2009NAGPS

Proposal for NAGPS Constitutional and Bylaws Amendments for the 23rd NAGPS National Conference at the University of Nebraska Lincoln November 14-18, 2009. Please note: at the time of proposal the UC Davis GSA did not endorse these documents as the NAGPS requirements for proposal submission is a 60/45 day requirement (see NAGPS 60 Day Notice Letter.pdf) ; which occurs prior to the first GSA Assembly meeting. Any proposals submitted for amendments from other schools or NAGPS officers will also be presented here for review.

Proposal for Amendments to the NAGPS Constitution and Bylaws by Marrah E. Lachowicz Scroggins current NAGPS Secretary, CIO/UC Davis External Chair and Brent Laabs former NAGPS Western Regional Coordinator and Legislative Concerns Chair.

Per the current NAGPS constitution Article VI section two "Amendments may be proposed by any voting member in good standing,
Region, or by the Board of Directors, at least sixty (60) days prior to the vote."

• The UCD GSA is a "voting member in good standing," our current 2009-2010 have already been paid and verified by the NAGPS Treasurer
  

• The UCD GSA bylaws defers to the External chair for all external relations, not requiring me to obtain Executive Council or Assembly approval to draft language to submit for a vote at the NAGPS Membership Meeting
  

• A vote will be called from the assembly to approve or endorse any documentation for NAGPS constitutional changes sent to the membership at the 45 day deadline-this will qualify as the vote UC GSA will cast in support of changes to the NAGPS Constitution at the Membership Meeting
  

• As an Executive Officer of the NAGPS Board of Directors, if that does not also qualify as a "member in good standing," I am not sure what does
  

• Additionally I am a $50 Individual dues paying member to NAGPS (see NAGPS Dues Reciept.pdf) which also qualifies me as a "voting member in good standing"

NAGPS Constitutional Amendments Proposal.pdf

Included are five constitutional amendments:

• Amendment to amend Article I of the NAGPS Constitution to bring NAGPS in compliance with Internal Revenue Code.
  

• Amendment to strengthen our membership process while increasing the flexibility available to the Board of Directors.
  

• An NAGPS Constitutional Amendment to amend the Constitutional Amendment process.
  

• The NAGPS Executive/Board Reform Act (NEBRA) of 2009, a Constitutional Amendment to restructure the NAGPS Board of Directors.
  

• Amendment to create an Advocacy Coordinator and a Membership Coordinator.

Also included are:

• Commentary on why policy choices were made for the Constitutional Amendments
  

• Bonus bylaw amendment!: The Geography Awareness Act of 2009

The NAGPS Ombuds, Alex Evans from MIT is proposing amendments. As the amendments the UCD External Chair offered were not presented to our Assembly (per the 60 day deadline being prior to our Assembly meeting) the same applied to the proposal presented by the NAGPS Ombudsman. He does not posses an individual membership and therefore the NAGPS Board of Directors voted to allow his submission to go to the floor at the membership meeting. The Board of Directors will submit this proposal on behalf of NAGPS Ombudsman to the membership. Allowing this proposal does not necessarily endorse it, however, it does allow for equity in the proposal process by permitting his document to go to the floor. The NAGPS Board of Directors also tasked all members of the board presenting a proposal to try to create a single compromise document in which a consensus agreement could be reached.

NAGPS Constitutional Amendments Proposal Alex Evans.pdf

The Northeast region is one of the authorized individual(s) able to present a proposal to the membership. The Northeast Regional Coordinator, Kevin McComber from MIT, is also tasked to serve on the NAGPS constitutional committee to try to generate a compromise document with NAGPS Secretary and Ombudsman.

NAGPS Constitutional Amendments Proposal Northeast Region.pdf

The Board of Directors wanted a taskforce created to review the three proposals. We met on October 11th to discuss all three proposals. After 3 hours of conversation we came up with the following general suggestions: NAGPS constitutional committee meeting 10-11-09.pdf. It was also determined that the NAGPS Secretary and Ombudsman should work together to generate the final amendments or compromise proposal for the National Conference.

