What is the proposed bylaws change?
The NBTA Board of Directors recently endorsed the concept of giving Allied Members the opportunity to elect their own members to the NBTA Board. Because Allied Members do not currently have this privilege under NBTA’s Bylaws, Direct Members will need to vote to change the language in the Bylaws.

As envisioned by the NBTA Board, Allied Members would gain two additional seats on the board (The president and vice president of the Allied Leadership Council sit on the NBTA Board currently). One new Allied Member would be elected to the Board during the 2007 NBTA election cycle, and a second would be elected during the 2008 cycle. In each of these cases, the new Allied representative on the board would replace a Direct Member representative whose term is expiring. The overall size of the board will remain the same, but representation on the board would consist of nine Direct Members and four Allied Members. The key officers on the board (President & CEO, Vice President, and Chairman/Past President) would continue to be Direct Members and would be elected by Directs only.

How the process to amend the bylaws will work
In order to enable this change to happen with the 2007 election cycle, NBTA will call a special meeting of the membership prior to the start of that cycle to approve the bylaws change. NBTA’s bylaws mandate that special meetings require a quorum of at least ten percent of the Direct membership, however members are allowed to send in their proxy to a designated representative who may vote according to their wishes. Special meetings must be called between 10 and 60 days of the date of the special meeting. The anticipated date of the Special Meeting is December 14 at a location near the association’s headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Because members may send in their proxy, their attendance at the Special meeting is not required.

In November, NBTA will send Direct Members notice of the time and location for the special meeting in December. At that time, they will be presented with the language of the proposal and be invited to either a) attend the meeting, or b) send in their proxy to an NBTA representative.