Constitutional Amendments
NAGPS
Policy for Constitutional Amendments
Passed by Board of Directors 17 March, 1997
Constitutional amendments proposed as specified in the Constitution, Article VI, Section 2, will be collected and distributed three times per year in the following fashion:
Schedule for mailing packets:
All amendments proposed at least 30 days (and not included in previous packets) before the mail date, or at the Board meeting immediately prior to the mail date, shall be included in the quarterly packets. Packets will only be mailed in the event that new amendments have been proposed in the intervening time since the mailing of the last packet. The packets will be mailed on the following schedule:
- 60 days before the National Meeting (on or about September 1)
- on or about February 1
- on or about June 1
Contents of Amendment Proposal Packets
Packets shall contain the following for each proposed amendment:
- the text of the proposed amendment
- a one paragraph (not more than 250 words) rationale for the amendment, written by the author
- a one paragraph (not more than 250 words) statement, written by a member of the Board or a volunteer approved by the Executive Committee, summarizing concerns about the amendment
- a financial impact statement, written by the author and approved by the Financial Controller
- a ballot, on which is printed the title of the proposed amendment (and any numerical designation it has been given), spaces for YES and NO, and lines for the name of the member organization casting the vote and the signature of an individual authorized to cast a vote on behalf of a member organization.
Voting
Voting shall proceed by mail ballot, though organizations may submit votes in person at the National Meeting. Voting shall proceed until one of the following occurs:
- 2/3 of members who received ballots vote in the affirmative OR
- one more than 1/3 of members who received ballots vote in the negative or
- any time limit for voting as moved along with the proposal (by the author of the proposal) has expired. >/li>
Blank ballots will not be accepted, and must be sent back to the voting organization (as the Constitution says that
"amendments may be made... by a vote of two-thirds of Regular Members in good standing," blank ballots are essentially votes in the negative; if a member wants to vote in the negative, they should check the box
marked NO).
Debate
At each National Meeting, time will be set aside which does not conflictwith the business meeting or workshops for debate and discussion of proposed amendments which are being voted on at the time. This session (or these sessions) will be chaired by the Executive Coordinator, and run under the rules of the committee of the whole.
