Members Eligible to Vote On Proposed Bylaws Change

As reported in the last two membership meetings, the ALAO Executive Board has been working to strengthen ALAO's governance and fiscal autonomy.  ALAO historically has affiliated with other non-profit organizations that have acted as our fiscal agent.  For many years we were a section of the Ohio College Association (OCA), and more recently, associated with SWON Libraries, in order to have the benefits of non-profit status.

The Executive Board is in agreement that ALAO should incorporate as an independent non-profit organization, thereby avoiding the fiscal and management uncertainties that arose from the closing of OCA and extensive reorganization of SWON.  We will continue our relationship with SWON as our fiscal agent, while gaining the ability to act as our own fiscal agent when desired or necessary.

We must replace our current Constitution with a new set of Bylaws required for incorporation in the state of Ohio.  These governance documents require an affirmative vote of the ALAO membership.  This special election has two parts, which will occur on the same ballot:

1.  to rescind the current Constitution, and then, 2.  to approve the proposed Bylaws as a replacement for the Constitution.

The second part will only be adopted if the first proposal (to rescind the Constitution) is accepted by two-thirds of members voting in the special election.

The current Constitution can be viewed here: http://www.alaoweb.org/aboutalao/constitution.html

The proposed Constitution can be downloaded here: Proposed Bylaws of the Academic Library Association of Ohio

The comparison document can be downloaded here: A Comparison of ALAO Constitution and the Proposed 2011 Bylaws

Voting is scheduled for June 1-15, 2011.  Another email will be sent when the election is open.

Thank you for your consideration of this important issue for the Association.