Proposed Constitutional Amendments

21 July 2016

Notification of Vote

The amendment process is governed by our Constitution.

  1. The wording of the amendments was approved at the Annual Meeting (the Spring Dinner). The amendments themselves are not yet approved.
  2. The membership wasnotified by e-mail of the proposed amendments on June 1st, 2016.
  3. 30 days were required to elapse after that notification before there would be a meeting to hold a vote. That meeting is now being announced.
  4. The meeting to hold the vote on the constitutional amendmentswill be held August 26th, 2016, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Howard Community College (main campus) in Health Sciences 110 (HS110). Park in lot F. Here's the link to the campus map:
  5. You do not need to attend the meeting in order to vote. Voting for the amendments will be either in person at the August 26th meeting or in absentia, electronically. Each amendment will be voted upon separately. In order You must be a member of MD-TESOL in good standing (dues paid up) to vote.

Online voting may be accessed at:

  1. For an amendment to pass, two thirds of those who vote must approve it.

Proposed Amendment #1

Rationale:

This amendment was proposed because of the repeated difficulty the MD-TESOL board has had meeting quorum requirements at its monthly board meeting. In order for the board to vote on any issue, a quorum of 67% of the board must currently be present. Over the past year, for various reasons, month after month, this requirement has not been met, which has seriously affected the ability of the board to conduct business. For this reason, we are seeking to lower the percentage of the quorum requirement.

The proposed amendment (parts A-C):

  1. Voting members of the Board include the Executive Board, the Interest Section (IS) Chairs (but not Chairs-Elect), the Newsletter Editor,the Technology and Digital Communication Coordinator, the Outreach and Marketing Specialist* and the Secretary. In the absence of the IS Chair at a monthly board meeting, the Chair-Elect may vote in that person’s stead. For the purposes of conducting business during the monthly board meetings, a quorum will be met if fifty percent of the members of the Board (including both voting and nonvoting members) are in attendance.

*Currently this position is held by the Past President, who has a single vote. These two positions may be permanently merged into a single position during this second Strategic Plan Pilot Year.

  1. In the event of online votes, a quorum shall be met if at least fifty percent of the members of the Board (including both voting and nonvoting members) participate by either contributing to the discussion or voting. During online votes, as in monthly board meetings, a Chair-Elect may vote in the Chair’s stead if the Chair is not available to vote, but in no case may Chair and Chair-Elect for the same interest section both vote. In the case that the Chair and Chair-Elect from the same IS do both vote, only the Chair's vote will be counted.
  2. A simple majority vote shall be considered as binding for all Board decisions.

Proposed Amendment #2

Rationale:

Although most board members participate fully in the activities of the board, each year there are a few members who join the board and then do not attend, do not participate in online discussions or votes, and do not participate in other activities. These negligent members contribute to the difficulties meeting quorum, and they also place an unfair burden on the rest of the board. Finally, these members continue to be able to claim on their resumes and advancement portfolios that they are members of the board, although, in fact, they have done nothing in that regard.

In addition to these members who, to all appearances, never had any intent of meeting their responsibilities, there are others who repeatedly fail to attend meetings for other reasons. These members also contribute to the problems with quorum and with conducting the business of the board and put an unfair burden on the rest of the board.

This amendment would provide a mechanism for removing board members who are not meeting their responsibilities, which would allow these board members to be replaced with members who would be more fully engaged. (There is a mechanism for replacing board members mid-term.)

The proposed amendment:

To institute the following policy (parts A-D):

  1. It is the responsibility of the board members to attend and participate at all meetings.
  2. Board members are expected to notify the president at least two days in advance if they are going to miss a meeting. They must also communicate their intended absence to their co-chair. They are responsible for communicating with someone on the board to get the information about what happened during the meeting.
  3. Board members who miss two meetings will receive a warning. Board members who miss more than two meetings, with or without prior approval, will automatically be dropped from the board, unless D applies.
  4. At the start of each new semester, any board members whose teaching, work or study schedules have changed so that, on an ongoing basis, they will not be available to attend the monthly board meetings at the regularly scheduled day and time must get prior approval from the president to remain in their board positions. In addition, they must work with the president and their co-chairs, if applicable, to arrange how they will still participate despite their absence.