NER members will soon be receiving a mailing asking to approve revised bylaws to the organization. The revised bylaws were approved by the board at the March 27th board meeting and now must be ratified by the membership. For the bylaws to take effect, they must be approved by the NER members by at least a two thirds majority of voting members with at least 15% of the membership voting.
The purpose in the changes to the bylaws were two fold.
- The format of the bylaws was modified to follow an existing template which included sections dealing with conflict of interest and compensation procedures that are required for NER to complete the process of certifying it’s non-profit status with the IRS.
- The manner for selection of the board of directors and the officers of NER was modified. Currently, the President, Clerk, Treasurer, and RBA are elected by the membership annually and the remaining board members are the coordinators appointed by the board.
If ratified, the new bylaws call for the annual election of 6 – 10 board members who will then select a President, Clerk, and Treasurer from the members of the board. Additional officers may be appointed by the board as needed and may or may not be members of the board. The office of RBA is no longer listed as an elected or appointed position on the board since this position is controlled by RUSA and not by NER.
This was done to simplify elections while allowing those willing to serve on the board to do so without running for a specific office and to allow members who wish to serve in a given positions (e.g. equipment manager, permanents coordinator, route coordinator, etc.) do so without requiring them to serve as a members of the board.
The revised bylaws can be found here.
I would ask that all members please take the time to fill out and return the ballot in the provided envelope.
Thank you for your support.
Dan Greene
President NER