ByLaws

tandersen@ccgateway.amc.edu
Thu, 28 May 98 09:29:36 EST


As one who is no longer serving on the Executive Board, and therefor
feels somewhat more free to express my personal opinion, I would like
to speak IN FAVOR of CHANGING THE SIZE of the EB from 6 to 8 members.
My reasons are as follows:

a.) The workload is appreciable, and spreading it out to 8 members
will help a great deal. The ABRF is a very active society and we keep
our EB occupied.

b.) The succession of officers, namely President and Treasurer, needs
to have provisions for greater continuity than now exists. Actually,
we have done very well in this regard for the first 10-12 years of the
association, but the potential for a major discontinuity is very real.
By having 8 members and 4 year terms, the association can set up
president-elect, president, past-president terms, which makes
newcomers to the EB much more comfortable than having, potentially, to
go cold turkey to becoming president. Many of the other major
scientific societies have this sort of succession process.

c.) I believe that any additional costs will be quite small. There
is no way to know, of course, unless we run the experiment, but my
guess is that an 8 member board will allow for one or two members to
occasionally miss a telephone conference call (whereas with 6 members,
the pressure to attend every meeting is pretty high), and that extra
costs will not increase by 30% (we would be increasing the size of the
EB by 30%). I wouldn't worry about the costs anyway, because I think
added productivity will result.

d.) It is true that being asked to serve for a 4-year term, as
oppossed to a three-year term, will require more thought and planning
on the part of ABRFers asked to stand for election, but I believe the
ABRF is filled with people who will give rather unselfishly of their
time if asked. And again, being part of an 8-member board is less
onerous than being part of a 6-member board.


Tom Andersen

518-262-5368
tandersen@ccgateway.amc.edu
Dept Biochemistry & Molecualr Biology
Albany Medical College
Albany, NY 12208


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