Dear Fellow APA Members,
Election week begins tomorrow, July 5th. As you vote, you should know that our Board of Directors is against Dan Mangan's candidacy and is re-writing our Bylaws to prevent him and others in his position from ever running for President in the future.
A working draft of the new APA Bylaws includes the following highlighted change:
Quote:5.1 Nominations of President Elect. Any Member qualified under Article III to hold APA elected office and who has served during the two previous years on the Board of Directors may have his or her name appear on the ballot if nominated by at least one (1) voting Member. A voting Member may self-nominate. The nomination shall be made in writing and submitted to the APA’s National Office at least ninety (90) days prior to the commencement of the APA annual seminar. Any form of written communication (e.g., electronic, facsimile, etc.) is acceptable, provided the communication can be authenticated, if necessary.
A comment on the draft by Walt Goodson states "The consensus of the BOD seems to support requiring the president-elect to be a prior director."
There is talk of limiting the requirement to one year, and not two, and of adding a requirement that anyone seeking election to the BOD must have attended the previous annual seminar.
The BOD is also afraid of an international takeover of the Association and is planning on excluding non-US citizens from becoming Members of the Board. While the current draft allows up to two BOD members to be non-US citizens:
Quote:4.5 International Composition of the Board of Directors. At no time may more than two (2) Directors positions be held by a person who is not a citizen of the United States of America.
The Official Language of the APA is English and official correspondence must be in English. The official National Office for the APA must be in the continental United States (CONUS) with at least one annual meeting held in a CONUS location that is attended by a quorum. All Directors must agree and be capable of traveling to CONUS locations for all Board meetings. The banking institution holding the funds for the APA must also be in a CONUS location. The provisions in 4.5 may not be changed except by a three fourths (3/4) majority vote of the general membership.
see the comment in the margin by APA General Counsel Gordon Vaughan:
Quote:ISSUE DISCUSSED AND UNRESOLVED BY BOD. RAY NELSON TO DRAFT PROPOSED LANGUAGE THAT NO OFFICER MAY BE NON-US CITIZEN. NO LEGAL IMPEDIMENT TO THIS PROVISION PER RICH BARR. GORDON HAS INCLUDED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THIS PROVISION A PROVISION THAT BUSINESS OF THE BOD WILL BE CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH.
So International Members are to be considered Second Class Members. Several members of the BOD make money giving polygraph training outside the U.S. and encourage their students to join APA. This draft shows what the BOD really thinks of them: happy to take their money, but unwilling to let them have any real influence on the Association.
Happy 4th of July, everyone!