Comments on the Draft Bylaws
(part one)

Many people have been sending me numerous comments on the Draft Bylaws (Going Forward, September 2003 special issue). Including them all in one article would take up a great deal of space, so I'm going to split the comments into two groups: those that will be incorporated into the next draft, which appear below as they will appear in the next draft, and those that are not currently being included (with my reasons for the exclusion), which will appear in the next issue. As with the Bylaws themselves, I encourage comments on these new additions either for or against. I can be reached at neunerdude@cs.com.

You will see below that citations from the Draft Bylaws are in bold, with changes and clarifications appearing in bold italics. I hope that this will not cause reader confusion.

Finally, a thank you to the contributors whose ideas appear below (in alphabetical order): Richard Amyx, Judy Dosse, Linda Kelso, Jared Levine, The Joyce Lundeen, Bill "TBill" Melms, Russ Nevins, Scott Rainey and Sander Rubin. The ideas are theirs; the wording is mine. Now, on to the new stuff!

In the document as a whole, the word "by-laws" has been replaced by the word "bylaws." (Amyx)

Article I (General Information) has been reordered so that section 2 (location of principal office) appears at the end, and sections 2-4 are renumbered accordingly. Also, the first two sentences of section 1 (definition of the Society) have been combined into one. (Rainey)

Article II (Membership of the Society), section 2 (membership obligations) has been completely rewritten to read: "Every member shall be obligated to fulfill such conditions of membership as may be set forth in the Constitution of Mensa. Additional conditions of membership not set forth in the Constitution of Mensa may be made only by amendment to these Bylaws." This puts the question of information and privacy back in the hands of Mensa International, where it belongs according to the Constitution of Mensa. It incorporates by reference the three existing conditions of membership already in the Constitution. Finally, it allows the members to add other membership conditions. (Kelso, Lundeen, Nevins, Rainey)

Article V (Terms of Office; Vacancies; Removal from Office), section 2 (filling vacancies), subsection b (Regional Vice-Chairmen) has been altered to read: "In the case of a vacancy in the office of Regional Vice-Chairman, the Local Secretaries of all local groups in the region in question shall present a list of three of their number to the American Mensa Committee, from which one shall be appointed as Regional Vice-Chairman." This puts more of the replacement process for Regional Vice-Chairmen closer to the members of the region. (Levine)

Article V, section 4 (recall), subsection a (petition for recall) was changed to make it somewhat more difficult to remove an officer than to nominate someone for the office. The original number of signatures on the recall petition was one percent of the members of the society or, for RVCs, one percent of the members of the region. The number of signatures in each case has been changed to two percent. (Kelso, Levine)

Article V, section 6 (removal of Chairman Emeritus) was clarified. The first sentence now begins: "The Chairman Emeritus may be removed from office by a vote of all past Chairmen of the society who are current members of the society, …" (Lundeen)

Article VI (American Mensa Committee), section 5 (authority of AMC), subsection d was clarified. The first sentence now reads: "Create and promulgate policies and procedures, and create and promulgate procedures for hearings and elections." (Kelso)

Article VI, section 7 (Executive Committee) was both clarified and changed. The clarification occurs in the third sentence, which now begins: "The Executive Committee shall be responsible for the oversight and handling of urgent matters involving the operations of the society, …" (Melms) The change occurs in the last sentence, which now reads: "Actions taken and decisions made by the Executive Committee can be reversed only by a majority vote of the full voting membership of the American Mensa Committee." This change, from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority, was made after it was pointed out that with the reduced size of the AMC, requiring a two-thirds majority would mean that it would be almost impossible for the AMC to reverse the Executive Committee. (Levine, Lundeen, Melms)

Article VII (Ombudsman), section 3 (responsibilities), subsection c (introducing motions) was changed in two places: first, to require proof that a request for a motion was made and turned down; and second, to allow by inference that a member can request a motion from any AMC member. The subsection now reads: "To request the Secretary of American Mensa to introduce motions to the American Mensa Committee upon written request from a member, provided that the member show proof that a request to introduce the motion has been made to and turned down by a member of the American Mensa Committee." (Levine, Melms)

Article VII, section 4 (powers), subsection c has been clarified. The second sentence now reads: "The editors of all such publications must deem a communication from the Ombudsman marked `for publication' a matter of the highest priority and must publish it in the next issue of their publication without any alteration or editing." (Melms)

Article VII, section 8 (compliance) has been changed. The first sentence now reads: "The decisions of the Ombudsman regarding the resolution of disputes are final and take immediate effect." This change was made to allow for the possibility of appeal of an Ombudsman's decision, as noted in the next section of this Article. (Melms)

Article VII, section 9 (appeal) has been added. The section reads: "Actions directed to be taken to correct a situation may be appealed to a Hearings Committee. The Hearings Committee may alter or cancel such actions based on their review of the situation and the actions directed. However, the Hearings Committee may not reverse an interpretation of Bylaws, policies, procedures, and rules of conduct made by the Ombudsman." (Melms)

Article VIII (Hearings Committee), section 2 (composition) has been changed. The last sentence now reads: "Any member of American Mensa who is not currently serving as an officer or functionary of American Mensa, Ltd., and who is not involved in the matter in controversy, is eligible to serve on a Hearings Committee." This was done to increase the pool of eligible prospective members of a Hearings Committee, and to remove the perception that a Hearings Committee composed solely of past officers would somehow be inclined to show favoritism. (Rubin)

Article VIII, section 3 (timing) has been changed to read: "Following receipt of a formal complaint by the Chairman of American Mensa, or after a dispute is referred to the Chairman by the Ombudsman, a Hearings Committee shall be formed within fifteen days. The Chairman of the Hearings Committee shall immediately send to all parties to the complaint, by registered mail, a notification of the specifics of the complaint, a copy of the current procedure for hearings, and the preliminary date and place of the hearing. The time from the creation of a Hearings Committee to the completion of its hearing shall be no more than three calendar months." These changes were made because (1) the formerly stated amount of time for notification was unusually long, and (2) the Committee needed to have flexibility in scheduling while having a firm deadline for its work. (Rubin)

Article IX (Elections), section 5 (ballot preparation) has been changed. References to having "none of the above" appear on the ballot were removed, since now all candidates are put on the ballot by petition. (Levine)

Article XII (Miscellaneous) has a new section 5 (severability), and the former section 5 has been renumbered as section 6. The new section 5 reads: "If any provision of these Bylaws shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable under applicable laws of the state in which the Society is incorporated, for any reason, then actions previously taken under such provision shall not be deemed invalid, and the remaining provisions shall continue to be valid and enforceable." This section was added in response to the confusion arising from conflicts among the current Bylaws, Mensa's Articles of Incorporation and New York state corporate law. (Dosse, Levine)

—Allen Neuner