Member Schools

The foundation of our organization is the Operation Day's Work member school. Member schools will plan annual work activities. Each school will also plan activities to educate their peers and their community about the mission of Operation Day's Work and the project they have chosen to fund. Each member school will participate in voting to choose an annual project.

Operation Day's Work member school committees will make all local decisions, including: determining the role of advisors, choosing criteria and a selection process for its representatives, deciding on the age range of participants in their school community, keeping records of committee decisions, and taking on program sponsors according to the constitutional guidelines. Member schools may choose to recruit other schools to Operation Day's Work, or to form regional organizations that they believe would be helpful to their program.

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Operation Day's Work Annual Convention

Each year there will be a National Operation Day's Work Convention. At each Annual Convention, schools that participate in Operation Day's Work will be represented equally by elected delegates. The National Committee will determine the number of delegates from member schools.

The Annual Convention will make any necessary changes to the Constitution. The Annual Convention will decide on a theme or country to support and elect members of the National Committee for the coming year. All votes at the Annual Convention will be decided by majority rule.

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Operation Day's Work National Committee

The National Committee will consist of thirteen members who reflect the diversity of the Operation Day's Work member schools. Committee members will be elected for a term of one year. A person may serve a maximum number of four years on the National Committee. These terms do not have to be consecutive.

Electing National Committee Members - Beginning in 2001, any ODW member school can nominate up to two candidates for the national committee. These candidates may be students or alumni who participated in ODW at the nominating school.

There will be two votes to elect the thirteen national committee members at the annual convention. In the first vote, convention delegates will vote for three candidates from among all nominees. The three candidates who receive the most votes will serve as at large members of the national committee. For the second vote, the sitting national committee will divide the nominees into five regions that each contain a similar number of member schools. Convention delegates from each region will then vote for two candidates from their region. The two candidates in each region who receive the most votes will serve as regional members of the national committee. If a nominee can not be seated on the national committee because two or more candidates receive the same number of votes, a run-off vote will be held to decide between those candidates.

National Committee Duties - The National Committee will be responsible for making major decisions that affect the organization as a whole. The National Committee shall solicit and receive proposals for the chosen country or theme, pick a date upon which all member schools will choose the year's project, and develop a system for voting on that project. The National Committee will determine if prospective Operation Day's Work schools meet the criteria for membership in our organization. The National Committee shall manage the Organization's finances and will be responsible for keeping records of its decisions, so as to keep them open and available.

The National Committee will be responsible for dealing with all curriculum issues. This committee will make finding roles for Operation Day's Work alumni to continue to serve our organization a priority. A majority vote of the national committee is required for all decisions.

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Choosing a Country or Theme

While choosing a country, ODW students are not required to either base our decisions on U. S. political and economic interests or select countries with a USAID presence. When considering the recipients for Operation Day's Work funding, the following criteria must be met: the project cannot promote a government or religion, it must have an education base, and it must be sustainable after our funding. We must consider a country's basic needs and current overall status.

Each year, when selecting a national project to fund for the chosen country or theme, the project that receives a majority of votes at a member school will count as having received one vote in the national selection.

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Workdays

All school workdays must be held in the spring of each school year after that year's project has been selected. Schools are encouraged to hold their workdays within a one-month period, to be set by the national committee. Schools may work on more than one day.

Joining Operation Day's Work

Middle, junior high, and high schools including any of grades six through twelve may become member schools of Operation Day's Work. Any number of students with an advisor may start an Operation Day's Work committee at their school. In order to become a recognized Operation Day's Work member school, committee members must complete a questionnaire and/or essay that will be reviewed by the National Committee. There will be no limit to the number of schools who can join Operation Day's Work.

Schools may join Operation Day's Work at any time. Each year the National Committee will set a deadline by which new Operation Day's Work schools must join if they are to take part in voting for that year's project. The purpose of the deadline is to ensure that all schools have proper time to educate themselves about the country and projects before voting. All schools must update their contact information with Operation Day's Work in each school year to remain members.

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Role of Elementary School Participants

Operation Day's Work member schools may invite elementary school students to join in any part of their activities, including voting. The elementary schools may be allowed to participate in voting for projects to fund, decision-making, workdays and international days. Member schools who wish to include elementary school students in selecting the national project may count the votes of elementary students using their own voting system.

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Guidelines for Sponsors

Local Sponsorships - All local sponsorship decisions, including appropriate recognition of sponsors, will be made by ODW member schools. Since a primary goal of ODW is to work for the funds used to support projects in developing countries, it is suggested that gifts or donations to ODW member schools be used to sponsor student community service work or to cover local program administrative costs When recruiting sponsors, local schools are encouraged to consider similar criteria as those for national sponsors outlined below.

National Sponsorships - All national sponsorships and partnership decisions, including appropriate recognition of sponsors, will be made by the ODW national committee. The national committee and ODW staff will seek financial support from public and private institutions that have demonstrated leadership, institutional responsibility, and support for ideas related to the mission of ODW.

The National Committee must refuse donations from corporations or companies that manufacture alcohol or tobacco products, produce war supplies or firearms, create environmental destruction, violate child labor laws, test non-medical products on animals, or have unfair labor policies.

Use of Funds - The national committee may use up to 10% of the funds raised by member schools to offset program costs of the ODW national organization.

Approved and amended on the 13^th day of October, 2000 by the Delegates to the Operation Day's Work 1^st Annual Convention.

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Attest: [Signatures of students who attended the Convention appear on the original document.]