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District 6 Charter and Bylaws Revisions
Our District 6 Charter and Bylaws were last updated eleven
years ago. During that time, several changes have occurred
that affect how the District operates (most notably International
ITE Constitutional changes). The primary intent of updating
both the Charter and the Bylaws is to bring these two documents
up-to-date with current District practices and address the
opportunity for the District to conduct officer elections
via e-balloting. This multi-year effort was lead by the District
6 Advisory Committee with input from the District officers
and International Directors. Also incorporated was member
input received prior to, during and after the 2005 Annual
Meeting in Kalispell. In both documents, the proposed revisions
are noted with green italic type that replaces the former
text as noted with strike-throughs. These amended documents
will be voted on by the membership with the officer election
this spring.
District 6 Charter. Upon a majority approval
from the membership voting in the officer election this spring,
the District will petition the International Board of Direction,
as is required in Section 7.2, to amend the District Charter
as proposed.
Highlights of the proposed
Charter revisions:
Taken as a whole, the proposed revisions are mainly textual
changes to conform with the Institute's current "model"
charter for Districts. The only significant or substantive
revision that is outside the conformal changes is the description
of the geographic area of the District (Section 2.1); see
the discussion below for further explanation.
The revision/amendment process requires that
the District Board petition the IBOD to request these changes
(see Section 7.2 of the charter). I would propose that the
District Board so endorse an action at the next Board meeting,
so that the IBOD may take action and the ultimate amendments
could then take effect about the first of the year.
Sections 1.1 and 1.2 - The proposed revisions
are only to change the dates of IBOD action; this would likely
entail adding the dates of amendment, leaving the original
charter dates intact.
Section 2.1 - This proposed revision changes
the geographic area of the District, in essence providing
those U.S territories that are in the Atlantic/Caribbean an
affiliation with a District that is closer to their region.
This is being proposed as an amendment to conform to the current
practice of the Institute, in that:
" There are no territories currently assigned to District
5, as the current Charter lists;
" Puerto Rico is currently assigned to District 10 (I
believe it was previously part of District 5, and was transferred
to D10 when Florida split away from D5);
" There are a few members within the U.S. Virgin Islands,
but HQ has assigned them as part of District 8, rather than
District 6; HQ never provided a response to my questions about
this when asked a couple of years ago;
" In all likelihood, any members of the Caribbean territories
would have closer relationships with District 10 members then
they would have with District 6.
Outside of the Atlantic and Caribbean territories, all others
(notably any Asia-Pacific territories) would still remain
within District 6.
Sections 2.2 thru 2.7 - These additions are
straight from the Institute's Model Chapter Charter, pertaining
to specific tax-exempt qualifications under Internal Revenue
Code Section 501 (c)(3).
Sections 3.1 and 3.2 - Simple grammatical
changes to conform to the Model Charter.
Section 4.4 - Grammar change to conform to
the Model Charter; this also provides better coverage when
we host a joint District/International Annual Meeting (and
any other times) when our election results are not announced
until after International's Annual Business Meeting.
Sections 5.2 thru 5.4 - Deleting sections
that are no longer required, as International takes care of
these tasks (conforms to the Model Charter).
Section 5.5 - Renumber to 5.2 due to preceding
deletions.
Section 7.1 - Text revisions to conform to
the Model Charter (reflecting timing and notification requirements
to fit with today's IBOD operations).
Link
to Revised Charter (Word Document)
District 6 Bylaws. The proposed Bylaws amendments were
published in the March-April 2005 issue of WesternITE for
membership comment. Those comments were combined with comments
from the District 6 Annual Business Meeting on July 12 in
Kalispell, Montana, and from the District 6 Advisory Committee.
Highlights of the proposed
Bylaws revisions:
" Specific references to mailed paper ballots were removed
to allow the Board to consider e-balloting in the future,
if desired.
" Changes in the numbers of petition signatures for possible
nominations for office to be in alignment with recent ITE
Constitutional amendments.
" More clearly defining officer term length
" Defining the appointment authority for the District
Administrator position, an ex-officio (non-voting) member
of the District Board
" Procedure added to address a vacancy in the office
of Vice President and Past President.
" Specific revisions included the formation of the nominating
committee, identification of current standing committees and
appointments by the President.
Link
to Revised Bylaws (Word Document)
Again, I would like to thank the District 6
Advisory Committee and those members who provided comments
on these proposed revisions. If you have any additional comments,
please contact our District Administrator, Jenny Grote at
602-262-7597 or at jenny.grote@phoenix.gov.
Thanks for your involvement in our great District!
Ken Ackeret, P.E., PTOE
District 6 President
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