Seven bylaws amendment proposals for Sept. 30 board meeting

Author: Darien De Lu, Acting Chair, ad hoc Bylaws Committee

WILPF US Bylaws changes are important to the entire membership, and a number of important changes will be briefly discussed at the Sept. 30 Board meeting.  The goal of this article is to make members aware of the general nature of proposed changes in advance of their discussion by the Board.  The upcoming board meetings provide an opportunity for interested members to participate in the discussion.

The Bylaws Comm. anticipates presenting the board with at least seven amendments (some of the amendment areas may take the form of more than one amendment):

1. Creating a process for an annual member ballot on Bylaws amendments, with an established deadline for submission (and refinement into final wording) of bylaws proposals.
2. Defining term limits for the national board and, for that purpose, what constitutes a "break of service" to qualify for a new start of the limit count.
3. Defining the method for filling a board vacancy during the time between and before annual elections.
4. "Cleaning up" the current Bylaws by clarifying and/or correcting obvious errors: creating an edited version of the entire Bylaws, without making any changes of the substance.  This "Bylaws Cleanup" proposal will be presented to the membership for approval as a whole.
5. Direct election of the WILPF US Representative/Member of the WILPF International Board position (under discussion)
6. Direct election of the delegates to the International Congress (under discussion)
7. Adding the Membership Development Chair to the board Steering Committee

The Bylaws Committee welcomes your input and comments on any of the proposed Bylaws amendment topics.  You can view the current WILPF US Bylaws. 

The Bylaws Committee expects that the proposed amendments will be discussed by the board and, subsequently, the final version of each amendment will be voted on by the general membership at the same time as the election balloting for the new 2015 board members.  (Approximately a third of the board members will be up for election.)

Please contact the Bylaws Committee by emailing the chair, Darien De Lu.  (Please re-send your email if you do not receive a response within five days.)  The Bylaws Committee, like nearly all WILPF US national committees, welcomes contacts from potential new committee members.  (To inquire about other committees, please contact the national Nominating Committee chair bln.sf.ca@gmail.com.)