I drafted the following amendments to the Ombudsman proposal, seeing from the constitutional committee, that further streamlining the Board of Directors to remove voting power from the committee chairs and regional coordinators would probably not be supported by the membership. Although this was simply a speculation, the NERC was on the constitutional committee and his voice had strong arguments against it which could clearly be conveyed to the membership for support.

I conveyed that the Advocacy Committee and Membership Committee were created in my proposal to charge these officers with work in these specific areas and that their efforts and votes would be cast within these committees. These committees were in charge of these areas and would report back to the Executive Board. It was also conveyed that the purpose of removal of their vote from the general board was to allow the Executive Board to focus on day-to-day organization administration and business.

As the Ombudsman proposal tasks the Executive Board with monthly meetings and no such requirement is made for the full board, I believe that it would be the choice of the president-elect to choose to run full board or Executive Board only meetings for business. My hope is that full board meetings will be called for Association-wide business only and the efforts of the Executive Board will be more efficient; making full board meetings monthly unnecessary. Additionally, in my amendments to the Ombudsman proposal I offered the Membership and Advocacy Boards to task regional coordinators and committee chairs with the work written in my proposal.

The major changes I requested of the Ombudsman proposal in order to achieve compromise between my proposal and his are outlined below and in this document Ombuds Proposal_MLS edits.pdf:

1) Include the appropriate tax code language so we are in compliance with our non-profit status.
2) Change “graduate-professional students,” to “graduate and/or professional students,” when referring to the Association membership as not all member association represent both groups.
3) Restructuring the board of directors to include the following officers and general duties:

• President: Chair, Representative of the Association and liaison between the Association and other professional organizations
  

• Vice-President: Chair in the President’s absence, in charge of the National Conference, managing the activities of Board of Directors and acts as Ombudsman when necessary
  

• Treasurer: responsible for the Associations accounts, budget and fiscal duties such as creation/maintenance of partnerships and fundraising
  

• Secretary: administration including maintenance of all Association materials, databases, websites, minutes and reports. Facilitator of communication between board members as the Association (weekly news blasts, Facebook, etc).
  

• Public Relations Chair (Officer): generation of publications and relations materials, Association campaign materials, generation of the Association Newsletter.
  

• Membership Coordinator: act as the sole officer charged with membership relations; including (but not necessarily limited to): recruitment, retention, membership classification, communication between the Association and the Board of Directors in areas of service and needs
  

• Assign the regional coordinators to the Membership Board to work in conjunction with the Membership Coordinator to serve the membership of the Association
  

4) Creation of an Advocacy Committee (Board) comprised of the committee chairs
5) Creation of the Membership Committee (Board) comprise of the Membership Coordinator, Public Relations Chair (Officer) and Regional Coordinators/Regional Officers
6) Removal of the U.S. Marshall Islands of the Western Region and inclusion of all insular areas to the Western Region

Upon receipt of these suggestions, the Ombudsman tasked me with writing my changes in to Amendment Proposals which can be found here Amendments of the Constitutional Committee_Secretary.pdf. It is important to note that the changes I proposed in #1, 2, 4 and 6 were accepted in the Ombudsmans re-draft of his proposal from the suggestions of the Constitutional Commitee in this document Ombuds Proposal_AE edits.pdf, and therefore not included in my Amendments.

I had a conference call with NAGPS Ombudsman on 11-5-09 to discuss the above amendments I submitted. It was agreed upon that the duties I assigned to the Secretary would fall under the "Director of Adminstration," and that there should be a creation of a Membership Board, named "Outreach Board" in the original proposal. Therefore, the only major changes I am requesting in my amendments charge the Treasurer "Director of Finance" with sponsorship/partnership activities and make the President the sole entity for relations with other associations, rather than a director. Additionally, I still have the Membership Coordinator as the sole officer in charge of with membership relations; including (but not necessarily limited to): recruitment, retention, membership classification, communication between the Association and the Board of Directors in areas of service and needs. I am also retaining the re-naming of officers to more traditional/currently used officer names. We also drafted a third amendment to change the officer name to "Regional Chair" rather than "Regional Coordinator."

The NAGPS Consitutional Committee will meet 11-9-09 to determine if these are the final changes of the committee to be presented on the floor at the national membership meeting. Please find the document attached here: DRAFT Final Proposal of Constitutional Committee.pdf. If any additional changes are submitted, I will post them here.

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