Bylaws Deadline for Clubs

Jo Konen TFRW VP-Bylaws

            The TFRW Convention made a change in the TFRW Bylaws that affects every club. It means that each club must now change its bylaws to reflect that revision. [See below or the Jan. 08 ”President’s Newsletter.”]

            A local club must be in good standing, having paid its dues and service charges to the Texas Federation and to the National Federation, before being eligible to send delegates to the National Convention. All local clubs must have their bylaws up to date to be in good standing with the Texas Federation. Therefore, all clubs will be required to make the necessary changes to their bylaws to be in good standing for the Conventions in 2009.

            To that end, I have set October 31, 2008, as the deadline to have your amended bylaws to me in order to have them approved by the spring of 2009, in time to be “in good standing” to elect your delegates to the NFRW Convention, to be held in September 2009.

            You do not have to wait until October to send them to me. In fact, the sooner, the better for my committee and me! Some of you may already have the required statement of eligibility in your bylaws. Great! Send them to me now, unless you plan other changes in the near future.

Remember that your complete bylaws must be sent to me, not just the article containing the change.

No electronic submissions. Mail them to me at the above address. After they are approved, you should submit them electronically so that we can put them in the archives.

            Some of you may remember that TFRW has in the past required every club to have their bylaws reviewed every two years before their anniversary of federation whether or not changes were made. That requirement was repealed at the TFRW Convention in 2005. The provision put in its place says, Article IV, Section 9, A. Causes for Removal,  #2: “Failure to submit bylaws amendments to the TFRW Vice President Bylaws for approval before the amendments become effective.”

Here is the new TFRW Bylaws requirement:

ARTICLE IV – MEMBERSHIP

Section 2. A local unit shall include the following provisions in its bylaws:

G. A statement that defines the eligibility of a member in order to vote in the club officer elections.

            In other words, you must put a provision in your club’s Bylaws that defines when a member is eligible to vote in your club’s election of officers. You may define that eligibility as you wish. It is up to your membership.

An example of wording you might use:

To be eligible to vote in club elections, a member must have paid her dues at least 30 days prior to the election and must have attended at least one meeting.

You are not required to put a waiting period in, just a statement that there is none. But consider that a disgruntled member might decide to bring a group of her friends to the meeting where you are electing officers and they all pay their dues. They nominate themselves from the floor and elect themselves to your offices, thus taking over your club. Large clubs probably wouldn’t have this problem, but a small club might if the weather was bad and many “regulars” stayed home. At lease one club I know of had that problem.