Documents and background information on the proposed name change of the section:

BACKGROUND:

At the APSA annual business meeting in 2005, a motion was made to change the name of the section from RACE, ETHNICITY, and POLITICS to RACE. ETHNICITY, and SOVEREIGNTY. The motion passed with 18 in favor, 1 opposed, and 4 abstentions.(For a more detailed explanation and more background on the rationale for this proposed change, please go here).

We discovered that we had not followed the appropriate procedure to change the name of the section once we looked more closely at the bylaws. The bylaws state that changing the name of the section could only be done by a formal amendment  and that a majority vote at a business meeting was not sufficient to pass it. Passing an amendment to our bylaws is a two-tiered process. An amendment can be proposed in one of three ways and then must be voted on in an "all section  member" vote. If two-thirds of those returning ballots approve the amendment, it passes. If not, it does not.. (See relevant section in bylaws here:)  This violation of our procedures was verified by Michael Brintnall in an email correspondence. (See here for a copy of this email correspondence). (For complete copy of bylaws, go  here ).

In accordance with the procedures outlined in the bylaws,  we submitted a request  to the members of the executive council to see if, after they deliberated,  a majority would support proposing an amendment to put before the membership. Again, support for an amendment does not imply support for a name change- only an agreement that the issue is substantive enough to put before the membership for a vote. This deliberation culminated in a conference call, moderated by Joe McCormick, in late July 2006.  

The deliberations of the executive council resulted in general agreement that the issue had enough merit to be put before the membership, but there was no agreement on whether the name should be changed, and if so, what name would be best suited to capture the breadth of issues covered by the work of the members in the most parsimonious fashion. (To read a summary of the responses of the executive council members who participated, go here.) For a copy of the minutes of the conference call, submitted by section secretary, Russell Benjamin, go here.
The majority of the executive council members also support putting a proposed amendment to substitute email ballots for mail ballots, which is the current language in our bylaws.

So, this is how we will proceed:

1.) We invite commentary and civil discussion in advance of the business meeting through the race-pol listserv. To submit a comment to the race-pol listserv, please email your comment to: race-pol@listserv.ilstu.edu.

2.) We also will have time reserved on the agenda in our business meeting for public discussion of this issue, though in the interests of time, we may impose time limits on individual commentary.

3.) We will continue discussion on the race-pol listserv after the business meeting.

4.) We will institute an email ballot to all section members later this fall, facilitated by APSA staff and mechanisms.  According to our bylaws, if 2/3rds of those returning ballots vote to change the name, the amendment passes and the name of the section officially changes. If less than 2/3rds of those returning ballots, votes to change the name, the amendment does not pass and our section name remains the same.