Bylaws and Standing Orders

Last revised January 2003

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Bylaws and Standing Orders

(Minutes - March 2003)

The ASLCS Committee on Bylaws and Standing Orders met at the State Capitol in Columbus, Ohio on March 15, 2003. The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m., by the Chairman, George Bishop. The following members were in attendance:

George Bishop, VA
Diane Bell, FL
Ann Cornwell, AR
Joe Blough, OK
Cheryl Laube, AZ

Denise Weeks, NC
Judy Hall, OR
John Garrett, VA
Norm Moore, AR

The minutes from the committee meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana were distributed. Diane Bell moved that the minutes be approved. Denise Weeks seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Updates to the Standing Orders, Standing Order Index, and the Joint Index to ASLCS Bylaws and Standing Orders were submitted and distributed by Norm Moore.

The committee considered two proposals that would recommend new language to the Bylaws and Standing Orders intended to clarify the designation of associates as voting members and to specify the process by which principals may designate proxies at business meetings. The proposals had been drafted at the previous committee meeting in New Orleans, and had been submitted to the entire committee in December and again in March. The chair shared with the committee comments made from committee members who were unable to attend the meeting. A discussion ensued regarding the timing of a final vote on the proposals, with a motion being made by Judy Hall to postpone the vote until the next meeting, which is to be held in conjunction with the NCSL Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Since the proposals include a recommended change to the Bylaws, it was determined that the Executive Committee would have to act on the proposals in San Francisco in order to meet the notification requirements for Bylaws amendments specified in the Bylaws. The committee, therefore, agreed that it was important for the Executive Committee to have the proposals in advance of the meeting in San Francisco so that they could have time to review the proposals and receive input from others in the Society. Judy Hall withdrew her original motion, and she subsequently moved that the committee recommend Proposal #1 and Proposal #2 to the Executive Committee, with a formal presentation to be made to the Executive Committee in San Francisco. Denise Weeks seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

The proposals, as recommended to the Executive Committee, are as follows:

Proposal #1 - Amend Article I of the Society's Bylaws as follows:

MEMBERS--The membership shall be composed of the duly elected or appointed legislative Clerks and Secretaries of the fifty states and the insular possessions and territories of the United States of America.

Legislative employees designated by the Clerks and Secretaries may be associate members. The names of associate members shall be submitted in writing by the appropriate appointing authority to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society and shall be officially recorded. An associate member shall remain a member until such time as the appointing authority or a successor shall order in writing that the name of the associate member be removed from the record. Any former member of the Society may maintain an associate membership by notifying the Secretary-Treasurer and pay yearly dues at the associate level. Associate members shall be non-voting members except as provided in (b)and (c) below.

A voting member shall be one of the following:

(a) the duly elected or appointed Clerk and Secretary of each legislative body of the fifty states and the insular possessions and territories of the United States of America; and

(b) The Chief Assistant or Deputy Clerk or Secretary, or a person in an equivalent position as determined by the appropriate legislative body; and one associate member of each legislative body of the fifty states and the insular possessions and territories of the United States of America, determined by using the following criteria, in the order listed:

(2) an associate member as designated by the appropriate Clerk or Secretary.

VOTING--Each legislative body of the fifty states, the insular possessions and the territories shall have two votes, which shall be cast by the voting members of that body, or ana proxy appointedproxy from that body by the Chief Clerk or Secretary. The Executive Committee shall determine the appropriate method by which proxies are appointed.

Proposal #2 - Amend the Society's Standing Orders by adding a Section as follows:

Section XXIII: VOTING BY PROXY

A Chief Clerk or Secretary may designate a proxy to vote at the Annual Business Meeting in their absence. To properly designate a proxy, a Chief Clerk or Secretary shall complete the ASLCS Proxy Form and submit it to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society prior to the Annual Business Meeting.

A proxy form would be attached to the Standing Orders. The following form was recommended:

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LEGISLATIVE CLERKS AND SECRETARIES
VOTING PROXY
PRINCIPAL MEMBER

Name:__________________________________________________________________
Chamber: _______________________________________________________________
State or Territory: _________________________________________________________

This is to certify that, as a principal member of the American Society of Legislative

Clerks and Secretaries, I do hereby designate ___________________________ to cast

my vote at the Annual Business Meeting of the Society to be held ____/____/___ in

______________________.

______________________________ ____________________

Principal signature Date

Return the completed proxy to the Secretary/Treasurer prior to the business meeting.

The committee received a report from Joe Blough, Co-Chair of the Legislative Administrator Committee, outlining a proposal to modify the Standing Orders and Publication Standards regarding the publication of the Society's newsletter. The Executive Committee had passed a motion in New Orleans that asked the Bylaws and Standing Orders Committee to:

"study, in conjunction with the Legislative Administrator Committee, possible changes to the Standing Orders and Publications Standards to allow for the publication/printing of a single 'yearly issue' of The Legislative Administrator. The study should include, but not be limited to the following issues:

1. Moving from three (3) published/printed issues to a single 'yearly issue' printed following the NCSL Annual Meeting;

2. Using the Internet as the sole distribution method for the winter and spring issues;

3. Changes to language requiring that every dues-paying member be mailed a copy of The Legislative Administrator, i.e. make receiving a copy an option upon request; and

That the Bylaws Committee shall report its findings not later than the Executive Committee Meeting to be held in San Francisco."

Joe Blough presented a working draft to the committee that generated much discussion. As the committee's allotted meeting time had expired, it was decided that the chair would confer with Joe Blough and submit a recommendation to the committee well in advance of the meeting in San Francisco. The committee, therefore, will have time to review the proposal and be ready to discuss it and vote on it at its meeting in July.

The chair submitted language that has been proposed as a Preface or Forward to the official Standing Orders document. John Phelps, Chief Clerk of the Florida House, authored the text, the purpose of which is to explain the importance of the Standing Orders and draw a distinction between that document and the Bylaws. This was a recommendation from the previous committee that had been brought before the current committee by Susan Schaar. The proposed language, which will be discussed and acted upon in San Francisco, is as follows:

Preface to the Standing Orders

Upon becoming President of ASLCS in 1992, I learned that many of the business practices and policies of prior Executive Committees had been passed along from year to year only by word of mouth. In most situations, word of mouth would suffice but in hard or ambiguous cases it did not. Faced with a difficult issue, Presidents and Executive Committees often spent valuable time finding someone who remembered how a question had been previously addressed and why. The system of Standing Orders was conceived to solve this problem.

The By Laws are the Society's constitution. Standing Orders bear the same relationship to our By Laws as statutory law does to a constitution, i.e. they are a written body of policy continuing in force unless amended or repealed by act of a present or future Executive Committee.

The Standing Orders have the added benefit of fostering a more open and transparent relationship between the Executive Committee and the membership.

- John Phelps

Clerk, Florida House of Representatives

There being no more allotted meeting time remaining, the chair entertained a motion to adjourn. The motion was made by Diane Bell, and seconded by Denise Weeks. The motion carried. The committee adjourned at 10:10 am.

For more information about ASLCS, write or call:

Joan Barilla
National Conference of State Legislatures
7700 East First Place
Denver, CO 80230
Phone: 303/856-1349
FAX: 303/364-7800
E-mail: joan.barilla@ncsl.org