Proposed Bylaws Amendments
This is a member
initiated Bylaws amendment process.
The Bylaws may be amended
per Article XV (see below) by request of "not less than 3% of the
members". A conservative estimate of the minimum number of member
signatures required to initiate this amendment process is 500.
I am proposing that the members join with me to petition for the
amendment of the Bylaws of the American Academy of Actuaries so as to
provide for the direct election of all directors and officers by the
members (i.e. MAAAs).
You may help initiate the process to
amend the Academy Bylaws in one of three ways:
- Download,
sign, and return to me the
Petition Form for 1
Signer. Information on how to return is on
the form.
- Download one or more
copies of the Petition Form for 20
Signers and use it to collect signatures form Academy members
you know who want to amend the Academy Bylaws so as to allow for the direct
election of all directors and officers by the membership. Then
return the completed Petition forms to me as indicated on the
form.
- If attending either the Society of
Actuaries Annual meeting (10/26 - 10/28/09) or
the American Academy of Actuaries Annual
meeting (10/26/09 Luncheon meeting in conjunction with the SOA
meeting) in Boston, you may sign one of the many petition forms that
will be in circulation there.
Look for me or one of many others who will be collecting signatures on petition forms to initiate this important Bylaws amendment.
By signing a petition you will only be initiating a process that will allow you to vote in the future on specific language of a proposed Bylaws amendment. These Bylaws amendments will be drafted so as to provide every member of the Academy with an opportunity to vote in a competitive election for directors and officers they feel will be good representatives for them and the profession - as is the current process for the CAS and SOA.
We will limit amendments to only those necessary to accomplish the purpose as outlined in the OUTLINE (see downloads section). The OUTLINE is intended to provide you with a clear description of the Bylaws amendments we are proposing so you can determine whether or not you wish to participate in initiating this amendment process.
We welcome any comments or suggestions any member
might have to improve what we have proposed in the OUTLINE. Send to
Reply@BakosEnterprises.com. We will try to
incorporate any suggestions that seem to be improvements and in keeping with the
general principles of providing for the direct election of directors and
officers by the members in a contested election. However, for obvious
reasons we cannot guarantee that we will be able to or can please
everyone.
You will see that the OUTLINE attempts to provide
for a fair distribution of directors and officers among the various
practice areas present in the U.S. actuarial
profession.
Again, your signature on a petition only
initiates a voting process. If you feel that the final proposed Bylaws
amendments are not appropriate, you may vote against them in the election run by
the Academy even though you signed a petition.
The Process
After allowing some time for
comments or suggestions relative to the OUTLINE, we will begin drafting actual
Bylaws amendment language. When finished we will expose this to the
membership for additional comment and suggestions and make any modifications as
appropriate and in keeping with the general objective. The Bylaws
amendment will be accompanied by a document that will compare the proposed
revisions to the current language and provide a discussion of the reasons for
recommending the changes.
When we have final Bylaws amendment language
and have, in hand, petitions with at least the minimum number of signatures
required to initiate a Bylaws amendment, we will submit this material to
the Academy Board with a request to initiate a Bylaws amendment
process.
The Academy Board, per Article XV (see below), would be required
to "specify a reasonable period of time" within which the proposed
amendments will be transmitted to the members for a vote. A
2/3rds affirmative vote (of those members voting) will be required to pass the
amendments.
Timing
As
noted in Article XV, Bylaws amendments "become effective 10 days following the
end of the voting period upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members
voting." We anticipate that the election would be carried out
electronically but the Academy may also choose to conduct it by mail as they
currently do not have any electronic voting methods in place.
Our target
is to have, with your help, Bylaws amendments in place such that the first
election of all directors and officers directly by MAAAs may participate
in will be held during the summer of 2010. You will note that there are
provisions in the OUTLINE that address a necessary transition and also
anticipate a later implementation.
Article
XV—Amendments
Administrative, editorial, and technical amendments to the Bylaws that do not involve questions of policy or affect the substantive rights of the Academy’s members may be made by a vote of two-thirds of the Directors present at a duly convened meeting of the Board. Otherwise, amendments to the Bylaws may be proposed either by a vote of two-thirds of the Directors present at a duly convened meeting of the Board or by written request of not less than 3 percent of the members. The Board shall specify a reasonable period of time within which the proposed amendment shall be transmitted by the Secretary-Treasurer to the members by mail, which includes electronic means, and the time for votes to be mailed by the members to the Secretary-Treasurer. Such proposed amendment shall be accompanied by an appropriate discussion of the issues, and it shall become effective 10 days following the end of the voting period upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members voting.