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Proposed Bylaws Amendments 2022

The ASIS&T Governance Committee has put forth two amendments to the the ASIS&T Bylaws as follows:

Reinstatement of Immediate Past President as chair of the Nominations Committee

Until 2019 the Immediate Past President was chair of the Nominations Committee. Due to some comments made to Board members at the 2018 Annual Meeting that left a few Board members feeling that the Board was too close to the nominations process, a change to the Bylaws removing the Immediate Past President from the role and making the Chair of the Nominations Committee a non-Board Presidential appointee was enacted. Since that time we have discovered how critical it is that the chair of the committee have a working knowledge of the Board and a strong sense of the needs in future leadership. The vast majority of associations polled in a recent study of association governance report that their IPP is the chair of the Nominations Committee for this reason.

Contested Elections

ASIS&T has a long tradition of contested Board elections whereby at least two candidates must be put forward for every vacant Board position. While this places greater control of the outcome with the membership and allows for greater democracy in the election process, it causes several problems. These problems include:

  • The inability to strategically impact the structure and composition of the Board through the nomination/election process.
  • Burnout of qualified and interested candidates who fail to become elected and opt to withdraw from future elections.
  • The difficulty in finding two qualified and willing candidates for each position.

Recently, ALISE adopted a bylaws amendment that allows its Nominations Committee the option to put forward one candidate for a position if a second qualified candidate cannot be identified. This amendment successfully passed. We are proposing roughly the same wording change to the ASIS&T Bylaws, though we have added more clarity as to how the process would work.

While some may feel that this change gives too much power to the Nominations Committee, it is important to remember that members will have the opporutnity to vote yes or no on any candidate. If the membership feels an unqualified individual has been put forward by the committee, it can either vote no or provide a write-in alternative.

ASIS&T will continue to put out a call for nominations for all open positions. However, these calls do not always result in adequate qualified candidates for each position.

You may review the wording of the Bylaws changes HERE.

ASIS&T invites your comments and questions on the proposed bylaws amendments. Please send these via email to Lydia Middleton no later than June 3, 2022. The Board election and bylaws will be sent for member vote on Friday, June 10.