Dear Gulf Coast Members,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and we wish you all a Happy New Year.

Attached is a copy of the proposed by-law changes suggested by the current by-laws committee.  Please take the time to review these changes as they are important to the club. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any one of us: Anina Bachrach, Claire Flynn, Anne Marie Dooley or Diane Schmidt.

In the attached document, changes are marked in red.

However, there are large sections of our current bylaws that the committee feels should be moved to either the standing rules or to position job descriptions. These areas are designated with green.

Areas underlined in black are sections that were moved to/from another part of the document.

The bylaws committee has worked very hard to make these changes easily understandable. To further simplify the intention of the committee, the by-laws committee also developed the document below to explain our thoughts and actions:

December 2018 – Explanation of proposed bylaws changes

Members: The purpose of the first meeting of the bylaws committee was to simplify and streamline the bylaws, moving a lot of information from the February 2017 revision to a yet-to-be determined document.
The few changes were needed in order to have elections in March for a fewer number of officers than what is currently described in the February 2017 version of the bylaws. There are other areas that still need to be reviewed and changes proposed, but the committee wanted to focus on only a few at this time.

CHANGES
Article IV Finances,
Section 2. Changed dues due date from May 15 to May 1.

Article V Officers,
Section 1. Added the word “Audit” to 1^st VP title.

Section 3. Changed the officers to be elected in odd and even
years, reverting back to pre-Feb. 2017 changes. Those
changes had President, 1^st, 2nd, and 3^rd VPS all elected in
the even years. The other officers: Treasure, recording and
corresponding secretaries in the odd years.

Section 4. Added the words “beginning June 1^st” for the start
of a new officers’ term.

Article VI Duties of Officers,
Section 1. Added the words “standing rules” and “current
addition.”

Section 2. Duties
1.  President – moved most of the description for this office to
be included in another document, such as Position
Description.

2.  1^st Vice President – deleted responsibilities of “appointing
yearbook committee and community outreach.” Those
tasks will be assigned to other club members.

4.  3^rd Vice President – deleted “responsible for internal
communications” as the corresponding secretary has
that task.

5.  Treasurer – moved information pertaining to audit and
budget to a yet-to-be determined document.

7.  Corresponding secretary – limited duties to internal
communications only.

8 and 9 – moved Parlimentarian and Advisors to Article VII.

Section 3. Vacancies – moved to Article VII.

Article VII Board of Directors – added description of those members who comprise the BoD.
Section 3. Quorum – Added “in person or via
telecommunications.”

Article IX Standing Committees – Removed sections 2 – 22. These areas required review and discussion to determine if applicable. If they are, that information will be part of another yet-to-be determined document.

Article X Special Committees – removed sections 2-3 for same reason as stated above.

Article XI Amendments – inserted “in the months of October through April” to specify when amendments can be changed.

To see the attachment, please click  BYLAWS