Bylaws Amendments
Terryl Arola, President-Elect

TO BE VOTED ON AT THE ANNUAL MEETING:
At the direction of the current MCA President, Pat Booker, an ad hoc committee was organized consisting of Vice President, Ron Solheid; Past President, Tom Roy; and President-elect, Terryl Arola. The by-laws are getting a close review and a major overhaul. Change areas include:

Use of Technology. The current language talks about the reliance on ‘old’ technology such as mail and/or fax notification in several places throughout the by-laws. The new language will be consistent throughout the by-laws and broaden the language to leave it open for ‘electronic technology’, such as email or web posting, and what ever may exist in the future.

Regional Representatives. We are also proposing eliminating the regional representatives on the Board of Directors and moving them into the Training and Education Committee. The regional representatives have always had the responsibility to work with this committee to provide regional training events that fit the issues and needs of their region. We are also adding a representative from a correctional facility so that interests of this segment of our membership are not forgotten as well.

Committee Definitions. In addition, we are having each committee re-evaluate their goals and will be modifying the language as it relates to each of them in the by-laws. The Awards committee will be added to the by-laws. Along with this, we are updating our operations manual so that each committee and board member has a handbook to operate from with turn over from year to year.

Executive Director. We no longer have an Executive Director. Instead we have an Administrative Manager. We are modifying the language so that it is generic for any type of staff the organization may chose to hire.

Annual Review of the Bylaws. We are also building in an annual review of the by-laws by the Past President and President-Elect each year. This will eliminate the situation that we are in this year where we are doing a large number of changes at once.

Click here for the proposed by-laws. I hope you will take some time to look at them. If you have any concerns, comments and/or questions you can direct them to Ron, Tom, or me.