At the ICPJ annual meeting on March 30, one of the items of business is to vote on some proposed changes to our by-laws. You can review the proposed by-law amendments, see how the by-laws will read if the amendments are accepted and compare them to our current by-laws. Read on for a summary of the changes and a description for the voting procedure.

Procedure: We will go through the proposed by-laws changes section by section and vote on the amendments to each section as a group. That is, we will take all the changes to Article III as one group, Article IV as another, and so on.

With by-law changes, we can vote them up or down, but we cannot take amendments from the floor. Why not? There are two reasons. First, it’s important that members know in advance what will be voted on and what the proposed changes are. This allows them to come prepared and to decide if they should come at all. Second, it’s hard to write an amendment well in the middle of a meeting, and taking amendments on-the-fly is a recipe for poorly-written amendments.

Voting is open to all ICPJ members who current on their dues. Dues must be paid one week prior to the meeting to be eligible to vote.

Summary of amendments:

1. Amendment 1: Article III. Membership and Authority
   Summary: Minor wording change
2. Amendment 2: Article IV. Meetings of the Members and Elections
   Summary: This amendment creates a process by which Members may call a membership meeting, determines a procedure for conducting Meetings of Members, and makes minor wording change.
3. Amendment 3: Article V. Board of Directors
   Summary: This amendment sets a limit on the number of Board members, clarifies term limits, the role of staff on the Board, Board duties, and the Committee structure. It requires the creation of finance and personnel committees and clarifies the process by which the nominating committee operates.
4. Amendment 4: Article VI. Officers
   Summary: This amendment clarifies the structure of the Officers of the Board to bring them more in line with a nonprofit, grassroots model, requires Officers to be Board members, and clarifies the process by which the Board president is selected.
5. Amendment 5: Article VII. Contracts, Loans, Checks and Deposits
   Summary: Minor wording changes.
6. Amendment 6: Article IX. Amendments
   Summary: Clarifies process for amending the by-laws to ensure that members receive sufficient notice of the proposed bylaws and sets a quorum to require a minimum number of members be present to amend the bylaws.