At
the time of writing in early January, the work of Ed Heath and his
committee is almost over. All that remains is review by counsel
for correctness of wording and "legalese."
As is often
the case, there are a number of "no-brainers"—things that have
been either overlooked or made redundant—the housekeeping items.
But there also are two items that, as Delegates, you will want to
familiarize yourselves with ahead of time.
Membership
Endorsements
First,
a small change to the membership application process: We recommend
continuing to require three endorsements, but that only two of the
three need be "members in good standing," i.e., Active, Honorary
or Emeritus.
This slight
change will make it a little less onerous on potential members from
small Societies and Sections, or from large, geographically dispersed
Regions.
Ceiling
for Membership Dues
Second,
we need to raise the ceiling for membership dues—not the actual
dues, the Executive Committee does that, but just the "ceiling"
—from $75 to $125.
The ceiling
was last increased in 1983, when it was raised more than 100 percent,
from $35 to $75. It has taken over 20 years to move fully to the
present ceiling—both the dues and the ceiling are now at $75.
We now
need to provide future executive committees room within which to
work as they budget for all the programs available to members. It
will take numerous small raises at two-to-four-year intervals before
we will need to adjust the ceiling again.
At the
current $75 level—with all the AAPG member services included
—we have the best deal going!
Housekeeping
Now for
the housekeeping:
- We
are removing any references to "Junior" membership, which was
abolished some time ago.
- We
are providing the Executive Committee more flexibility in its
meeting and voting procedures.
- We
are eliminating the inconsistency in the Bylaws concerning reinstatement
by unanimous vote of the entire Executive Committee of former
members expelled for ethical reasons.
- At
the end of Student status, members will be automatically "reclassified
as" (rather than "required to become") Associate members. It makes
for ease of administration, and removes the onus from members
to initiate the process.
Specifics
of the changes are available at www.aapg.org/bylawschanges.cfm.
Hard copies are available by contacting Donna
Riggs at headquarters.
That's
it! We look forward to seeing all the delegates in Dallas.