Proposed amendment to the NAGCR constitution and by-laws

[Don Morrison <dfm ringing org>]

I believe many folks have received their copies of The Clapper this
week, and those that haven't should be receiving it soon. You will
notice that there is a proposed amendment to the NAGCR constitution,
and I'd like to encourage you all to vote in favor of it.

It amends the constitution to treat all members of the Guild residing
in North America on an equal footing, by making Resident Membership
open to any resident of North America interested in furthering the
goals of the Guild. The reduced class of Associate Member is
eliminated.

Without this change full membership in the Guild is contingent upon
being "sponsored" by an existing member of the Guild. This sponsorship
criterion makes the Guild more like a private club, and less an open
organzation aimed at promoting ringing in North America.

In particular, there have been cases of embryonic bands being formed
in areas where there are no existing members, and feeling unwelcome to
join the Guild as full participants. This works at variance to our
goal of extending ringing. We should be welcoming all interested
parties with open arms.

The detailed wording of the proposed amendment, to prevent ambiguity,
repeats full sentences sentences from the existing constitution, with
just the few words being changed so changed. This may cause some
confusion among those reading the proposal without reference to the
existing wording. The only change is making full membership open to
any interested party resident, and no new rights or obligations are
added or subtracted.

To facilitate comparison with the existing constitution I've put a
version of the proposed amendments with strike outs and bold face
additions at

    http://ringing.org/amendment.html

If you would like to see in an easy format the exact affect of the
proposed amendment, I recommend having a look there.



-- 
Don Morrison <dfm ringing org>
"I don't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm
frightened of the old ones."                -- John Cage, _Silence_