Am I reading some things wrong on this bylaw revision proposal? It says this was done for stream lining vocabulary, but I had a couple of concerns.
My quick takeaways:
Removal of budget auditing? (The following is REMOVED: "SECTION 2. BUDGET COMMITTEE. The Budget Committee shall be comprised of the State President, President-Elect, Immediate Past-President and the Executive Director.")
Executive Board no longer has to reside in Texas? (the words "and reside in" from Article III State Officers have been completely removed)
Inability to appeal Executive Board and State Board of Directors decisions at General Session (The following is REMOVED: "SECTION 1. (a). TMEA’S ULTIMATE AUTHORITY. The ultimate governing authority of TMEA shall be exercised by its membership in the General Sessions at the annual Clinic/Convention. Decisions of the Executive Board and the State Board of Directors may be appealed to the general membership in the General Sessions through the Agenda Committee process.")
I also want to point out the title of the email was "Verify Your Convention Badge and Get Important Updates." I feel like a proposal like this warrants something more than being referred to as "Important Updates." I honestly didn't even realize it was in the email because I was more concerned with my old information being listed as my name tag info, despite updating it at the beginning of the year. I talked with peers who did not preregister at all and they never even saw this email.
I may be wrong (and I am quite a bit), but my read of the stuff regarding 'general session' was all about online voting/proposals. It was a recognition and move to make those kind of decisions/processes open to and voted on by all members - not just those in attendance at the convention general session. Don't see a problem with that.
TMEA has used online voting for President Elect for many years now. The proposed revision specifies the vote MUST be online. So what happens if technology fails? Looks like the intent is to remove the opportunity to conduct any business during the general session. The voting changes are in the divisional elections. You can only within your division for state chair. No more crossing the aisle.
The residency requirement doesn’t bother me a bit. Plenty of good folks working in the El Paso area may live just across state lines. And (as an example) an immediate past president may be retired, but then unable to relocate near family due to the requirement they reside here.
Plus let’s be honest. I’ve been going for close to thirty years now. I can count the number of requests submitted by membership for discussion at the general session on one hand and have fingers left over. This really isn’t going to make a difference.
And now there’s more flexibility in who serves on the budget committee. Not that it goes away completely.
