Dear MAR-AMTA Community, Attached is a rationale for merging the Constitution and Bylaws into one document, and within that, a link to a proposed merged document. A key point from the rationale is that, “No actual meaning of the two documents has been changed in this process; it has very much been editorial in nature, with the primary goal of making the document more comprehensive, more concise, and generally more understandable for the reader.”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RAGwk3iWJXNLbtEB3mR5qYBnQBfziijq54nA1AQPrPg/edit
A huge thank you to Donna Polen for doing all the work of putting this together!
I apologize for how confusing the following information is. I will offer a thorough explanation for transparency and further down I will offer a bullet point list for clarity.
The Constitution and Bylaws Committee would like to have the membership vote on whether or not to approve the merged document in November, so that we can proceed with our other work (critical discourse analysis, plain language summary, other edits and changes) and to minimize confusion when doing our regular voting that occurs at our regional conference, in March 2023.
At our fall business meeting we will ask the membership to vote to supersede the Bylaw that says voting happens at regional conference. If the membership votes to move forward with the early Constitution and Bylaws vote at our Fall business meeting, we will send out the proposed changes to the membership and then send out ballots via constant contact and vote like we normally do in the Spring.
- We are proposing to merge the Constitution and Bylaws into one document
- We will ask the membership to vote on this merger in November (instead of March)
- But first, the membership has to vote to approve the early vote.
- If the membership approves the early vote at the Fall business meeting: 1. the membership will receive the proposed changes and then ballots for voting via constant contact
- At the regional conference in March, we will vote on any other changes to the Bylaws (or Constitution and Bylaws)
Thank you in advance for your patience with this process. Please reach out to presidentelect@maramta.org with any questions or concerns.
Best, Audrey Hausig (Constitution and Bylaws Committee Chair)