diff --git a/constitution.html b/constitution.html index 6ed4df1..0be73f0 100644 --- a/constitution.html +++ b/constitution.html @@ -18,19 +18,20 @@

Constitution

provided by the society shall be restricted to members and may be subject to an annual fee, which the Committee shall determine, and which may vary according to the type of use made of the facility. The Committee may also - set an annual membership fee of the society, and in addition may offer - honorary memberships and life membership to any persons as it sees fit. It - shall not refuse an application for membership on the grounds of race, sex, - sexual orientation, disability, religion, or political views. It may, - however, expel any member for behaviour likely to bring the society or - university into disrepute, for acting in a way that is damaging to the - integrity of any of the facility's machines, or for breaking any of the - relevant rules relating to the use of computers in the University. The - administrators may suspend the account of anyone they suspect of the above, - pending the decision of the Committee. For official communications of the - society email shall be sufficient, and it shall be the responsibility of - members of the society to provide the Secretary with an appropriate email - address. All members shall have full voting rights at society meetings. + set an annual membership fee of the society (which may vary according to the + academic status of members), and in addition may offer honorary memberships + and life membership to any persons as it sees fit. It shall not refuse an + application for membership on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, + disability, religion, or political views. It may, however, expel any member + for behaviour likely to bring the society or university into disrepute, for + acting in a way that is damaging to the integrity of any of the facility's + machines, or for breaking any of the relevant rules relating to the use of + computers in the University. The administrators may suspend the account of + anyone they suspect of the above, pending the decision of the Committee. For + official communications of the society email shall be sufficient, and it + shall be the responsibility of members of the society to provide the + Secretary with an appropriate email address. All members shall have full + voting rights at society meetings.
  • Meetings of the society: @@ -105,10 +106,44 @@

    Constitution

  • - The Committee shall consist of Chair, Secretary, Junior Treasurer, and PR - officer. It shall meet at least once per term, and may invite any other - persons to attend Committee meetings as it sees fit. The Senior Treasurer - shall always be invited to attend Committee meetings if (s)he wishes to. +
      +
    1. + The Committee shall consist of Chair, Secretary, Junior Treasurer, and + PR officer. It shall meet at least once per term, and may invite any + other persons to attend Committee meetings as it sees fit. The Senior + Treasurer shall always be invited to attend Committee meetings if (s)he + wishes to. +
      2. +
    2. + The Committee may co-opt additional Committee members as it sees fit, + and shall be responsible for the appointment of system administrators, + who shall be responsible to the Committee. +
      3. +
    3. + A person co-opted to the Committee shall cease to be a member of the + Committee at the immediately subsequent Annual General Meeting unless + elected to the Committee at that meeting, or upon resignation in + accordance with Article 5.3. Notwithstanding Article 5.3, there shall be + no by-election to replace a co-opted member of the Committee. +
      4. +
    4. + The Committee shall maintain (and make available to members) a Roll of + system administrators, which must include all persons with discretionary + administrative access to the Society’s facilities. The Roll shall + contain, in respect of each individual, the date on which they were most + recently appointed or re-appointed a system administrator by the + Committee, but those who were already system administrators on the day + when this provision was adopted shall be deemed to have been + re-appointed on that day. A person shall cease to be a system + administrator by resignation, dismissal or retirement. Resignation may + be undertaken by writing to the Secretary. A person may be dismissed as + a system administrator only by a majority vote at a meeting of the + Committee. A system administrator will automatically retire one year + after their last activity as a system administrator defined as use of + system administrator credentials. The Committee may re-appoint a system + administrator an unlimited number of times. +
      5. +
  • In addition there shall be a Senior Treasurer, who shall be a resident @@ -134,6 +169,27 @@

