RA Action:

News from the NEA Annual Meeting

July 5, 2007

Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules

The Representative Assembly will vote on amendments to the Standing Rules by voice vote at the first business meeting, July 2, 2007. Standing Rule amendments, if adopted, are effective immediately unless otherwise specified.

The Assembly will vote on amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, July 4, 2007. Amendments will be discussed before the voting begins.

Amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws become effective on September 1 following their adoption unless otherwise specified.

Further information may be obtained from NEA Governance and Policy Support, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036, (202) 822-7923.

Proposed deletions to the text appear in [brackets] and proposed additions are underscored.

NEA COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTION, BYLAWS, AND RULES

• JOSEPH WEAVER
  Chairperson, Indiana
• JOSEPHINE BERNARD
  Massachusetts
• JUDITH CEPHAS
  Maryland
• SYBIL CONNALLY
  Illinois
• DAVID SCHUTTEN
  Georgia

Amendments to the NEA Standing Rules:

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 1

Defeated

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 2

Withdrawn

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 3

Adopted

Rule 6. Order of Business and Debate
(no location given)
Any new business item that contains an acronym or abbreviated term shall include the complete name for the acronym followed by the acronym in parentheses when it is first used in that new business item.

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 4

Defeated

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 5

Adopted

Rule 6. Order of Business and Debate
D. The content of debate on any items for debate shall be displayed on all [available] screens, including projection screens, by real-time captioning.

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 6

Defeated

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 7

Substitute Adopted

[Members shall serve for one (1) year commencing September 1. No Person shall serve more than six (6) terms as member.]

The terms of members of the Resolutions Committee shall commence September 1. The terms of state, at-large, and retired members of the Resolutions Committee shall be for one (1) year, two (2) years, or three (3) years, and no person shall serve more than six (6) years as a state member, as an at-large member, or as a retired member. The terms of student members of the Resolutions Committee shall be for one (1) year, and no person shall serve more than two (2) terms as a student member. Service as a Resolutions Committee member prior to September 1, 2008, shall count toward the six (6) year and two (2) year term limits. A state, at-large, or retired member of the Resolutions Committee shall immediately relinquish his or her position when such member ceases to be a delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly.

STANDING RULE AMENDMENT 8

Adopted

Rule 11. Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules: Committee and Amendment Procedures
C. Constitution and Bylaws
2. Bylaws
F.(c) Bylaw Amendments Contingent on Adoption of Amendments to Constitution: A proposed amendment to the Bylaws which is dependent upon adoption of a proposed amendment to the Constitution shall be deemed to have failed unless the proposed amendment to the Constitution is adopted.

Amendment to the NEA Constitution:

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 1

Defeated

Amendments to the NEA Bylaws:

BYLAW AMENDMENT 1

Withdrawn

BYLAW AMENDMENT 1-A

Adopted

Bylaw 2. Membership
2-1. Categories
c. Student membership shall be open to any student (i) who is enrolled in a postsecondary program that is preparatory for employment in a position that would make him or her eligible for Active membership or (ii) who is serving as chairperson of the NEA Advisory Committee of Student Members[, except that any person who has ever been eligible for Active membership through professional educational employment shall not be eligible for Student membership]. A student who is eligible for Association membership in both the Student and Active membership categories may, with the approval of the Executive Committee, join the Association as a Student member. Student members shall be eligible to be voting delegates at the Representative Assembly. Student members shall maintain membership in the state affiliate provided the affiliate has a membership category for student members.

BYLAW AMENDMENT 2

Adopted

Bylaw 2. Membership
2-5. Membership Year
a. The membership year shall be from September 1 through August 31. A person who is not a continuing member of the Association who joins the Association for a particular membership year shall become a member of the Association as of September 1 of that membership year, or the date on which he or she joined the Association, whichever is later.

b. If a person who is not a continuing member of the Association joins the Association for a particular membership year prior to September 1 of that membership year, and the school year that corresponds to the Association membership year begins for that person prior to September 1, he or she shall be eligible to receive the benefits and services of the Association authorized by the Board of Directors during the portion of the school year between the date that he or she joined the Association and September 1.

