Category Archives: Bylaws

CALL Bylaws Committee 2020-2021 Annual Report

The 2020-2021 CALL BYLAWS Committee was comprised of: Committee Chair Annie Mentkowski and members Jamie Stewart and Brandy Ellis.

The Bylaws Committee updated the committee charge and the committee description. It also reviewed the CALL Bylaws to ensure that they continued to align with the AALL Bylaws. In addition, the Committee also worked with the Archives Committee to bring the policy log up-to-date.

CALL Bylaws Committee 2019-2020 Annual Report

The 2019-2020 CALL Archives Committee was comprised of Committee Co-Chairs Patricia Sayre-McCoy and Jean Wenger

The Bylaws Committee met once during the 2019/2020 CALL year. There were no updates to the Bylaws for the current year and so no amendments were drafted or voted upon.

The Committee Chairs were engaged in the CALL leadership activities and responsive to enquires from the Board.

CALL Elections: Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws

CALL members will consider a proposal to change the existing CALL Bylaws, and vote upon these proposed amendments in the upcoming CALL Election from February 15 through March 15.

If approved, the proposed Bylaws amendments would:

(1) align the CALL membership categories with AALL’s membership categories by eliminating the “associate” member category (allowing those members to become full voting and office-holding members of CALL); and

(2) eliminate the requirement that retired members have been active CALL members for at least 10 consecutive years.

The Bylaws election will be available on the CALL Elections page of the website, so please remember to cast your vote!

CALL Bylaws Committee 2017- 2018 Annual Report

There were no other committee members this year, as it was anticipated that the Committee would have very little work.  The anticipation was accurate; no amendments to the bylaws were pursued this year.  The President requested a report in November on the process for amending the bylaws.  I submitted that report on 11/8/2017, recommending that, in view of the process for approving a proposed amendment and scheduling an election, it was very late in the 2017-2018 year to propose and pass an amendment, and that a better time frame could be achieved in the 2018-2019 year.  The Committee had no further business.

Introduction to the CALL Bylaws Committee

The CALL Bylaws Committee is composed of a chairperson, with additional members as needed in years when major changes to the Bylaws are to be considered. The Committee is charged with monitoring and reviewing the Bylaws of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) for any implications to CALL.

The Committee works with the CALL Board and the CALL attorney regarding any questions concerning CALL Bylaws.  A thorough review of the CALL Bylaws is conducted every 3-5 years.  The Committee may also submit suggestions to the Board for consideration.  If the Board has suggestions for modifications of the Bylaws, the Committee reviews these suggestions and formulates possible amendments.  Any such amendments are presented to the membership at a business meeting, at which time a vote is taken whether or not to send the amendments to the entire voting membership.  Extensive revisions to the Bylaws were made in 2003-2004 and additional modifications were made in 2008 and 2013.

‘Gender Identity’ Change

AALL gives its chapters considerable leeway with the contents of their bylaws, but a chapter’s antidiscrimination article must be no less inclusive than that in the AALL Bylaws.  In January 2014, AALL added “gender identity” to its antidiscrimination article thereby requiring a revision of CALL’s Bylaws.

The proposed amendment was presented to the membership at the November 2014 business meeting; the members present voted to send the measure to the entire voting membership for approval.  In January 2015, the amendment was approved.

 

Annual Reports: Bylaws Committee

In June, the Association voted to adopt changes to the CALL Bylaws.  These amendments were primarily adopted so that the Nominations and the Elections committees could be merged. Other amendments were technical in nature, inlcuding changing the language of the antidiscrimination article to correspond more closely with that of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL).

Since that vote, AALL has amended their antidiscrimination clause to include gender identity.  In order that CALL be in compliance until another bylaws amendment is approved by the membership, the CALL Board passed a resolution to add gender identity. It is expected that this new amendment will be discussed at the Association’s September 2014 meeting and then voted upon by the membership.

Respectfully submitted,
Frank Drake, chair Bylaws Committee