The OCARMA Board has proposed a revision to our Bylaws. In 2006 we modified the bylaws to align with structure requirements of ARMA International. However, we did not make any substantive changes at that time. The bylaws were largely left as they had been since 1986. The current bylaws have many references to practices and procedures that are not practical in this electronic age.
The biggest change is a complete overhaul of the appointed director positions. In addition to the elected President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, our current bylaws provide for the following Director positions:
- Past-President/Advisor
- Director, Education
- Historian
- Director, Hospitality
- Director, US Governmental Affairs
- Director Membership
- Director, Job Placement
- Director, Newsletter
- Director, Marketing
- Director, Website
The Director of Education, oddly enough, was not responsible for planning monthly educational meetings — that was the responsibility of the Vice-President. Education was responsible for seminars and being a liaison to the Education Services at HQ. The Secretary was responsible for communications to members, but more and more communications were taking place via our website and email, which was handled by the webmaster, as was posting any job announcements – making the Job Placement Director somewhat obsolete. ARMA International has been providing updates of legislation directly to members through the Washington Policy Brief, making the Director of US Governmental Affairs obsolete.
Instead, the new positions will provide more flexibility to serve the members in new and innovative ways.
The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer will continue, as will the Directors for Membership, Hospitality, and Marketing. The Vice-President, however, will be responsible for gathering information about the chapter activities throughout the year and creating an annual report for the members to be presented at our June meeting, eliminating the Historian position. This annual report will also be the basis of our Chapter of the Year submission, if we choose to apply. A new Education and Programs Director will be responsible for planning all educational content for the members. The Job Placement, Newsletter and Website directors have been eliminated in favor of a Communications Director, who, depending on volunteer resources, will have committees for website, newsletter, virtual meetings or other technologies to serve our members.
Summary of proposed changes:
- Slightly modified official name to align with ARMA International’s name change made several years ago
- Added Honorary Chapter Member membership category to enable us to extend chapter membership to any chapter member who has been granted honorary membership in ARMA International
- Added ability to elect officers by acclimation when there is only one candidate for a position
- Reduced required meetings to once per quarter
- Removed references to obsolete practices (e.g. paper forms, mailings)
- Clarified which officers are elected vs. appointed
- Created new appointed director positions to more closely align with current practices and strategic goals of chapter
- Removed specific duties of each board position, moving them instead to a separate operational handbook
- Reduced number of standing committees
- Clarification of how bylaws will be amended
You may read the full text of both the current and the proposed bylaws here: <Current Bylaws> <Proposed Bylaws>
An email will be sent to all current members with a link to an anonymous ballot.
As required by ARMA International and our own bylaws, approval of these changes will be upon a 2/3 vote of respondents. You will have 30-days to vote – the ballot will close on December 10, 2011.
