Proposed Amendment #1 – Revised Process for Membership Approval of Bylaw Updates
Amendments to Bylaws
These Bylaws may be altered, amended or repealed and new Bylaws may be adopted by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of those voting Members voting in person or by ballot at a meeting of the Association. Draft bylaw changes shall be published for comment at least eight weeks prior to the annual meeting. A final version of the proposed changes shall be published for approval by the voting members at least four weeks prior to the annual meeting.
Proposed Amendment #2 - Change of Board terms from two to three years, with a corresponding change in term limits from three to two terms.
ARTICLE IV.
Board of Directors
Section 1. Authority. The business and affairs of the Association shall be controlled and governed by the Board, which shall have the right to exercise all powers of the Association that are not expressly reserved to the Members of the Association by law or by these Bylaws.
Section 2. Number, composition, term, and term limits. The Board of Directors will consist of nineeight elected Directors plus a slate of ex officio Directors including the current President, one or more current Vice-Presidents, the current Secretary, the current Treasurer, the current Executive Director, and the most recent past President, who shall automatically become a member of the Board for a period of one year following his/her retirement from office.
Board members must be members of the organization. The Board may, with a majority vote of the full Board, appoint the most recent past Executive Director to be a member of Board for a period of one year immediately following his/her retirement from office. Ex officio Board members shall have all the powers and privileges of elected Directors. The elected Directors shall be elected by the Members at the Annual Meeting. Elected Directors shall serve twothree- year terms, and such terms shall be staggered such that at each Annual Meeting the Members shall elect threefour Directors. The elected Directors may serve twothree consecutive terms and may not run again for election as a Director until two years after their last service on the Board.
Section 3. Nominating Committee and election of the elected Directors. A Committee of three voting Members of the Association, other than Board members, shall be appointed by the President following each Annual Meeting of the Association, to nominate not fewer than fivesix, nor more than sixeight candidates for membership on the Board. The Board approves the final candidate list which is voted upon at the Annual Meeting. (Note members may vote ahead of the meeting – reference Article III, Section 6.) Each Member may vote for up to threefour candidates. The threefour candidates with the most votes shall become Board members. In the event multiple candidates for the thirdfourth spot have equal numbers of votes, the President shall decide which candidate shall be elected to the Board.
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Please note: the rationale for these changes can be viewed in the AAVSO President's letter, here.
To vote
All AAVSO members in good standing who have opted in to emails from AAVSO have been sent an emailed invitation with a link to vote for the proposed changes. Online votes must be received by November 10, 2020, 11:59 PM EDT.
All AAVSO members in good standing who have opted out of emails from AAVSO have been sent a paper ballot to mail in their votes. Mail-in ballots must be received by the end of the business day November 10, 2020.
Thank you for voting!