By-Laws Amendments to be put before the Association

After months of discussion and review the Board of Directors has made several substantive amendments to the by-laws. Each of these amendments have been made to improve the sustainability of the leadership, increase transparency and accessibility to leadership roles, streamline the processes and to remove sections in conflict with state law. It is with these efforts in mind that the Board of Directors shall submit a motion to the membership at the Annual Meeting  “To accept the Amended and Restated By-laws as presented.”

The redlined version of the document may be reviewed in its entirety here (2020 SAVMA Redlined By-laws for General Membership).

Sustained Leadership Efforts

• Changing from a Vice President to a President Elect. The role of a President Elect will be to spend a year preparing for the role of Presidency. This additional leadership preparation time with the known expectation for leadership will prevent future vacancies in leadership.
• Changing board terms to 2 years from one year terms (Every year 100% of the board must be recruited, this will reduce that to 50%.

Increased Transparency and Access to Leadership Roles

• An open application, recommendation and election process will replace the current process for Officer and Director elections. The purpose is to allow Members an opportunity to review the requirements of positions, to necessary permission from supervisors prior to nominations, and to ensure broader access to leadership across membership by giving self nomination opportunities.

General Update

• Proxies need to be submitted 24 hours in advance. To verify the validity of a proxy it should be submitted by the member and Secretary has to certify current membership prior to the meeting. This will ease administrative burden since many of our meetings are electronic 24 hours will help.
• Records and Reporting access is repetitive to state law and this section was removed so as not to lengthen the by-laws or conflict with state law as state law changes more frequently than SAVMA by-laws. Minutes are now posted in the Members section of the website including the Membership Directory and the Membership voting records. If members have additional questions about accessing records of the association please send an email to the SAVMATucson@gmail.com so that we may help you access those records per the law.
• Certification of the by-laws for signatures to verify this is the correct document going forward. After the general membership approves the document, several board members will sign as certification.