BYLAW AMENDMENT 2-A

Adopted

Bylaw 2. Membership
2-7. Membership Dues
o.          Beginning with the [2000-01] 2007-08 membership year [and continuing through the 2009-10 membership year], the annual membership dues of Active members of the Association, as computed pursuant to Bylaw 2-7.a, shall be increased by [five dollars ($5.00) through the 2004-05 membership year; by six dollars ($6.00) during the 2005-06 membership year; by seven dollars ($7.00) during the 2006-07 membership year; by eight dollars ($8.00) during the 2007-08 membership year; by nine dollars ($9.00) during the 2008-09 membership year; and by ten dollars ($10.00) during the 2009-10 membership year] ten dollars ($10.00).  This dues increase shall be allocated to the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media Campaign Fund.  The annual membership dues of Student members of the Association, as established pursuant to Bylaw 2-7.g, shall [be increased by] include one dollar ($1.00) [through the 2009-10 membership year. This dues increase shall be allocated to the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media ­Campaign Fund] to be allocated to the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media ­Campaign Fund. 

Sixty percent (60%) of the money allocated to the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media Campaign Fund during each membership year shall be available to assist state affiliates in dealing with ballot measures and legislative crises, and forty percent (40%) shall be available for national and state media campaigns to advance the cause of public education and publicize the role of the Association and its affiliates in improving the quality of public education. 

Where necessary to avoid legal problems under state law, the Association and a state affiliate may, at the request of the state affiliate, enter into a written agreement providing that the money collected from members of that state affiliate shall not be used to deal with ballot measures, but shall be used only to deal with legislative crises and/or to fund national and state media campaigns. The Executive Committee shall develop guidelines to implement this Bylaw. These guidelines shall be submitted to the Board of Directors, and shall become effective when approved by the Board of Directors. The NEA president shall make a report regarding the operation of the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media Campaign Fund, which shall include a financial statement, to [the 2001] each Representative Assembly [and each of the succeeding Representative Assemblies].

BYLAW AMENDMENT 3

Defeated

BYLAW AMENDMENT 4

Adopted

Bylaw 5. Board of Directors
5-6. Alternate Directors

a.         (i)  A state or the retired or student delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly may elect an alternate director to serve in the place of a state or retired or student director, as the case may be, who is unable to attend a meeting of the Board of Directors.  The number of alternate directors need not equal the number of directors in a state or representing NEA-R or the number of student directors, but in no event shall any alternate director be designated to substitute for more than one (1) director at a meeting.  An alternate director must be elected in accordance with the requirements set for the election of NEA directors.

(ii) If, pursuant to Article V, Section 1, of the Constitution, the Representative Assembly elects one or more at-large ethnic-minority, administrator, classroom teacher in higher education, or educational support directors, the Representative Assembly shall also elect one at-large alternate in a particular category to serve in an at-large director’s place if he or she is unable to attend a meeting of the Board of Directors.

b. An alternate director shall be from the same educational position, or at-large category, as the case may be, as the director who is replaced.

c.  Alternate directors shall be certified to the NEA president in the same manner and at the same time as directors.

d.  Prior to the opening of a Board meeting, the president of the state affiliate or the president of NEA-R or the chairperson of the NEA Advisory Committee of Student Members, or the President of NEA in the case of an at-large alternate director, may request that the alternate director be seated by the Board of Directors if the director is to be absent from that meeting. Alternate directors shall have the right to vote and otherwise participate and shall assume all rights and privileges of the director replaced until the meeting is adjourned, except that they may not be elected to positions filled by and from the Board.

e. An alternate director shall not be a delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly by virtue of his/her seating as an alternate director at any meeting of the Board of Directors.

f. An alternate director temporarily may fill a vacancy in the office of state, retired, [or] student, or at-large director in accordance with requirements set forth in these Bylaws.

g. Service as an alternate director, whether prior to or following service as a state, at-large, student, or retired director, shall not be counted toward the two-term limit for any director position.