Constitution and Bylaws Committee

Report to the 2011 Representative Convention

The Constitution and Bylaws Committee is one of the committees designated by the Education Minnesota Bylaws to facilitate the work of the Representative Convention. The authority to amend the Constitution and Bylaws lies solely with the Representative Convention. However, before the proposed amendments are distributed to the delegates in mid-January, the committee’s responsibility is to read and examine all proposed amendments submitted by members, and to apply to each such proposed amendment the guidelines and procedures outlined below.

The Constitution and Bylaws is our most important document. The four submissions this year deserve the delegates’ greatest attention and care. Accordingly, please carefully read and consider each proposal, the stated rationale and the committee’s impact statement. Compare what is proposed to what currently exists. Determine whether you agree with the proposal’s stated goal and whether it achieves the goal. Listen and participate in the debate and determine whether you believe the organization’s mission and objectives are better served with or without the proposed change.

Members who submit proposed amendments intend for them to be considered on their merits and not to be ruled out of order because of a procedural error or some other legal or parliamentary flaw. The committee does what it can to help ensure this same objective. To avoid having a proposed amendment ruled out of order, members who submit the proposed amendment should have:

Precisely determined the amendment’s objective;
Identified all the appropriate provisions that must be amended in order to achieve that objective;
Reconciled all existing or potential internal conflicts within the document affected or created by the amendment;
Complied with any mandated procedures;
Complied with all applicable laws, standards, policies, and rules; and
Submitted a proposed amendment that is achievable and enforceable.

The proposed amendments are the work of the members who submit them, and are not the work of the committee. However, the committee checks proposed amendments to:

Make sure they were timely submitted;
Identify any potential procedural flaws or internal consistencies;
Work with the members who submit them in an effort to correct any such problems; and
Ask any questions if the language of a proposed amendment is otherwise unclear.

The final job of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee is to draft an impact statement for each amendment. For each proposal the committee discusses the potential impact for the following four areas:

Organizational: How would this impact the organization at every level and throughout its constituencies?
Financial: How would this impact the annual budget of the organization?
Representation: How would this impact the members that represent the organization at various levels, their rights and their responsibilities?
Compliance: How would this impact the organization legally?

The purpose of the impact statement is to be issue-neutral, while identifying possible implications an amendment may have to the existing organization.

2010-2011 Constitution and Bylaw Committee members

Rodney Rowe, Worthington Education Association, committee chair
Callie Bush, Fridley Education Association
Tom Jensch, Kasson-Mantorville Education Minnesota
Heidi Morris, Education Minnesota Duluth-Clerical
Colleen Salay, Centennial Education Association
Tom Dooher, Education Minnesota president
Paul Mueller, Education Minnesota vice president
Denise Specht, Education Minnesota secretary-treasurer