    Constitution

    In the event of the dissolution of the society, its assets shall be given to the University society with the most similar interests.
    • +
  • +
      +
    1. + The Committee shall maintain a Register of the members of the Society. +
      2. +
    2. + Membership in the Society shall cease if and only if the member dies, + resigns in writing to the Secretary, ceases to be a member of the + University, is expelled pursuant to this Constitution, or if membership + lapses in accordance with Article 10.3. +
      3. +
    3. + No member who is a life member, a system administrator or the Senior + Treasurer shall be subject to lapse of membership. In all other cases, + membership in the Society shall lapse according to the terms of a + Membership Retirement Policy if one is adopted and published by the + Society. Such a policy may only be adopted if passed by a simple + majority of those voting at a General Meeting. +
      4. +
    +
    • diff --git a/minutes/agm2026-03-20/chair.pdf b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/chair.pdf new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1610df2 Binary files /dev/null and b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/chair.pdf differ diff --git a/minutes/agm2026-03-20/constitutional-changes.html b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/constitutional-changes.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3b44a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/constitutional-changes.html @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ + + +

    Constitution

    + +
      +
    1. + The name of the society shall be: The Student-Run Computing Facility. +
      2. +
    2. + The Society's aims shall be: to provide UN*X/Linux/BSD services for all + members of the society, including webspace, a central server, and training + activities, and to do such other things as conduce to the attainment of + these objects. +
      3. +
    3. + Membership of the society shall be extended to all members of the University + and any others who may apply to the Committee. Use of the facilities + provided by the society shall be restricted to members and may be subject to + an annual fee, which the Committee shall determine, and which may vary + according to the type of use made of the facility. The Committee may also + set an annual membership fee of the society + (which may vary according to the academic status of members), and in + addition may offer honorary memberships and life membership to any persons + as it sees fit. It shall not refuse an application for membership on the + grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or political + views. It may, however, expel any member for behaviour likely to bring the + society or university into disrepute, for acting in a way that is damaging + to the integrity of any of the facility's machines, or for breaking any of + the relevant rules relating to the use of computers in the University. The + administrators may suspend the account of anyone they suspect of the above, + pending the decision of the Committee. For official communications of the + society email shall be sufficient, and it shall be the responsibility of + members of the society to provide the Secretary with an appropriate email + address. All members shall have full voting rights at society meetings. +
      4. +
    4. + Meetings of the society: +
        +
      1. + The Annual General Meeting of the society shall be held each year in the + Lent Term. The time and venue of this meeting shall be publicised by the + Committee at least fourteen days beforehand. +
        2. +
      2. + Ordinary Meetings shall be held as and when the Committee sees fit. Such + meetings may be social, training, or anything else the Committee feels + is relevant to the aims of the society. +
        3. +
      3. + An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the society may be called by + the Committee, or by at least six members. A notice calling for an EGM + must: (1) include a clear statement of the purpose of the EGM, (2) state + the date (which must be in Full Term), time (which must be reasonable), + and venue (which must be in Cambridge) of the EGM, (3) be signed by + those calling for the EGM, and (4) be presented to the Committee at + least ten days before the EGM, but no more than fourteen days before. + The Committee must circulate the notice verbatim to the society at least + seven days before the EGM. An EGM may conduct any business necessary for + the purpose it was called. +
        4. +
      +
      5. +
    5. +
        +
      1. + The Committee shall be elected at the AGM by Single Transferable Vote + with a RON as defined by the University. Nominations must be submitted + to the Secretary at least three days before the AGM (in the absence of + other nominations for any post, nominations shall be accepted at the AGM + for that post), either by email or on paper, to reach the Secretary by + that deadline signed by proposer, seconder and nominee. Any member of + the society may be nominated for any Committee post (a proposer and + seconder are needed). +
        2. +
      2. + The Chair of the AGM shall appoint two tellers at the AGM. The Committee + may co-opt additional Committee members as it sees fit, and shall be + responsible for the appointment of system administrators, who shall be + responsible to the Committee. The Committee must have a majority of + members who are current CU undergraduate or postgraduate students or are + members of the Regent House and the majority of principal officers: + Chair, Secretary and Junior Treasurer must be current students. +
        3. +
