By-Law Change: Presidential Terms

EUU President Carolyn Burlingame-Goff

At the recent CC Meeting in Basel, we discussed the effect term limits had on our volunteers.  Overall we felt it was positive for there to be a limit on the term of the President, both so that volunteers could step back from the post without any feelings of guilt, but also so that the group did not become too dependent on one individual serving as President year after year.

Nonetheless, the group felt that having a one-year term for the President was misleading.  Most past presidents will tell you that they didn’t figure out what, exactly, was expected of them and how to set their ideas into practice until they had been serving for a year.  For this reason, a majority of the CC agreed to ask the members to approve the following changes to the by-laws at our next AGM on 10 November in Bad Homburg:

OLD:  The officers of the association shall be President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Recording Secretary.  They will be elected at the Annual General Meeting held each Fall, and their term of office shall be from 1 January until 31 December.

There is no restriction on the number of terms of office a person may hold, EXCEPT that no person shall serve as President for more than two (2) consecutive terms.  Officers shall be members of EUU prior to and during their term of office.

NEW: The officers of the association shall be President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Recording Secretary.  Officers will be elected at the Annual General Meeting held each Fall.  Officers shall be members of EUU prior to and during their term of office.

The initial term of the President shall be two (2) years and the President’s term of office will be from 1 January until 31 December of the following year.  If desired by the President and the Members, a vote to extend a Presidential term by one year may be taken at the Annual General Meeting.  No person shall serve as President for more than two (2) consecutive terms or a maximum of three (3) consecutive years.

There is no restriction on the number of terms the Vice-President, Treasurer and Recording Secretary may serve. The term of the Vice-President, Treasurer and Recording Secretary shall be one year, from 1 January until 31 December of the same year.

Please take some time to think about these changes and discuss them with other members.  Members who would like to vote but cannot attend Bad Homburg should make sure their views are known to their Fellowship (or At-large) Representative.