Ada

Thank you for your responses. The points you made and the questions you asked are helpful. No one has challenged the Chairman's authority to call for amendments prior to the Convention. I am not a member of the Executive Board or of the Revision Committee. My concern is that there will be mistakes in the process made, specifically as it relates to amendments, so that members may not understand exactly what they are voting for (This has happened in the past). Or that if the correct process is not followed, the Revision will later be challenged and found to be invalid because errors were made. It is not in the best interest of the organization for either of those to happen. There are significant changes in the proposed Revision.

Question 2 should read: Since the Revision with all proposed amendments will have been previously mailed/emailed to the Units (who will then distribute them to their members) does the Revision have to be read in its entirety at the Convention and considered article by article, section by section, paragraph by paragraph prior to being voting on at the Convention? For the purpose of this discussion, I would like to offer that the Executive Board did have the authority to appoint the Revision Committee.

A Revision Committee, appointed by our Executive Board, rewrote my organization's Bylaws. A copy of the proposed Revision was emailed to the Units for distribution to their members. The Committee Chairman has since asked for local units to submit amendments to the Revision in 30 days. The Revision with proposed amendments will be sent to the local Units 45 days prior to convening of the State Convention. At the Convention the Assembly will vote on the Revision and proposed amendments. (I am inferring that this process is intended to avoid a lengthy reading/discussion of the Revision at the Convention prior to voting.) Question 1: Since the Chairman asked Units to submit amendments prior to the Convention, must each amendment received by the Committee from Units/members, be forwarded, as written, with the Revision back to the units for consideration? In other words, the Committee could not combine two or more similar amendments nor could they select from those submitted which would be offered for consideration. Question 2: Since the Revision with all proposed amendments will have been previously mailed/emailed to the Units (who will then distribute them to their members) does the Revision have to be considered article by article, section by section, paragraph by paragraph prior to being voting on at the Convention? Our current Bylaws read: Section 1. Procedure of adoption. The Bylaws may be amended or restated by any State Convention by a vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the delegates present and voting thereat, provided the proposed amendments shall have been submitted through the State Secretary to the several units and members of the State Executive Committee by mailing and/or electronic mailing same to them at least thirty (30) days prior to the convening of the next State Convention; and provided further that all proposed amendments shall have been read at such meeting of the Convention. Section 2. Necessary amendments proposed after distribution or revision as shown in Section 1 may be adopted by two-thirds (2/3) vote of the delegation, provided they have been read at one meeting of the session prior to taking the vote. Section 3. An amendment or restatement not having been previously read or distributed as required in Section 1 may be adopted by the unanimous vote of the Convention body.