Voting begins October 17
The Steering Committee has proposed several amendments to our bylaws. The process of approving bylaw amendments is to first notify the membership of the proposed amendments, provide the membership with 30 days to consider the proposed amendments, and the distribute an electronic ballot to members following the 30-day period. To be approved, proposed amendments require an affirmative vote from 2/3 of the members in good standing who submit ballots. This message serves as notification to the membership of proposed changes to our bylaws.
You may find a side-by-side comparison of our current bylaws with the proposed bylaws here. In addition, the following is a summary of the changes proposed to the bylaws:
- Article I (Name): An additional sentence has been added to reflect the fact we now have regional TBLC groups.
- Article IV, Section 4.6 (Membership Categories): An additional membership category has been added for Corporate Members (Vendors) and a statement about the ability of members to designate membership to a regional group has been added.
- Article V (Steering Committee)
- Section 5.1: Membership in the Steering Committee has been updated to include more than one Expert Advisor and the chairs of our regional groups.
- Section 5.2: The Member-at-Large category has been modified from three specific Member-at-Large positions (e.g., K-12, health sciences) to three Member-at-Large positions that may vary in expertise based on the current representation needs within the TBLC and the practice of TBL.
- Article VII (Non-Elected Steering Committee Positions
- Section 7.4 (Program Chair-Elect): Updated to reflect our current practice of appointing a chair-elect that serves for two years, assisting the Program Chair the first year and becoming the Program Chair the second year of service.
- Section 7.6: Added to reflect our practice of regional groups electing their own officers
- Article VIII (Nominations and Elections): Section 8.2 (Elections) has been updated to provide a procedure in the event of uncontested ballots (i.e., only one person running for an elected position) to allow the Steering Committee the ability to formally vote on the sole candidate rather than asking the full membership to do so.
- Article IX (Committees)
- This article has been reordered to provide more logical flow to the bylaws.
- The Scholarship Committee has been renamed to “Research and Scholarship Committee” to better reflect their role within the TBLC
- A standing Marketing Committee (Section 9.14) has been added to support developing marketing needs that have arisen in part due to international growth of the TBLC
- Section 9.15 (Regional Steering Committees) has been added to officially recognize that our regional groups will be each led by their own steering committees.
Thank you for your time spent reviewing these changes, and we look forward to receiving your vote when the ballots are distributed.
Members will receive an automated email from the election website with a personal username and log in information. These credentials are NOT the same as TBLC member-only login information. If your membership dues have not been paid as of September 1, 2018 you will not receive a ballot. If you do not receive this message by October 18, 2018 and your membership dues are current, please contact support@tblcadmin.org. The election will be open until November 17, 2018.
Special thanks to our Bylaws Revisions Task Force for their outstanding work: Julie Estis (Health Sciences Member-at-Large), Karla Kubitz (Immediate Past President), and Wayne McCormack (Past President).