      3. + Committee members shall hold office until they are replaced by a + successful candidate in an election or by-election. Committee members + may signal intent to resign their post on paper or by email to the + Chair, or in the case of the Chair to the Secretary, upon receipt of + which the Chair or Secretary (as appropriate) shall communicate this to + the rest of the Committee and the Committee shall make arrangements for + an EGM with by-election to be held in accordance with Article 5.4. +
        4. +
      4. + If no candidates are nominated for a post in an election or by-election, + or the election/by-election for a post is won by the option to re-open + nominations, or a Committee member signals intent to resign their post + as laid out in Article 5.3, the Committee shall call, in accordance with + the timeframes set out in Article 4.3, an EGM whose stated purposes + shall include the holding of by-elections for that/those post(s) and + which shall be held within fourteen days of the AGM (or, if the current + Full Term is to end within fourteen days, within seven days of the start + of the next Full Term). The by-elections shall be conducted as in + Article 5.1, with all references to an AGM to be replaced with + references to the EGM. +
        5. +
      +
      6. +
    6. +
        +
      1. + The Committee shall consist of Chair, Secretary, Junior Treasurer, and + PR officer. It shall meet at least once per term, and may invite any + other persons to attend Committee meetings as it sees fit. The Senior + Treasurer shall always be invited to attend Committee meetings if (s)he + wishes to. +
        2. +
      2. + The Committee may co-opt additional Committee members as it sees fit, + and shall be responsible for the appointment of system administrators, + who shall be responsible to the Committee. +
        3. +
      3. + A person co-opted to the Committee shall cease to be a member of the + Committee at the immediately subsequent Annual General Meeting unless + elected to the Committee at that meeting, or upon resignation in + accordance with Article 5.3. Notwithstanding Article 5.3, there shall be + no by-election to replace a co-opted member of the Committee. +
        4. +
      4. + The Committee shall maintain (and make available to members) a Roll of + system administrators, which must include all persons with discretionary + administrative access to the Society’s facilities. The Roll shall + contain, in respect of each individual, the date on which they were most + recently appointed or re-appointed a system administrator by the + Committee, but those who were already system administrators on the day + when this provision was adopted shall be deemed to have been + re-appointed on that day. A person shall cease to be a system + administrator by resignation, dismissal or retirement. Resignation may + be undertaken by writing to the Secretary. A person may be dismissed as + a system administrator only by a majority vote at a meeting of the + Committee. A system administrator will automatically retire one year + after their last activity as a system administrator defined as use of + system administrator credentials. The Committee may re-appoint a system + administrator an unlimited number of times. +
        5. +
      +
      7. +
    7. + In addition there shall be a Senior Treasurer, who shall be a resident + member of the Senate or other person approved by the Junior Proctor. The + Senior Treasurer shall make arrangements for the Society's Accounts to be + properly audited, either by himself or herself, or by some other person + approved under University Ordinances. The Senior Treasurer shall not be + liable for any financial debt or other obligation of the Society unless he + or she has personally authorised such a debt in writing. +
      8. +
    8. + Amendments to this constitution may be proposed by any six members of the + society, or by resolution of the Committee. Votes for the amendment of this + constitution shall require the support of two thirds of those voting to + effect the change, and may occur at AGMs, or at an EGM called explicitly for + that purpose. No amendment to this constitution intended to remove the + position of Senior Treasurer, to alter its prerogatives and duties or to + change the criteria and procedure for the appointment of a Senior Treasurer + can be put to a vote without prior written agreement of the Junior Proctor + of the University of Cambridge. +
      9. +
    9. + In the event of the dissolution of the society, its assets shall be given to + the University society with the most similar interests. +
      10. +
    10. +
        +
      1. + The Committee shall maintain a Register of the members of the Society. +
        2. +
      2. + Membership in the Society shall cease if and only if the member dies, + resigns in writing to the Secretary, ceases to be a member of the + University, is expelled pursuant to this Constitution, or if membership + lapses in accordance with Article 10.3. +
        3. +
      3. + No member who is a life member, a system administrator or the Senior + Treasurer shall be subject to lapse of membership. In all other cases, + membership in the Society shall lapse according to the terms of a + Membership Retirement Policy if one is adopted and published by the + Society. Such a policy may only be adopted if passed by a simple + majority of those voting at a General Meeting. +
        4. +
      +
      11. +
    + + diff --git a/minutes/agm2026-03-20/minutes.html b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/minutes.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9910d41 --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/minutes.html @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + + +

