In that case, go for it. <g> I'm sorry, I read it as a proposed amendment coming from the Board, which would be inappropriate. Sorry, Ginger gingerh@shawneelink.com -----Original Message----- From: Teri Pettit <pettit@Adobe.COM> To: BOARD-L@rootsweb.com <BOARD-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:59 AM Subject: Re: [BOARD-L] Amendment Proposal re Funding By-Law >At 7:23 PM -0700 9/2/99, Ginger wrote: >>Hi Teri, >>While in essence I agree with your proposal the Board >>is only authorized to propose amendments under certain >>circumstances. >>This needs to be either left to a possible future Bylaws >>Review committee or it should be an individual proposal >>in one's home state, following the procedure outlined in the >>Bylaws. Neither the Board nor the SC list have the authority >>to propose Bylaws outside of the current procedure set forth >>in the Bylaws. While we may not agree with all aspects of >>the Bylaws, and there is definitely room for improvement, we >>also can not ignore them and forge ahead at will. The Bylaws >>were voted in by the membership of the project and as such >>it is our duty as a Board to adhere to them. >> >>Ginger >>gingerh@shawneelink.com > >Ginger, > >I fully agree. I was intending that everything would proceed according to >the procedures set out in the By-Laws. I wasn't proposing ignoring anything >at all. > >According to the By-Laws, a "state project" has to officially propose an >amendment, and 5 other state projects have to co-sponsor it, before it can >be voted on: > >-------------------------------- >ARTICLE XVI. AMENDMENT TO BYLAWS > >Section 2. Any state project may propose an amendment by sending their >proposal to one or more of the Advisory board members representing their >region and including the exact wording of the proposed amendment. Upon >receipt of the proposed amendment, the Advisory Board representative(s) >shall request the Webmaster to post the proposed change on the national >website and the National Coordinator to post to the State-Coord-L List, and >any other appropriate lists, for dissemination to the members. > >Section 3. The proposed amendment, with the sponsor's name and date of >posting, shall remain posted for a period of at least thirty (30) days >prior to the annual voting period of July 1-July 31. Any proposed amendment >shall require a minimum of five (5) states as co-sponsors to command that >it be placed on the ballot. State projects wishing to co-sponsor the >amendment shall notify the Advisory Board and make an announcement on the >USGenWeb-All Mailing List. >-------------------------------- > >Now, this says nothing about how a "state project" gets to the point of >proposing or co-sponsoring a By-Law, but a reasonable interpretation is >that the CC's of that state would vote on it. (The procedure may have been >left unspecified to allow each state to have its own rules for how it goes >about deciding to propose or co-sponsor an amendment.) And how it gets to >the point of being presented as a possibility to the CC's of the first >state is wide open. I would think anyone whatsoever, even a random site >visitor who isn't part of the Project, could suggest a possible amendment >to someone else who is in a position to officially start the ball rolling >in their state. > >Just as anyone in the world, not even necessarily a citizen of the United >States, can write a letter to a member of Congress asking "could you please >submit this as a bill for me?" (And a lot of them do. You might be >surprised at the number of bills making special exceptions for >individuals.) A member of Congress has to submit each bill, but it doesn't >have to be their own original idea. > >That's what I was proposing to do, to write to the state coordinators, >simply as one individual to another, not as a Board member, saying "Here's >an idea. Would any of you like to propose something like this to the CC's >in your state?" If nobody in any state takes it to their CC's, then that's >the end of it. > >// Teri > pettit@adobe.com > > > >