COMMITTEE REPORT:
Constitution and Bylaws
The Constitution and Bylaws Committee is a fairly cosmopolitan group hailing from diverse Sections andRegions but bound together by a firm belief in the mission of the AAPG, our method of governance, and the availability of membership to all those who qualify and agree to live by a common set of commitments. We believe changes to the Bylaws we propose will enhance the ability of our organization to grow and increase the availability of useful knowledge to geoscientists worldwide.
The Constitution and Bylaws Committee has considered a plethora of proposed changes including: creating a house and senate to replace the current legislative bodies, changing membership classification names, approval processes for active member designation, graduated dues, and petition candidacy requirements. All issues were discussed openly, analyzed fairly, and our recommendations were communicated to the House of Delegates Executive Committee for concurrence, changes, or rejection.We will be presenting to the House of Delegates assembled in Long Beach, California the proposed changes that follow, and additions to the Constitution and Bylaws for consideration.
There were a few purely housekeeping changes, for example capitalizations and deletions of out-of-date sentences relating to the integration of the proper wording of the newly created position of Regional Vice-President into the Constitution and Bylaws.
The Committee rejected making any changes to the requirements which a member must meet to qualify as a Petition Candidate. They did concur, however, that a Petition Candidate must be subject to the same rules governing a Candidate who is nominated through the Advisory Council and Executive Committee process. Those rules prohibit an AAPG officer candidate from receiving honors and awards, and prohibit someone who is serving on the AAPG Executive Committee or the Advisory Council from running as a Petition Candidate during the next election cycle.
In summary, a member who qualifies as a Petition Candidate has the same status as a candidate nominated via the EC/AC process, and is therefore, subject to the same restrictions with the exception of the brief period between July 1st, when an AC or EC member’s term expires, and October 15th, the deadline for filing as a Petition Candidate. The proposed language avoids the issue of an EC member running for office against a candidate they were involved in nominating. (See Article II in the Proposed Amendments)
The Committee evaluated the appropriateness of a change to a Graduated Dues, Ability-to-Pay, dues structure and the language required to accomplish establishment of such structure in the Bylaws. The overall arguments for such a change were persuasive. Research demonstrates that international geoscientists are compensated at widely varying rates and, in general, at much lower levels than our domestic colleagues. There is also a sincere desire to respect and address the economic conditions that have forced numerous domestic and Canadian geologists to drop their AAPG membership. Analyses indicate little or no economic impact to the AAPG financial status. A concern that will bear watching is the possibility of abuse. Members are responsible for selecting the category into which their annual personal income would fall, to determine their dues level. We are an organization that fosters and believes in the principles of trust and integrity and we do have procedures in place to manage known violations of the same. The language we offer to place a Graduated Dues structure into our ByLaws is shown in Article XIII of the Proposed Amendments below.
The Constitution and ByLaws Committee urges you to carefully consider these proposed changes, and recommends you support them with a vote “for” at the Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates in Long Beach, California this coming April 1.
The members of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee are:
- David Hawk, Chair, Rocky Mountain Section
- Paul Hoffman, Vice Chair, Gulf Coast Section
- Edith C. Allison, Eastern Section
- John R.V. Brooks, Europe Region
- Gary S. Grinsfelder, Gulf Coast Region
- Marty Hewitt, Canada Region
- Carroll Kinney, Mid-Continent Region
- A.J. Tony Kolodziej, Mid-Continent Region