    Date: 20 March 2026 +

    Time: 14:30

    +

    Venue: St John's Corfield Supervision Room 3 and Jitsi

    + +

    Attendance

    + +

    In person:

    + + +

    Virtual:

    + + +

    Apologies

    + + + +

    Reports

    + +

    Chair's report

    +

    See Chair's Report to the Annual General Meeting, circulated prior.

    + +

    Treasurer's report

    +

    The Junior Treasurer reported the yearly accounts. Expenditure of £215 slightly exceeded income of £156 but both the current and savings accounts remained significantly positive. The value of the Society's assets was largely unchanged.

    + +

    Sysadmin's report

    +

    Support tickets were received about:

    + + + +

    2 sysadmins were appointed at the last committee meeting. There are currently 6 active sysadmins on IRC.

    +

    There followed a discussion of the challenges facing the Society, with particular regard to the limited capacity of the current sysadmins to implement some of the large upcoming projects that will be required (e.g., SMP compliance, machine room moves), and how to increase that capacity. Suggestions included documentation of the process by which new members could become sufficiently trusted to become sysadmins; the need for "small projects" to enable that trust to be built; and the interaction between the Committee and its appointment of sysadmins, and the Sysadmins themselves who actually grant access. It was noted that communication among the Executive (ie., sysadmins and Committee) had improved with the co-opting of a sysadmin onto the Committee but that further input was needed from the Committee and the members, particularly student members, to create relevant "small projects" and to improve recruitment generally.

    + +

    Elections

    +

    Tellers: Victor, Martin

    + +

    Chair

    +

    Luke Vogt nominates self. Unanimously elected.

    + +

    Secretary

    +

    John nominates self. Unanimously elected.

    + +

    Junior Treasurer

    +

    Shelley nominates Adam. Elected (4 in favour, 3 abstensions).

    + +

    Publicity officer

    +

    Shelley nominates self. Unanimously elected.

    + +

    Constitutional Amendments

    + +

    Motion 1 Part I

    +

    "Allow Differential Membership Charging and Membership Lapse"

    +

    Noted that membership of the University is for life unless revoked by resignation or the University, as defined in https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2019/statute_b-section1.html.

    +

    Voting:

    + +

    Passes.

    + +

    Motion 1 Part II

    +

    "Ensure Co-options Lapse and Inactive Sysadmins Retire"

    +

    Voting:

    + +

    Passes unanimously.

    + +

    Motion 1 Part III

    +

    "Roll of System Administrators"

    +

    Noted that an effort should be made to appoint sysadmins at different times to avoid all sysadmins becoming deauthorised simultaneously.

    +

    An alternative was proposed in the meeting, making modifications to the second paragraph:

    + +
    +

    Insert as 6.4:

    +

    The Committee shall maintain (and make available to members) a Roll of system administrators, which must include all persons with discretionary administrative access to the Society’s facilities. The Roll shall contain, in respect of each individual, the date on which they were most recently appointed or re-appointed a system administrator by the Committee, but those who were already system administrators on the day when this provision was adopted shall be deemed to have been re-appointed on that day.

