THANK YOU for your patience. Attached is the finalized version of our bylaws in PDF format. The National Board (comprised of the 4 National Officers and all the Regional Presidents) voted unanimously to accept these last week. I took some time to clean them up and Alex helped with some of the formatting gremlins (I hate Word!)

As a reminder – the document will be “living”. As we move along this journey, there may be things in the Bylaws that seemed like a good idea at the time, may need to change, be adjusted or, just adapt to the times. We will be forming a Bylaw Committee (I have nominated Jim Johnson to chair!) and we should have representation from the Presidents AND membership. Please consider joining this team right after the first of the year if this area interests you. I don’t want anyone to think these things are like the 10 Commandments and carved in stone. With the frequency of our National Board meetings, as well as the conference calling system that facilitates online voting, changing these is not a cumbersome activity.

The Bylaws were written to try to accomplish the following:
* Put the power back in the hands of the National Presidents. We accomplished this by flattening the structure and making each Regional President a National Board Member
* Eliminate any power concentration from any national position. We accomplished this by a system of checks and balances with 30+ sets of eyes “minding the store” and removing the ability to “appoint” board members.
* Simplify the entire bylaw process. We accomplished this by using a simple majority only being required to change the bylaws.
* Encourage participation and information. We accomplished this by opening communication, having oversight, and documenting election processes.

I, personally, have been extremely happy (and not really surprised) with the professionalism and the positive and supportive attitudes displayed by everyone on the National Board. We will accomplish great things together.

Janni