Have You Put In Motion Your Bylaws Change?
Jo Konen VP Bylaws
Here I am again to nag, nag, nag! This year every club must change its bylaws to reflect the change made to the TFRW Bylaws at the TFRW Convention in El Paso last November, as it is a new requirement for the local club’s bylaws. The underlined portion is the change.
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 however you wish. It is up to your membership. [See the Jan. 08 ”President’s Newsletter” for complete details. May be accessed on www.tfrw.org]
An example of wording you might use (not required wording or time frame):
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.
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 for you 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, however. 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.
They also must be approved by your membership before you send them to me.
No electronic submissions. Mail them to me at the above address. After they are approved by my committee, you should submit them electronically so that we can store them in the archives.
NOTE: 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.” So the review happens only when you change your bylaws.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.