The Roosevelt Institution
The Roosevelt Institution and its officers, employees, and directors shall avoid any conflict between the interests of the Roosevelt Institution and their own personal, professional, or business interests, in any and all actions taken by them on behalf of the Roosevelt Institution in their respective capacities.
In the event that any officer, employee, or director has any direct or indirect interest in an organization which proposes to enter into any transaction with the Roosevelt Institution, including especially financial contracts, such person shall give notice of their interest and shall refrain from discussing or voting on the particular transaction in which he has an interest, or otherwise attempting to exert any influence on the Roosevelt Institution or its decision makers to affect a the decision to participate or not participate in the transaction in question. The standard for recusal shall be as set out in the recusal policy.
Any questions or complaints regarding:
should be directed to the Chair of the Board of Directors. If the complaint regards the Chair of the Board, it may be directed to any other board member.
Any complainant may request to remain anonymous. If a complainant wishes their complaint to be kept confidential, any information they provide will be investigated on a confidential basis to the extent it is feasible to do so. There will be no retaliation against a person making good faith reports or complaints.
The results of all investigations will be reported to the Board of Directors.
Board members shall recuse themselves from a decision in any case where their impartiality might be reasonably questioned, where or there is the possibility of a real or perceived conflict of interest, or where their participation in a discussion or decision would have other negative impacts.
When a board member recuses him or herself, he or she shall be excluded from all discussion and voting and shall not be privy to any non-public information generated in the course of the discussion.
Any board member, or participant in a matter coming before the board, may request the recusal of any board member and provide reasons. If a board member judges in such a circumstance that recusal is unnecessary, he or she shall provide an explanation to the other board members.
Wherever possible, a partner in a sexual or romantic relationship must ensure that he or she does not exercise any supervisory or evaluative function over the other person in the relationship. The supervisor of the recusing party must be consulted to evaluate the adequacy of the alternative supervisory or evaluative arrangements, or to judge that it is impossible or impractical to avoid such a situation.
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
a. It is implicitly or explicitly suggested that submission to or rejection of the conduct will be a factor in decisions or evaluations, or permission to participate in any activity; or
b. The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating or hostile work environment.
Acronyms shall not be created or used by officers of the Roosevelt Institution to refer to committees, working groups, departments, events, activities, or other organs or functions of the Roosevelt Institution ("internal objects").
Commonly-used acronyms for non-internal objects may be incorporated into the names of internal objects, for example "DC" for District of Columbia or "GWU" for George Washington University; however, the initials used must become part of a full proper name rather than an acronym, for example, "DC Policy Expo" rather than "DCPE" for District of Columbia Policy Expo, or "GW Chapter" rather than "GWC" for the chapter at George Washington University. When an internal object has the same name as a commonly-abbreviated non-internal object (e.g. "CEO" for Chief Executive Officer, "EIC" for Editor In Chief) the common abbreviation may be used.
Shorthand, for example "Expo" for the DC Policy Expo, or "Hyde Park" for the Hyde Park Chapter Leadership Conference, is acceptable provided that each word is omitted, fully spelled out, or shortened to no fewer than three letters.
Exceptions are made for "of" which may be shortened to "o" and an apostrophe; "Roosevelt Institution" itself, which may be abbreviated "RI" in legal documents or on white boards (otherwise, only "Roosevelt" is an appropriate shortening); "ed" for editorial or editor; "e" for executive in the context of "executive board."
Violations of the bylaws, charter, board-approved, or administrative policies may be referred to the Board, the Executive Director, the Regional Chairs, or the Hyde Park Plenary.