Recall Elections amendment proposal

Amend Article III by inserting the following language as the last-numbered section:

(a) Nationally and regionally elected members of the American Mensa Committee may be removed from office by recall election. A recall election may be called by a petition, originated by a member of the affected constituency, citing the reasons for such action and signed by at least five percent of the affected constituency, either national or regional. Such petition should be sent to the Election Committee Chair; electronic petitions may also be submitted. No recall elections will be entertained during the first six months or the last six months of the regular term of office.

(b) If a valid recall petition is submitted, the ballot for recall will be provided for the affected constituency, either by publication in the next possible issue of the national journal or by separate mail sent to all affected constituency. The ballot shall include:

1) the address to which ballots must be mailed

2) the deadline by which all ballots must be received; such deadline to be not less than 30 days, nor more than 60 days, from the initial date of publication or mailing of the ballots to the affected constituency

3) a brief statement by the proponent of the recall and a response by the affected officer(s), with a word limit to be provided by the Election Committee not to be less than 200 words.

(c) Counting of the recall election ballots shall be done at a time and location made known in advance to the affected constituency, no more than 15 days following the deadline for receipt of the ballots. The result of the recall election will be published in the next possible issue of the national journal. If the recall election is successful, and the recalled officer is a regionally elected officer (a Regional Vice-Chairman), then any Special Election procedures in place to replace regionally elected officers (Regional Vice-Chairmen) should begin in this issue of the national journal.

RVC Special Elections

Here's a draft of another bylaws amendment:

Amend Article III as follows:

a. In Article III, Section (10)(a), first sentence, insert “, other than Regional Vice-Chairmen,” after “Elective and appointive officers”. The resulting sentence would then be “Elective and appointive officers, other than Regional Vice-Chairmen, may be removed by resolution of the American Mensa Committee for any of the following reasons:”.

b. In Article III, delete the current language in Section (11) and its subsections, and replace them with the following:

(11) In the event of the resignation, removal, advancement, or death of an elective officer other than a Regional Vice-Chairman, or in the event of an office other than Regional Vice-Chairman not being filled by election, the remaining members of the American Mensa Committee shall elect a successor to fill the office for the remainder of the term of office; provided that, in the case of vacancy in the office of Chairman or First Vice-Chairman, the officer(s) next in line shall move up and the successor shall serve in the office of Second Vice-Chairman.

c. In Article III, add the following language as new Section (12):

(12) In the event of the resignation, removal, advancement, or death of a Regional Vice-Chairman, a special election will be held in the affected region, if such vacancy occurs within the first 15 months of the AMC term. Notice of such vacancy will be provided to the members of the affected region as quickly as possible, either by publication in the national journal or by separate mail sent to all members of the affected region. Candidates will have 30 days to submit petitions to the Election Committee. The Election Committee shall verify the accuracy of all the information presented within the petitions and endeavor to correct any factual inaccuracies which may appear. Each candidate's petition must be accompanied by the signatures of at least 50 members in good standing within the affected region, as of the end of the month preceding the notice of the vacancy of office. The Election Committee shall submit to the American Mensa Committee a final, fully-inclusive list of such candidates who have submitted valid petitions, the information provided in the petitions having been verified as reasonably accurate. For offices for which there is only one valid petition, the Election Committee shall declare the candidate elected. For offices for which there are at least two valid petitions, the names of the candidates shall be placed on the Special Election ballot. The Special Election ballot shall appear in the next possible issue of the national journal or by separate mail sent to all members of the affected region. The Special Election shall be conducted in accordance with Article V Section 2 and Article VI Sections 7-9.

(NOTE: Parts “a” and “b” of this amendment proposal are identical to the motion passed by the AMC at the September AMC meeting, which adjusts obsolete language that has been declared invalid. There is no conflict in this language. If both amendments pass, the effect will be to make the adjustment to the obsolete language dealt with in parts “a” and “b” and to implement the newly added procedure in part “c” to institute a Special Election for replacing Regional Vice-Chairmen.)

Eliminating Both Past Chairs from AMC

I am planning on putting forward an amendment to AML bylaws to remove the positions of Past Chair and Past Past Chair from the AMC.

Amend Article III Section (2) by deleting current subsection (b) (thereby removing the two most recent Chairmen of the Society as members of the American Mensa Committee), relabeling subsection (c) as subsection (b), and changing the final phrase from “Sections (2)(a) and (2)(b) above” to read “Section (2)(a)”.

