Voting members of Handbell Musicians of America, Area 1 will be asked to vote on changes to our bylaws from July 1 through 24. Information on the changes can be found below.
The Voting period is now closed.
Your Area 1 Board welcomes any questions on this proposed change – please do not hesitate to contact any of us with any questions or concerns about this process.
Click this link to download the modified bylaws (with changes shown.)
Click this link to download a list of the changes and an explanation of each.
Area 1 Bylaw Revision Proposal (2023)
After the unprecedented resignations of several members of the Executive Committee in early 2021, the Board felt it was imperative to review our By-Laws to give future Boards guidance on what to do in case more than one elected officer needs to resign again. That situation also made the Board aware that while we had revised the By-Laws in 2015 to accommodate online voting for regular elections, the procedure for special elections was not changed.
We convened a committee to go through the entire document to find any other redundancies or inconsistencies. That committee, consisting of Pete Larson, Jenn Stack and myself, made several recommendations, and presented them to the Board in January of 2023. Those recommendations were adopted and submitted to the National Board for approval.
The National Board reviewed the proposed changes and approved them, with the caveat that three articles that are part of the suggested Area model By-laws that they adopted in 2020 be included. The Area 1 By-laws review committee presented those changes to the Board, which were approved on May 20.
We are now presenting these changes to you, our members, so that you can review them before you are asked to vote to adopt them. We will hold a special By-Laws vote online in July. All members in good standing will be asked to submit their vote to adopt these changes.
You can review the redlined version of the document on our website. We also added a document that lists the changes and the rationale behind each one (there are 12 in all).
In a nutshell, these are the changes that we have made:
- Added the Communications Chair as an appointed voting member of the Board
- Allowed for the appointment of two interim co-chairs in the event that there are vacancies in the Chair-Elect and Chair positions
- Revised the voting procedures for special elections
- Clarified appointed Board members’ terms of office
- Aligned all elected officers’ terms with the beginning of our fiscal year (Oct 1)
- Added three articles (Non-discrimination, Compensation and Conflict of Interest, and Indemnification) as requested by the National Board
Please take the time to review these changes, and feel free to ask questions of anyone on the By-Laws review committee. Our contact information is below.
Carlene Ruesenberg, Past Chair
pastchair.area1@handbellmusicians.org
603-491-3047
Jenn Stack, Chair-Elect
chairelect.area1@handbellmusicians.org
Pete Larson
webmaster.area1@handbellmusicians.org
