AUGUST 2004

Constitution and Bylaws

by Ed Heath, Chair, 2003-04

The revisions to the Bylaws were completed in timely fashion at the annual meeting, thanks to the well prepared Delegates. There were five proposed amendments to the Association’s Bylaws:

1. Deletion of the classification, requirements and dues for Junior membership.
2. Amending the requirement for sponsors for Active membership from three members in good standing to three individuals, at least two of whom are members in good standing.
3. Change in reinstatement procedure
4. Deletion of the mail notice of Executive Committee meetings
5. Change in maximum dues amounts and certain provisions concerning Student membership

All amendments passed with the exception of 3, which was tabled. Confusion about this book keeping amendment resulted from miscommunication between myself and the Chairman. We were following different scripts and acoustics were poor on the podium. I say book keeping because Article I, Section 9, of the Bylaws clearly prohibits the EC from reinstating a member who has been expelled for ethical reasons. Article XI, Section 7 allows the EC, by unanimous vote, to reinstate a member expelled for ethical reasons. Section 8 of this article, last paragraph, says the same thing. For the sake of consistency, this amendment needs to be included in next year’s agenda.

Considerable discussion was centered on amendment 2. An amendment to this proposal requiring the third individual to be a professional geologist was narrowly defeated.

Recognition of committee members who assisted in formulating this year’s amendments is in order. They were: Nilo Azambuja - Latin America, Paul Britt - Gulf Coast, Paul English - Canada, Tom Ewing - Gulf Coast, Doug Patchen - Eastern and Mark Rainer - Southwest.