NEW YORK NURSE: July/August 2008
The NYSNA board of directors has approved the following two proposed bylaw amendments for presentation to the 2008 NYSNA Voting Body.
Note: If additional bylaws are submitted after this issue of New York Nurse goes to print and “at least thirty days before the date of the annual membership meeting” – as required by NYSNA Bylaws Article XXI – they will be mailed to all members within thirty days of the business meeting.
Amend Article XVIII – Organizational Membership in American Nurses Association by striking Section 3 c) and the proviso. The language to be deleted is as follows:
c) No delegate shall serve more than four consecutive terms nor a total of more than eight consecutive years.
Proviso: This limit on eligibility to serve as a delegate shall commence with the election of delegates in 2001; delegates may be elected to serve four consecutive terms from that point forward irrespective of previous tenure as delegates.
Rationale: NYSNA has experienced increasing difficulty in recent years in seating a full delegation because of multiple demands on members’ schedules, and NYSNA faces the imminent likelihood of an increase in delegate allotment. Approximately two-thirds of the current delegation is made up of members who were not in the group elected in 2001 when term limits commenced, thereby satisfying the intent of term limits by providing a diverse delegation. The effectiveness of term limits for an elected group as large as the NYSNA delegation (86 for the current biennium) is questionable since the restriction addresses consecutive service, limits choice on the part of voters and prospective candidates, and potentially deprives the delegation of valuable experience. Term limits were instituted based on the level of participation required by an annual House of Delegates; beginning in 2006 delegates have the opportunity to participate in only one house in the course of their two-year term.
Amend Article XXI – Amendments Section 1, second paragraph, by striking “thirty” and inserting “seventy-five” so that the sentence would read: “All proposed amendments shall be in the possession of the secretary of this association at least seventy-five days before the date of the annual membership meeting or special meeting, as the case may be, and shall be appended to the call for such meeting.”
Rationale: This amendment would: enable the association to continue the current practice of publishing bylaws proposals with the call to meeting in New York Nurse; allow the Committee on Bylaws time to participate in the process; and eliminate the additional expense and confusion of mailing bylaws directly to the members with less than 30 days before the annual meeting.