Correspondence with Michael Brintnall about our proposed name change:

We sent the following e-mail to Michael Brintnall on May 30th to seek clarification:


Michael:

Paula Mohan (the other co-chair of our organized section) and I need your advice. On May 20th (Subject: Section Update), I sent an e-mail to Linda Davis informing her of an impending name change of our section from Race, Ethnicity and Politics to Race, Ethnicity and Sovereignty. I will not at this juncture revisit all of the details that led to that decision which occurred at our business meeting in September 2005. As we are preparing for our next business meeting and after examining our by-laws (see attached), we are concerned that the name change, while supported by the majority of those present, might be in violation of our by-laws. Here is the section of our by-laws that is most pertinent to our dilemma.

V. Amendments to the By-Laws
 
Amendments to these by-laws may be proposed by the Executive Council, by a majority vote of the participants at the Annual Section Meeting, or by a petition containing the names of 25 percent of the members of the section submitted 30 days  prior to the Annual Section Meeting. Amendments should be voted upon by mail  ballot. Amendments to the by-laws become effective immediately after approval by two-thirds of the members returning their mail ballots.

Our concern is not with the name change per se, but with following the appropriate procedures. Your advice on this matter would be appreciated particularly since, if we have violated proper procedure, we would like to know far enough in advance of the 2006 business meeting to be able to correct it  with a formal amendment that is in sync with our by-laws.

We eagerly await your comments.

Regards,

Joe


Brintnall quickly responded to this e-mail the very next day, 1 June 2006. He wrote:

Joe,

From a quick look at this, I'd have to conclude I agree that the name change
is not official until approved by an all-member vote, and cannot be done
just by action at the business meeting (emphasis added).   This may not be such a big
difficulty.  For one thing, for the name change to be official, it would be prudent
to have APSA's Organized Section committee review and acknowledge it, and
for the APSA Council then to wave its hands over the change.  This is not
because I see any opposition there to the change, but just to affirm the
oversight principle (e.g. in case a section opted to change its name in a
way that collided with another sections name, etc.)  

Now comes the tricky part about running a "mail" ballot.   APSA, by its
Constitution, is expected to run all-member elections by "mail" ballot.  The
Council has adopted the following addition to the APSA by-laws:  "1.1 Mail
ballots are defined to include email ballots."   In that spirit, you could
do one of three things:  1) mail a ballot to all members asking about the
name change, and/or changing the by-laws to allow email votes;  2)  run an
email ballot of all section members that includes two things:  a) approval
of use of email to conduct a vote; and b) approval of the name change;  or
3) just have the Section council approve use of email for a mail ballot (by
email!) and send the ballot around by email asking for approval of the name
change.   

What do you think?

Michael