Results of Ballot to Modify Bylaws


During the past year, the Executive Board initiated revision of the Bylaws of the ABRF to bring them up to date with common practices and terminology, to provide for more efficient and practical operation of the Association, and to poll the membership on the issue of vendor employee participation on Research Committees. As required by the Bylaws, ballots were mailed to all members registered as having paid their dues at the time of mailing, after receiving a request from 21% (20% required) of the members to proceed with a vote to amend the Bylaws. The results of this vote are presented below. A total of 279 ballots were mailed, which meant that 142 votes, or 51%, were needed to decide an issue. A total of 156 ballots were returned postmarked August 19 or earlier. Not all ballots registered votes on every item, and one vote on item 1 was disqualified due to the presence of 2 "yes" votes. The results show that there was no resolution on item 1, vendor employee participation, but that all other items were passed.

Item         Comment                                           Yes      No
 
1.1      Allow vendor employees
         to serve on Research Committees                        73      82
 
1.2      Do not allow vendor employees
         to serve on Research Committees                        67      88
 
2        Stipulate that Executive Board members may not be
         vendor employees and must have been Associates
         for at least 3 years before nomination                144      10
 
3       Change language in Bylaws so it is gender-neutral      151       5
 
4       Change "Board of Directors" to "Executive Board"       155       0
 
5       Change "core facilities" to "resource facilities and
        resource laboratories"                                 152       3
 
6       Change "Associate members" to "Associates"             155       0
 
7       Redefine Article I "Purpose", Section 1, part A
        to include any laboratories interested in methodology  152       2
 
8       Redefine Article I "Purpose", Section 1, part C
        relating to educational objectives                     152       3
 
9       Remove restriction on timing of annual meeting         153       2
 
10      Change "Subcommittees" to "Committees"
        and formally define General Committees                 154       0
 
11      Eliminate listing of individual technologies
        to provide greater flexibility                         154       0
 
12      Formally define "Voting Representative"                154       0
 
13      Provide additional mechanism
        for initiating Bylaws changes                          148       5
 
14      Change definition of quorum
        from 50% to 40% of Associates                          142      10
 
 
 

Because item 1 was not resolved by this membership ballot, the issue will be addressed and resolved by the Executive Board during the Fall. Until then, the interim policy on Research Committee membership (see ABRF News 6 (3), p. 2) will remain in place: members currently serving on Research Committees and previously confirmed by the Executive Board may continue their service, but the Executive Board will not confirm for service any additional employees of commercial firms that supply equipment or reagents to resource facilities, until they reach a decision on this matter.

 


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Created: 21st September 1996
Last modified: 21st September 1996