Current Constitution Allows for Changes in Meeting Date
According to Article III, Section 1 of the current constitution, "the annual meeting shall be held at the College on the Tuesday following Commencement Day unless otherwise scheduled by the Executive Committee of the Association." The consitution gives the Executive Committee the right to set the meeting date, and to change it if required. We have held the meeting at various times of the academic year in an effort to maximize the opportunity for a wide variety of alumni to attend. There is no legal requirement to hold the meeting at Homecoming or around Commencment.
posted by Merle Adelman '80 at
6/19/2006 06:40:00 PM
4 Comments:
Guidelines for Conduct
of Meetings of the Association of Alumni of
Dartmouth College
These guidelines are currently under review by the executive committee. In the meantime, Item 4 is superceded by the newly announced guidelines on amendmends to the constitution. --3/26/06
(Amended as of October 17, 2005)
1. Voting at Association Meetings. ....
2. Date of Annual Meeting. In accordance with the Association's constitution, at each annual meeting, the executive committee shall set the date for the Association's next annual meeting.
3. Notice of Annual Meeting. ...
4. Proposed Amendments to Constitution......
One sees that not only is item #4 superceded (based on the February vote), but that the exec committee is ignoring its own Guideline #2 in order to accomplish its stated agenda of giving first priority to voting on AND PASSING the new constitution.
By
Tim Dreisbach '71, at 6/19/2006 9:02 PM
Also, Merle, the constitution is fairly quiet on the definition of "annual". As Tim has pointed out elsewhere, traditionally, the meetings have been understood to follow the calendar year (this was most clear when the annual meetings occured in December, conincident with the Council meeting). Under this understanding of "annual", postponing the 2006 meeting until 2007 is unconstitutional. You contend that "annual" means academic year, but I feel that interpretation is also historically flawed.
Specifically, I've requested the dates of the last 25 annual meetings (a period which I believe goes back to the last amending of the constitution) from the Alumni Relations office; they have not yet gotten back to me (nor is such information available on the AoA's website). However, it is my belief that the annual meetings were "pushed back" to December, and then later "brought forward" back to October; thus, the annual meeting that should have (constitutionally) occured after commencement in 2005 actually happened in late October that year, and the meeting which should have (again, constitutionally) been on June 13th, 2006, was going to occur on October 15th, 2006, by agreement of those at the 2005 annual meeting. Postponing the June 13th, 2006 annual meeting until mid 2007 thus violates both interpretations of "annual".
Again, this is my belief, based on what little information I have at hand; if you have information to the contrary (specifically, when and how the change from summer meetings to December meetings occured), please enlighten us.
By
David Gale '00, at 6/19/2006 10:44 PM
We did follow our own guidelines by calling the date of the next annual meeting at the end of the October 2005 meeting, but we still have the option to change this according to the constitution. Circumstances do change and, yes, the vote on the proposed constitution is a priority. Its passage will create a new alumni governance structure that will allow for more involvement by alumni in the College and less confusion on the part of those members of the Association who may not be directly involved in Alumni governance.
We did not ignore the guideline, but you may choose to interpret it this way. We chose to move the date of the annual meeting and it will still take place within the academic year.
According to Article 1, the EC can choose to hold the meeting at a time other than June.
By
Merle Adelman '80, at 6/20/2006 8:49 AM
We must stop criticizing Merle Adelman, because she is fiercely loyal and diverse and anybody who criticizes the Executive Committee has a political agenda while the Executive Committee has none and to argue anything proves you are a right winger who bayonets Belgian Babies, and she serves Dartmouth and those who love her, so she and her colleagues are right and they can use any calendar they damn well please, including the Mayan Calendar, which is base 20, under which the current Long Count doesn't end until the end of December 2012 (Gregorian) which gives the executive Committee that was duly elected by non-excluded voters the right and duty to retain power and guide us using constitutional guidleines they make up as they go along through the transition period which will be defined by the Zoroastrian calendar if the executive committee so pleases because they worked hard in ignoring all sectors of campus. See?
By
Frank Gado '58, at 6/20/2006 11:42 PM
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