Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Bylaws Amendment Proposal

With the changes in the district coming in 2012 thanks to the work of the Redistricting Commission, we have some challenges and opportunities before us. The Executive Board considered two alternatives to how we could adjust our bylaws to encourage activists from all over our district to get involved within our district organization.

You can see the results of our debate on our website, where we have posted a Tracked Changes version of the bylaws showing the changes we are proposing.

The first change is increasing the number of At-Large members from five to seven. Our district has grown in size, and we need to open up more positions.

The second change is to require that at least one member of the eboard is from each of our three municipal jurisdictions (Seattle, Lake Forest Park and Kenmore). We also wanted to ensure that at least one of our top four positions (Chair, 1st Vice Chair, 2nd Vice Chairs (2)) is opened to someone from either Lake Forest Park or Kenmore. Those two Northshore cities make up close to 25% of our total district population, so it makes sense to make sure one of the top four positions is from that area. We also wanted to make it clear that the language we will present on January 19th is, as we say in the industry, a "shoehorn" to make it fit through the 2012 election year, and that the language will be reviewed and likely revised after the January 2013 Reorganization.

The third change is a change to our Endorsement articles so that we have the opportunity to express our voices and declare preferences in special elections that occur beyond the Primary and General Elections managed by King County Elections. We have an election for the King Conservation District coming in late February, and we're not going to miss it this year.

Please review the language we have posted on our website. The bylaws can only be amended by the full membership at a general meeting, and we will present this proposal on January 19th.

Chad Lupkes
Chair, 46th District Democrats

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