    +

    A person shall cease to be a system administrator by resignation, dismissal or retire­ment. Resignation may be undertaken by writing to the Secretary. A person may be dismissed as a system administrator only by a majority vote at a meeting of the Committee. A system administrator shall automatically retire 1 year after their last activity (defined as use of their system administrator credentials).

    +

    The Committee may re-appoint a system administrator an unlimited number of times.

    +
    + +

    Voting for which version to consider:

    + +

    Alternative version to be considered.

    + +

    Voting to implement alternative version of the amendment:

    + +

    Alternative version passes.

    + +

    Motion 2

    +

    "Quorum"

    +

    Noted:

    + +

    It was additionally noted that constitutional changes modified during the AGM should be circulated before voting. Those present agree to defer voting on Motions 2 to 6, as they were determined to be well-intentioned but not suitable to be voted into the Constitution in their current form, so changes should be made and circulated first.

    + +

    Other business

    + + diff --git a/minutes/agm2026-03-20/reports.html b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/reports.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91c9012 --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/reports.html @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ + + + +

    + + + + diff --git a/minutes/agm2026-03-20/sysadmins.html b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/sysadmins.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..659deff --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/agm2026-03-20/sysadmins.html @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ + + +

    Sysadmins’ report 2026

    +

    Executive summary

    + +

    Ubuntu upgrades

    +

    The majority of our virtual machines run Ubuntu as the operating +system. Since Ubuntu 20.04 reached its end-of-life date of May 2025, +most non-user-facing machines have seen upgrades to bring them up to a +supported version.

    +

    The remaining machines are more complicated and/or will be +user-visible (and therefore disruptive) upgrades, requiring further +planning and announcements to users:

    + +

    Ubuntu ESM (extended security and maintenance updates) has been +enabled for all of these machines, which keeps them in support for an +additional five years, until 2030.

    +

    Since we usually use software versions (for Python, PHP, MySQL, etc.) +that come as part of the standard Ubuntu packages, such base software +that users rely on will be upgraded at the same time.

    +

    Web hosting performance

    +

    The SRCF runs a multifaceted web hosting service. It supports static +HTML websites, PHP and CGI scripting, and proxying to custom +applications. It is probably the SRCF’s most heavily utilised +service.

    +

    The web hosting service continues to see a decline in performance: +even simple pages can take a couple of seconds to load, while busy +operations in complex applications like WordPress can take 30 seconds or +more.

    +

    This is in part due to the increasing number of users and groups who +host websites. Unlike most shared hosting providers, website code is +executed as the owning user’s account. This was originally adopted to +allow for strong isolation between different accounts. However, it means +the main Apache webserver process is frequently creating or recreating +subprocesses that run as different user accounts, and these switches are +expensive. It also means we cannot take advantage of ‘new’ +multi-processing approaches (called MPMs) in the Apache Web Server +(httpd) software, which are not supported by the +mpm-itk module we use to run the subprocesses as different +accounts; these ‘new’ MPMs have in fact been present for a long time in +the httpd, but we cannot take advantage of them.

    +

    MySQL performance is also poor, which may also be in part due to the +sheer volume of users, databases and queries passing through it. As many +websites and applications make use of MySQL, not least popular software +packages like WordPress, they will also carry the strain and see slow +page loads as a result.

    +

    We, like most of the internet, are also likely taking a significant +hit from bots and scrapers masquerading as regular web visitors. We +typically add crude but narrow blocks on particularly abusive or spammy +traffic when we notice it, though modern scrapers are by design +virtually indistinguishable from real visitors. Globally applying +scraper protection solutions such as Anubis would most likely break a +not-insignificant proportion of the sites we host, which can be old and +expect direct connections to work without interference.

    +

    Some initial discussion of spreading web hosting across multiple +servers happened a few years ago, but there has been little capacity +available amongst volunteers to take on the task since then. In the +meantime, we have made a few attempts to find “quick wins” in +performance, including:

    + +

    So far, squirrel as a machine is running more smoothly +and is no longer a bottleneck, though there does not seem to have been a +significant effect on general web performance.

