01.
Elections and Voting Process
Elections for Officers will be conducted every two years. A nomination and elections committee will present a ballot of nominees to the Board of Directors and Officers for approval by October 1. The approved ballot will then be provided to the membership of each state, province or territory by their Director by November 15. Members should send their votes to their respective state, province or territory Director. Each Director, for their respective state, province or territory, will record votes from their membership and then cast one ballot reflecting the consensus of votes from their membership to the nomination and elections committee by December 15. The nomination and elections committee will tally the votes and present the results to the outgoing Officers.
02.
Voting Process for Nonelection Subjects
When The Board of Directors (The Board) votes, there needs to be a quorum and majority rules. Each state and province gets 1 vote. The President also is allowed 1 vote and is the only voting member of the Officers unless there is a tie, in which case, the Vice President can vote to break the tie. The Board may adopt rules and regulations pertaining to conducting meetings of committees as long as they’re not inconsistent with the by laws (There is nothing that says a vote has to occur for these). Notice to members entitled to vote will occur no less than 10 days and no more than 120 days prior to the meeting. For issues that involve membership vote, 20% must be represented.
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A Quorum of The Board is defined as 51% of the total number of Representatives and The President.
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Proposals to be addressed and voted on by The Board can be brought forward by any member of WBWG. Any member at large will work with the Provincial or State Rep to either 1) present the topic for a vote, or 2) have the Rep present the topic for a vote.
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Issues of process or of reasonable consequence may be voted on without consulting the membership. Since The Board was elected to represent the membership and it is not reasonable to go to the membership to vote on every topic, decisions to engage the membership to vote on specific topics is the responsibility of The Board. At any point, if a Representative feels a topic should go out to the membership for input and/or a vote, The Board shall discuss the merits of doing so and vote to do so or not.
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Adequate notice and review time will be provided for topics that require a vote by the membership. This is expected to be at least 10 days and may be several months, depending on the extent of the proposed action.
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Notice of a voting action requiring membership vote must occur between 10 and 120 days.
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When The Board decides a vote will go to the membership, voting by the membership shall be conducted by each Province and State, led by the Representative. The Representative will represent the vote of their Province or State when a call for a vote is initiated for The Board.
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Unless brought forward as a concern, it will be assumed that 20% of membership is represented when there is quorum of The Board present to vote.
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Voting individuals must be a member of the WBWG.
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If a membership vote has not been secured by a Rep for their State or Province at the time the Board votes, they can abstain from voting or ask to revisit the vote at a later date. Postponing a vote to a later date will require agreement by the Board. For a Representative to place a vote on behalf of their membership without soliciting input is unacceptable.
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Representatives that cannot make the call or meeting when a vote is cast can either have an Alternate of their choice place a vote in their stead, or email their vote to the President, Vice-President, and Secretary so that it is received before the close of the call or meeting.
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When voting occurs, the following steps will occur:
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A proposal is brought forward
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A respectful discussion is initiated that
(1) Reviews the merit of the proposal(2) Identifies additional editing, review, or work that is needed on the proposal, if such work is needed, a date is set to revisit the proposal.
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The Board decides whether it is appropriate to take an immediate vote by The Board or extend it to the membership.
(1) If the vote goes immediately to The Board, proceed to Step 4 (2) If the vote goes out to the membership, a date is set when the vote will be revisited after a membership vote has been secured (10-120 days).
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Once Step 3 is completed, further discussion can be called for after which, a motion to vote on the item is clearly stated, the motion is seconded, and a vote tally is recorded with each State or Province providing 1 vote.