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Written by Brent Deitrich, Consitution & Bylaws Chair
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August 23 2011 |
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The Board of Directors for INBA unanimously amended the Bylaws with provisions to accomodate online voting through the INBA website. The amended parts of Section III in the Bylaws are below in italics - the latest version of the Constutition and Bylaws is posted online here.
Article III – Methods of Elections: Section 1: At least four (4) months before the date of the Annual Meeting, the President shall appoint an Election Committee of three (3) members. This committee will be responsible for ensuring that a nomination form is included in the 2nd quarter newsletter for members to nominate their choices for officers. Online nominations through the INBA website are also accepted. Logged in INBA members have the ability to submit a nomination form online, where it is stored in the INBA website database and sent to a separate email box where it is kept secret until nominations are closed and the election committee is ready to tally the results. At that time, the password for the email box will be released to the chair of the election committee. Only one (and the first) submission from each member is counted. For a family membership (two votes), each family member must have their own INBA online account and submit the nomination form under that account online. This committee shall also make necessary investigations to ensure the nominated candidates will accept the office if elected. The final ballot will include the two nominees with the highest number of nominations for each open position, and a space for write-in candidates. If any nominated person declines the nomination, the Election Chair shall contact the next person nominated, in order of nominations from highest to lowest.
Section 2: The Election Committee shall prepare the ballot for mailing to the membership, and the final ballot must be returned to the election chair postmarked on or before the second Friday of September. The ballot may be mailed in conjunction with an issue of the newsletter or separately. The ballot will be two-part, with a signature stub that is to be signed and detached, then mailed along with the sealed ballot to the Election Chair. The Election Chair will, upon receipt, verify the signature stub with the current membership list and attach the signature stub to the mailing envelope. The sealed ballot will be deposited in a separate receptacle until tabulation. The Election Chair will be charged with ensuring that the ballots remain unopened until the time of tabulation. For online voting, the same process applies as with nominations. The ballot can be accessed through the logged in member's account and filled out and submitted only once. Only one (and the first) submission from each member is counted. For a family membership (two votes), each family member must have their own INBA online account and submit the election ballot under that account online.The procedure for storing and tallying the votes is the same as in Section 1 above. Abuse of any of the online voting procedures by a member (submitting multiple votes outside of the limits of their membership, abusing the submission process, etc) could result in that member's online account being suspended by the board of directors.
Section 3: The tabulations of the sealed election ballots shall be undertaken by the Election Committee. The ballots will then be sent to the annual meeting. The total voting results shall be made available in the next newsletter of the Association and on the INBA website.
Section 4: Duties of the new officers shall be assumed following the completion of the old business portion of the annual meeting.
Section 5: Any Director or Officer may be recalled by petition of a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the membership with the right to vote thereon.
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