By-Laws Committee
by Peggy Dennis, Bylaws Committee Chair The Bylaws Committee is proposing the following amendments to be discussed
at the December Regular Meeting and voted upon in January, 2005. The seven
paragraphs have been reorganized to follow a chronological order. Substantive
changes are recommended only for paragraph 1 describing the Nominating Committee
and Article XI, paragraph 1 describing Regular Meetings. Text to be deleted
has a line through it. New text shown in bold. [Explanations
are shown bracketed in bold italics].
ARTICLE VI. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
1. Nominating Committee. A call for volunteers to serve
on the Nominating Committee will be made in the January Newsletter and at
the January regular meeting [we need to begin the process
earlier]. A committee of at least five three
but not more than seven five delegates [it
is difficult to get delegates to agree to serve and more difficult to get
larger numbers together to work on the task] shall be announced
in the February Newsletter and elected at the Regular March
February meeting [again, we want to start the
process earlier]. No incumbent officer shall be eligible
for election to the Nominating Committee, nor may the Nominating Committee
nominate one of its members for any position [barring elected
officers from serving on the Nominating Committee is not useful. These are
precisely the people most cognizant of the dynamics at play in the ExComm
and the delegates most worthy of nomination to serve in a higher capacity]
The President and First Vice President may not serve on this committee.
The committee shall nominate one person for each of the elected positions.
The report of the Nominating Committee shall be published in the May Newsletter
and presented at the May Meeting.
2. Nominations. A Delegate must be nominated for office either by the Nominating Committee or from the floor at the May Meeting. Any Delegate has the right to nominate from the floor at the May meeting, but such nomination shall require seconds by Delegates from three different Member associations.
3. Election. Officers shall be elected at the Annual Meeting in June and shall assume office at the close of the meeting.
4. Voting. Voting shall be either by secret ballot or hand count as determined by majority vote at the Annual Meeting. A majority of all votes cast shall be required to elect. If no nominee receives the required majority on a vote, the nominee receiving the lowest number of votes will be dropped, and the vote will be repeated. Voting by proxy shall not be permitted.
5. Term. Officers shall serve for a term of one year or until their successors are duly elected. Any official not subsequently certified as a delegate by a member organization shall continue to serve until the end of the next Annual Meeting.
6. Declaration of Vacancy. A vacancy may be declared by the Executive Committee for any office in which the incumbent is absent from all scheduled meetings for three consecutive months.
7. Vacancies. The unexpired term of a vacancy in an elected position shall be filled by a special election at a Regular Meeting. Notice of the special election shall be placed in the newsletter one month ahead of the meeting at which the special election is to take place. The position will be assumed upon election.
ARTICLE XI. MEETINGS OF THE FEDERATION
1. Regular Meetings. Regular meetings of the Federation shall be
held at eight pm a time and place to be determined by the Executive
Committee on the second Monday of each month, except July and August,
unless otherwise determined by Affirmative Vote of the Federation or Executive
Committee. [we do not need to micro-manage the organization by
specifying the time or place when circumstances may require more flexibility]
This Page Last Edited: December 5, 2004 .