We would like to put forward for a vote by the membership a revision for the term of office for members of the Executive Board, such that their term of office will start and end immediately following the annual ABRF meeting.
Currently, ARTICLE IV, SECTION 2 of the ABRF By-Laws is as follows:
“SECTION 2. Number and Term of Office. The Executive Board of the Association shall consist of eight (8) persons, elected to serve a term of four (4) years. The term will commence January 1st following the election and end December 31st four years hence. Each year, two members will rotate off the board to be replaced by two newly elected members.”
We would like to change SECTION 2 so that it will state the following (change is italicized):
“SECTION 2. Number and Term of Office. The Executive Board of the Association shall consist of eight (8) persons, elected to serve a term of four (4) years. The term will commence immediately following the annual meeting after the elections and end four years hence. Each year, two members will rotate off the board to be replaced by two newly elected members.”
The rational for this change is as follows. One of the primary responsibilities of Executive Board (EB) members is to liaise with Research Groups (RG) and Committees whose main efforts are directed at projects and tasks that will be presented at the annual meetings. In practice, this entails a very close working relationship between the EB members and the RGs and Committees continuing up to and through the annual meeting. Furthermore, the EB has considerable responsibilities associated with the annual meeting. We have found that having two members exit the Board on December 31st has a significant detrimental effect on the interactions between the EB and RG and Committee operations at a very critical time Thus, we recommend that rather than have the Executive Board terms follow the calendar year, they should follow the annual meeting dates. We believe this will provide for a more effective and continuous interaction of the EB with the RGs and Committees through the end of the annual meeting. Furthermore, this will promote better organization and oversight of the annual meeting.