    +

    Business as usual

    +

    Most account management and provisioning of services for users +continues to be done via the control panel. Since the control panel’s +introduction in 2018, most user requests can be met through +self-service, meaning sysadmins’ intervention in these day-to-day tasks +is minimal.

    +

    The most common user queries received across the sysadmins and +support mailboxes were:

    + +

    Reports from CSIRT (University IT security) and Netcraft (external +vulnerability detection) flagged a handful of vulnerable WordPress +installaions, about of half of which were unmaintained and taken +down.

    +

    Not much has changed with our code and configuration, besides a +handful of bug fixes to incoming mail handling, Nevar (our University +Account authorisation service), and various bits of internal +tooling.

    +

    On the horizon

    +

    Physical move, at some point

    +

    The SRCF’s machines are kindly hosted within server racks, or parts +of a server rack, lent by Cambridge SU and by the Department of Computer +Science and Technology. Out of these two, the SU are in turn facing the +prospect of having to move racks (i.e. both SU machines and the SRCF’s +machines) around the University estate. A similar move took place in +April 2022, when the whole SU moved buildings. This time, the SU is not +moving, but the servers (which are hosted elsewhere) are scheduled +to.

    +

    At this time we are not certain of the deadline by which this needs +to happen, or to where the SU & SRCF machines will move. However +this is somewhat typical of University estate planning in general.

    +

    There have been some strong doubts cast over the viability of the +ongoing relationship between the SRCF and the SU, and rumours that the +SU no longer wish to host the SRCF. For the record, the sysadmins are +satisfied that our relationship with the SU, who continue to kindly lend +the SRCF some of the space, cooling, power and networking resources +available to them, is in no jeopardy; we form this belief from recent +conversation with relevant SU staff and in the absence of any +indications to the contrary.

    +

    University Systems +Management Policy

    +

    The University, centrally through UIS, has introduced a Systems +Management Policy (SMP) that applies to “multi-user computer systems” in +the University. Most if not all of the SRCF’s systems are multi-user. +The SMP incorporates a series of technical standards documents +containing requirements with cybersecurity, governance and other goals. +However, the stated focus is on cybersecurity. The SMP is not dissimilar +in nature to public standards such as ISO 27001/27002 or SOC2.

    +

    The term “the University” can have various definitions, for example +including or excluding Colleges, although we have taken the cautious +view that the SMP may well apply to the SRCF and so we should aim to +operate our systems accordingly, regardless of whether an obligation to +comply actually exists. Efforts to follow the SMP are in the early +phases.

    +

    Bringing systems into SMP compliance is a significant undertaking for +full-time IT teams. By its nature the SRCF sees only part-time attention +to it, and some aspects of the SRCF’s systems may not be of the typical +kind that the authors of the SMP had in mind when policies were written. +For example, the current hardware is older and out of warranty. For +these reasons the SRCF will need quite a while to follow the SMP, and +along the way the need to apply to UIS for exemptions from specific +parts of the SMP may arise. To be clear, applying for an exemption is a +process built into the SMP.

    +

    Aside from technical changes to systems, the SMP requires a practice +of documentation in various aspects, such as the production of internal +policies and procedures. These will have to be authored where they are +missing, and maintained on an ongoing basis. The creation of new +volunteer roles may help to handle the upkeep in this area.

    + diff --git a/minutes/index.html b/minutes/index.html index d795179..d677307 100644 --- a/minutes/index.html +++ b/minutes/index.html @@ -1,8 +1,22 @@ - +

    Minutes

    + + + + + + + + @@ -728,4 +742,4 @@

    Minutes

    AGM20th March 2026 + Minutes + + Reports + + Constitutional changes +
    EGM 28th April 2024
    - +