New By-Laws Information

  By Martha Hazen, Secretary       	mhazen@cfa.harvard.edu       Janet Mattei, Director             jmattei@aavso.org       Lee Anne Willson, President  	lwillson@iastate.edu	

The AAVSO has been operating under a “Constitution and By Laws” adopted in 1976. This Constitution has become very out of date, both in what it says and what it doesn’t say. With this in mind, in 1995, at the recommendation of the AAVSO Future Study Group and the Council, Tom Williams (Past President) and Martha Hazen (Secretary) undertook to revise the existing Constitution. After many years, many changes, and hard work by the above plus Tom Williams and many past and present Council members and officers, and Joyce Motta (our consulting Massachusetts attorney and wife of Council Member Mario Motta), the Council has accepted at its meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, in May, a proposed new set of By-Laws to submit to the membership for a vote at the forthcoming Annual Meeting.

Unfortunately, under the existing Constitution, only those present at the Annual Meeting may actually vote (this will be changed in the new By-Laws), but Martha Hazen and Lee Anne Willson would be glad to hear comments from the membership at large when the new By-Laws are sent out for membership consideration within a few weeks.

The major change is that what we will have is a set of By-Laws, not a Constitution. Joyce Motta pointed out that organizations such as ours have Articles of Incorporation, filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (ours in 1917). These Articles state the name and purpose of the organization, as well as the names of the founding members, the location of the office, etc. What is necessary in addition are By-Laws outlining how the organization will be run.

The proposed By-Laws are much more detailed than the existing Constitution, although we have tried to leave a lot of latitude for running the organization. One major change is that the position of Director, instead of being filled yearly by election by the Council, will be filled for a 5-year period by appointment by the Council. Other substantial changes include changing the classification “Junior member” (presently meaning those between 16 and 21 years of age), to Associate member with no minimum age limit and creating an Organizational membership for socities and other entities.

The new By-Laws will be sent to you with the Annual Meeting notice soon. Both the new and old By-Laws will be available on our website. Please take time to look at our work carefully. Those of us who have worked through the many iterations of these proposed By-Laws hope that the membership will be pleased with them. We feel that, under these new By-Laws, the AAVSO will continue to run efficiently, smoothly, and productively for many years to come.

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