In February, the membership voted to approve of a new set of bylaws for NASW, as required by NY state government regulations for nonprofit corporations, except for a passage that dealt with disciplinary procedures, Article VIII. Members voted to create an ad hoc committee to further discuss and develop a draft for Article VIII. Co-chairs of the committee are Dan Ferber, a board member, and John Gever. They solicited volunteers from a general call to membership. Other members of the committee are: David Lawrence, Jennie Dusheck, Melissa Blouin, David Levine, Norman Bauman. Once the committee's work is concluded and the president, Mariette DiChristina, and others have commented, the Article will go to an attorney for review and adjustments (if needed). The amendment will then be voted on at the next annual meeting in early November in New Haven, Conn.; as usual, members may vote in person or by proxies.
Some members on the lists have asked questions about the draft's language. The current version is posted at http://www.nasw.org/final-article-viii-revision-vote. If you have comments, you may post them at the bottom of that page. Please use your real name and email address. The committee will review the comments. The draft will then be updated, if needed, and reposted for members to view in plenty of time before the vote in November.
The committee consists of volunteer members who responded to a general call months ago. Because NASW follows the model of a democratic republic, those committee members are charged with deciding for our collective benefit which comments need to be incorporated and which do not. They will not engage in open debates on the talk list, which is available for view by nonmembers (as part of NASW's charter to encourage discussions about science writing). And they cannot respond to each individual note or answer every individual query, although they will update us on their progress in general.
Thank you, John Gever Dan Ferber co-chairs
