Had hoped to see more discussion! But realized I had not even read the Dec Sabal Minor with the info for Forum discussion, so wonder that many members will not have had "time" to digest these Bylaws changes.
I read the by law changes this morning. I "think" I like the idea of the Council of Chapters but I have not yet seen how that Council will operate and wonder if there will be too wide a gap between the chapters and the FNPS Board with only 3 reps from the Council. Back when I was involved with the FNPS board (serving as my chapter's rep and later as VP Admin) I appreciated getting to know members from other parts of the state. How will FNPS leaders interact with the Council?
I would hope there would be a fluidity between these groups and not a wide gap. Can Julie and Scott point us to some document that describes how Council will operate?
Thanks for all the work involved to keep FNPS up to date. I love FNPS! (and my local Chapter!!) we need each other.
Joan B
Thanks Joan,
Don't worry we aren't abandoning you, and I realize that change is difficult. We worked hard (over 18 months) at finding a solution to having representation from the chapters to the board, and even hired experts to aid us. When discovering the size of our current Board of Directors, they gawked at how we could possibly get anything done. And really, we weren't (aren't) getting as much done as we should. That was also an underlying sentiment by many board members as well as other FNPS members. Currently, the Board of Directors is not very "fluid".
A recent example is that we (the FNPS BOD) just voted online for this year's Palmetto Awards. Doing this online should be simple, and is necessary as Board meetings are too infrequent, and there is a lot of other business that occupies time. Our bylaws necessitate a quorum of 1/3 of the BOD, we barely met that despite having a 2-week window to vote, advanced notification of the vote, and constant cajoling and reminders. We do not function very well with our current governance structure.
When I announced the vote of the proposed bylaw changes at my chapter's monthly meeting, one of our members, a founding member of FNPS, stood up with a smile and addressed the audience. She stated that back in the early '80s, we never envisioned such success and growth. She also never envisioned the potential logistics and communications problems with over 30 FNPS chapters. She understood the need to modify ourselves, and adapt to the times as well as to our own success.
The Board (including chapter reps) and others feel that 3 chapter reps appointed to the new BOD and having one of them be on the new Executive Committee (which would essentially be the officers, past president, and the Council of chapters Rep. (likely the chairperson) will create a sufficient link. Although not necessary for the bylaws (which are still a bit too wordy), the operations will likely entail having the FNPS president and Executive Director attend the Council meetings as bystanders. In addition, having the Council of Chapters as a separate entity will allow them to better discuss Chapter issues, which often fall to the wayside due to limited time at the meetings. It will allow more time for orientation and
program development. The Council has also created smaller councils for each region of the state, allowing for more crosswalk, shorter distances for physical meetings, and support for those chapters which are drifting, or have drifted.
In addition, we envision seeing everyone at our Annual Conference, and at an additional retreat each year.
We do need to adapt to the times, and the tools for communication are more numerous today than they have ever been. Board meetings need to be more frequent, remote, and for shorter duration (say ten meetings online at 1-2 hours as opposed to four 8-hour physical meetings tacked onto travel time, which is 6 hours/meeting in my case). Online video or teleconferencing with 40-60 people simply cannot be done. Meeting online,
posting reports online, and having records available to any and everyone allows for monitoring of the FNPS BOD, the Council of Chapters and other Committees. We should at least give it a shot, and please remember that we went through a long process to get to here, so this isn't a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants decision. If it doesn't work, then we will find another solution.
Steve