Petitions for AML Election Now Available

Petitions for the upcoming AML election are now available. To get to the full list of petitions or the area where you can create your own petition, go to http://www.us.mensa.org/lead/amc/elections/candidate-petitions/

To sign my petition for Secretary, you should be able to go directly there via
http://www.us.mensa.org/petition?id=46

SMART goals

Below are my individual SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-limited) goals, both specific to the office I seek and what I would want for the AMC writ large. I expect that many of the items on the AMC-specific list will align with what the slate eventually puts out, but can only represent these goals, for now, as solely my own viewpoint.

Priority Tasks Specifically for Secretary

1. Compile and distribute mini-minutes of AMC meetings in under one week.

2. Compile and distribute the full minutes of AMC meetings in two weeks, subject to being able to have a unanimous online vote as required by law for such online votes.

3. Update the ASIEs as of July 2013 by July 31, 2013.

4. Ensure that the ASIEs are updated and available online within two weeks of AMC meeting minutes being approved.

5. Compile and distribute mini-minutes of the ABM in under one week.

6. Compile and distribute a draft version of minutes of the ABM in under one month. Accept attending-member input to the draft version as soon after the ABM concludes as possible. ABM minutes are approved at the subsequent ABM.

7. Cross-reference the bylaws, ASIEs, various handbooks, and local group charters. Provide SMART phrasing of this goal before the 2nd AMC meeting of the 2013-15 term to make more measurable and easier to evaluate.

8. Ensure the dates, times, and locations of all AMC meetings and committee meetings are readily available to the membership within one business day of them being set. (Such meetings should be open to the membership.)


Priority Tasks for AMC

1. Take all votes publicly in open session, even if related to discussions which were determined to be required to be held in executive session.

2. Make sure that reports created by the National Office or a contracted outside firm for the AMC with affect the whole of AML be readily accessible to the membership. Such reports should be made available in less than one month. Exceptions to this policy should be rare and well-explained.

3. Before the 2nd AMC meeting of the 2013-15 term, request, receive, and review all of the financial information that was used for the 2013-14 budget. Use this information to begin to review and prioritize the various programs being funded via dues in order to determine the effectiveness of those programs, which should be retained/eliminated, and whether dues should be changed (which includes the possibility of lowering them).

4. Ensure that all members of the AMC receive the full “binder” of materials used in preparation of the budget, even though the initial drafting of the budget is done by the Finance Committee. This material should be on-hand when starting to review the Finance Committee's proposed budget. Project mebership growth and retention more realistically, and budget accordingly.

5. Before the 3rd AMC meeting of the 2013-15 term, request, receive, and review the in-depth description of the duties of all staffers at the National Office and a cost-accounting of what each of the staffers actually does.

6. Before the 3rd AMC meeting of the 2013-15 term, investigate how to make the AMC meetings available to members remotely. Report the findings at the 3rd AMC meeting. Determine how any changes in this policy would affect records retention.

7. Before the 3rd AMC meeting of the 2013-15 term, enable members of “Isolated Ms” to become proctors, despite the lack of the current "key players" needed for such certification.

8. Reform the hearings process if no such amendment is passed via referendum during the 2013 election. Put forward such a bylaws amendment, if still needed, for the 2015 election. Update the ASIEs accordingly.

9. Put forward a bylaws amendment that removes the current Nominating Committee procedure if no such amendment is passed via referendum during the 2013 election; have it available for the ballot for the 2015 election. Update the ASIEs accordingly.

10. Put forward a bylaws amendment that fixes the current RVC replacement impasse if no such amendment is passed via referendum during the 2013 election; have it available for the ballot for the 2015 election.

11. Put forward a bylaws amendment that enables a recall of members of the AMC if no such amendment is passed via referendum during the 2013 election; have it available for the ballot for the 2015 election.

12. Review the long-standing policy of requiring that staffers not be members of Mensa. Determine what, if any, legal and tax-status ramifications would come from changing the policy to permitting members to be paid staff. (Note: Regardless of the determination, this would not necessitate the current staffers qualify for and become members of Mensa unless the policy changed that only current or former members be permitted to be staffers; such a reequirement, if desired, would also need to be studied from a legal and tax-status perspective.) Final determination should be made before the end of the first year of the 2013-15 term.

The Clean Slate

These are the candidates who are currently known to be on the Clean Slate.

Secretary: Jared Levine
Treasurer: Cary Chilson
RVC9: Desiree E. Sagray

Note 1: Some others are still considering signing on with the Clean Slate. In at least one case, multiple people for a single position.

Note 2: There have been several people who were previously associated with the slate that have decided against running at all, for various personal-life issues (typically job, school, or medical-related). or because the focus is different than they want. Others have decided to run solo, separate from any slate.

(Post last edited 9/17/12)