There was much discussion, a proposal, and a motion was made at a General Membership meeting to eliminate the position of the General Vice President position from the Executive Board. During this election you, the members, get to decide if you feel that is something that you want or do not want to do.
This is Brother Goodyear’s position that has been vacated by his Retirement. We want to thank him for all his years of dedicated service and his contributions.
This position was created when Albuquerque Firefighters Union combined with Bernalillo County Firefighter Union. It gave a place for the County Union President and City Union President to work side by side and smooth the merge. It was maintained over the years and has only been held by two officers, former BCFD Union President Emily Kane and now retired General Vice President Pat “Goody” Goodyear. After a good amount of debate it was determined that upon approval, the position could be eliminated from our Executive Board structure with minimal effects and will also align us more along the way the International is structured. Additionally, in doing this it will delegate more responsibilities down to the Chapter Vice Presidents and down each Chapter Structure. As an Executive Board we feel this is a good direction.
With this in mind we had to look at changes in the Constitution & Bylaws to make this happen. There are minimal effects to the Constitution & Bylaws in making this happen. However, there have also been issues that have come up over the year that have made us take a closer look at the Const. & Bylaws and found the need to make more revisions. Most of these revisions were made for clarification, better organization, or simply to correct typographical errors. Don’t be mistaken, there are some changes in there that are new ideas. The Constitution & Bylaws that are under review are identical other than one version of the Constitution & Bylaws INCLUDES the General Vice President position and the other version DOES NOT INCLUDE the General Vice President position.
At the General Officer Election on December 6th 2010 you will not only be voting on new officers but you will be voting on these two issues:
- · First, you will vote to keep or remove the position of General Vice President.
- · Second, you will vote FOR or AGAINST the Bylaw changes as a whole.
If the Bylaw Changes are accepted (Voted In) then the version of the Bylaws that is implemented is based on whether or not we keep the position of the General Vice President.
Both versions of the Revised Constitution & Bylaws are in the “Const./Bylaws” section of this webpage. To get to that area, log in and navigate down the sections on the left side. Const. /Bylaws section is the sixth (6th) button from the bottom.
Additionally, copies of the changes will be coming out to the stations this week.
