Article 11. By-Laws
Amendments or revisions of these by-laws may be initiated in one of two ways:
(a) the Executive Board or one of its Committees may formulate proposals for amendment or revisions of these by-laws and submit them with any argument it chooses to the voting members for action;
(b) the Trustees or twenty-five voting members of the Society may submit to the Executive Board proposals for amendment or revision of these by-laws.
The Executive Board then shall submit these proposals together with concise statements of the arguments advanced by their sponsors and its own recommendation to the voting members for consideration and voting. This submission will initiate a secret ballot voting process analogous to that used for general and special elections.
Amendments, revisions or other changes to these by-laws require an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the secret ballots received no later than 30 days after transmitting the proposal and the blank ballots to all voting members of the Society.
The effective date(s) for any proposed changes in these by-laws should be specified on the ballots issued to the voting membership. Alternative effective date(s) for proposed changes may be identified and offered to the voting membership as proposals themselves, subject to the following provisions:
- The effective date for approved by-laws changes shall be no earlier than the date certified voting member approval is announced to the membership.
- The effective date for by-laws changes affecting membership status, categorization, or privileges shall be the start of the next membership year following the membership year in which such changes are approved by the voting members.
Unless otherwise specified and approved, the default effective date for any changes shall be the start of the next membership year following the membership year in which such changes are approved by the voting members.
The prescribed sources for by-laws changes are the same as specified in the 1979 by-laws.
The prescribed voting period has been decreased from 45 days to 30 days in recognition of the widespread availability of electronic communications capabilities.
Provisions for specifying and announcing effective dates for by-laws changes have been added.
A default effectuation date has been prescribed (start of the next membership year following the membership year in which the changes are approved).
PROPOSAL Re. Article 11
Do paragraphs 2-7 mean:
“The Executive Board shall transmit proposed by-law changes to the Voting Members by stating what each proposed change replaces and implies, adding its own arguments, pro and con, to that of their proponents, and specifying the time at which the changes are to take effect – subject to the restriction:
• By-law changes shall not take effect retroactively
• By-law changes of membership categories and privileges shall not take effect during the membership year they are approved.
Voting on by-law changes shall not take place 15 days before and 30 days after the proposal is transmitted to the membership. Approval requires at least two-thirds of the votes received.”
Or is there more to it?
Based in the present experiences, it is important to add:
“Modifications of the proposed by-law changes that emerge before the scheduled voting and are accepted as friendly amendments by their proponents restart the process from transmission to voting.
The latter is intended not to waste the voting process and likely rejection of suboptimal proposals by relying on the collective wisdom of the electorate, and signals of how the vote may go.
A SMALL REVISION OF MY PREVIOUS COMMENT:
THE REVISED VERSION OF THE BY-LAWS SHOULD NOT OMIT WHAT THE EXISTING BY-LAWS ALLOW, THAT PROPOSALS FOR BY-LAWS CHANGES MAY COME FROM THE MEMBERSHIP AS WELL
PARAGRAPHS 2 – 7 CAN BE REDUCED TO THIS:
The Executive Board shall transmit proposed by-law changes to the Voting Members by stating what each proposed change replaces and implies, adding its own arguments, pro and con, to that of their proponents and opponents, and specifying the time at which the changes are to take effect – subject to the rule:
• By-law changes shall not take effect retroactively
• By-law changes of membership categories and privileges shall not take effect during the membership year they are approved.
Voting on changes of the existing by-laws must be by secret ballots, is to take place not sooner than 30 days after transmitting the proposed changes to the Voting Members, and acceptance requires at least two-thirds of the votes received.
BASED ON THE CURRENT EXPERIENCES, IT WOULD BE WISE TO ADD:
Modifications of the proposed by-laws changes that emerge within 15 days after transmitting them to the Voting Members and are accepted as friendly amendments by the initiators of the by-laws changes shall restart the time table for voting by transmitting the modified proposal to the membership and calling for their vote.