Insert of Dates in Constitution & Bylaws?

[Guest Joey Baer]

Greetings,

I am responsible for my organization's constitution and bylaws. One person suggested that whenever we edit or add new line to constitution or bylaws, we should insert a date at the end of line. For example:

ARTICLE ONE. Name

§ 1.01 Name.

The name of this organization shall be the USA Deaf Basketball, Incorporated (“USADB”),

hereinafter referred to as the Association. (2010)

We asked our parliamentarian about this, he said it is not necessary. However, the person who suggested us to add the date said it will help us to know when it was edited or added and can be referred to our minutes easier.

What do you say about this?

Joey

[jstackpo]

It is up to you, collectively...

Since bylaws are in effect from the moment they are adopted, you may not need a line-by-line adoption date. But one thing I have found helpful, in other bylaw contexts, is to put a "Last Amended" date at the end. This finess any arguments as to which copy of the bylaws is the most recent, and hence is the "official" effective one.

[Tim Wynn]

Greetings,

I am responsible for my organization's constitution and bylaws. One person suggested that whenever we edit or add new line to constitution or bylaws, we should insert a date at the end of line. For example:

ARTICLE ONE. Name

§ 1.01 Name.

The name of this organization shall be the USA Deaf Basketball, Incorporated (“USADB”),

hereinafter referred to as the Association. (2010)

We asked our parliamentarian about this, he said it is not necessary.

He is correct.

However, the person who suggested us to add the date said it will help us to know when it was edited or added and can be referred to our minutes easier.

What do you say about this?

I prefer to read bylaws without the unnecessary clutter. You could include a footnote that lists the dates on which the bylaws were amended.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

What do you say about this?

I say, "Don't clutter where you don't have to."

If you REALLY want to include documentation, then a cleaner solution, IN MY OPINION, is to have a last page which serves as a coda, where every line entry is a history.

Thus, this page is a raw list of dates and article numbers.

Do you need a visual aid to get a feel for it?

OK. Try this.

History of amendments

2010 Oct. - Article X Section 2.

2011 Feb. - Article III Section 1; Article XX Sections 14 and 15.

2012 Jul. - Strike Article XI in its entirety and renumber.

2013 Dec. - Articles II, IV, V, VI (global change of title from "President" to "Commodore").

What this "coda method" accomplishes is to allow a researcher to do the real legwork of pouring through the MINUTES, and see EXACTLY what the changes are.

Don't put any more detail into your coda that you need. — The minutes already have 100% of the text of interest. — If you duplicate the full set of texts in BOTH documents (minutes and coda), you risk introducing an error, which will confuse future researchers regarding which duplicate is authentic and which duplicate contains typographical errors.

Bad Idea:

Putting the history as footnotes, or as embedded parenthetical dates, while possible, has drawbacks in formatting.

That is, the extra text will likely cause the line to spill over, and a re-pagination will inevitably occur, which has the side effect of ruining the convenience of distributing a SINGLE PAGE of changes, and instead will force you to re-issue EVERY PAGE of the bylaws, since the pagination changes the readability of all pages AFTER the page where the amendment was inserted.

A second reason is that for SEPARATE amendments in the SAME ARTICLE, you'll add TWO OR MORE elements of clutter to one article or one paragraph. And that clutter adds up real fast to ruin readability.

To repeat, none of this is in The Book.

[Trina]

...pouring through the MINUTES...

I apologize in advance for the inconsequential comment, but 'pouring' for 'poring' is one of my pet peeves

I always imagine the unfortunate 'pourer' melting down into a quivering liquid mass prior to embarking on his task.

[jstackpo]

Like the Wicked Witch of the East?

[Gary Novosielski]

Like the Wicked Witch of the East?

No, it was Wicked Witch of the West who dribbled into oblivion..

The "Eastie" one had a house fall on her.

[Larry Cisar]

I apologize in advance for the inconsequential comment, but 'pouring' for 'poring' is one of my pet peeves

I always imagine the unfortunate 'pourer' melting down into a quivering liquid mass prior to embarking on his task.

Maybe his real name is Odo.