AALL's Bylaws FAQ Was Released on Schedule

7) What are the next steps in the process for the proposed bylaws change?

The AALL Executive Board approved proposed bylaw amendments submitted by the Bylaws Committee on July 20, 2012. The motion approved by the AALL Executive Board read as follows: “That the Executive Board approve the proposed amendments to the AALL Bylaws and that the proposed amendments be submitted to the membership by distributed ballot, with a 60-day advance notice to the membership as of August 1, followed by a 30-day voting period.” Ballots will be distributed electronically to all current AALL voting members on October 1, 2012. Voting members may request a paper ballot if voting electronically is not an option for them. All ballots must be received electronically or by mail at AALL Headquarters by 11:59 p.m. on October 30, 2012.

I knew the E-Board's Bylaws FAQ was supposed to be released on August 1st. It was. Quoting a comment to this LLB post published on August 6th:

The Bylaws FAQ was released on Aug. 1. I got word of it by direct email from AALL Pres. Jean Wenger. Since I'm not remotely important, I have to assume it was sent to all AALL members. Anyway, it can be found at www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Leadership-Governance/bylaws/2012-bylaws-proposedamend-faq.pdf

(Emphasis added.)

Thanks Anon! I know I didn't receive the email last week. You?  It must have gone straight into my spam folder. Hopefully, the e-ballot email notice doesn't end up there.

I don't recall seeing the Bylaws FAQ link (or, for that matter, the July 30th date-stamped news release, Executive Board Approves Bylaw Amendments) on AALL's front page under the News heading when I checked AALLNET last weekend while drafting "All the world's a stage" at AALL's Members Open Forum. But, what the heck, perhaps the Bylaws FAQ link was displayed below the "View all News" fold at that time. My bad, I guess. As of this morning, both are displayed above the fold under the News heading.

No matter. The selected eight answered questions in the five page FAQ is a quick read. Do note that Board-approved proposed amendments also affect Article XI, Section 5: Chapter Bylaws and Article XIII: Rules of Order in addition to proposed Membership changes to Article IV, Sections I and 2. [Complete text of affected sections with proposed language changes] and are addressed in the FAQ. 

During the notice period, I guess alternative Bylaws suggestions ahead of the vote can be posted to AALLNET web communities but I know some AALL members refuse to participate in the forums because of AALL's web communications policy. Might be time to lurk to "read more about it." [JH]