OEMA
BYLAWS
2007-2008 Proposed Bylaws (DOC) ---
2007-2008 Proposed Bylaws (RTF)
Proposed Bylaws changes would affect Article VII and Article XI.
ARTICLE I
The name of this organization shall be Oregon Association of School Libraries (also known as OASL)
and hereafter in these Bylaws shall be referred to as the Association.
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ARTICLE II
The purpose of the Association shall be to improve education through the encouragement of the professional growth and
status of its members and to promote, strengthen, and unify the school library programs in the State of Oregon.
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ARTICLE III
This Association may be affiliated with educational and
professional organizations which encourage and promote the ideas
and purpose of this Association. Affiliations shall be determined
by the Association's Board of Directors.
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ARTICLE IV
Members
Section 1. The membership of the Association shall be limited to
professional, paraprofessional and associate members.
Section 2. Professional membership shall be open to licensed persons
engaged in educational activities in Oregon. Persons requesting
professional membership must be able to demonstrate that they hold or
have held
positions requiring professional preparation and occupy positions
of decision-making and/or direct student instruction or are
employees of commercial firms engaged in the advancement of
educational media.
Section 3. Paraprofessional membership shall be open to assistants,
aides, technicians, and other classified employees engaged in educational activities.
Section 4. Associate membership shall consist of three types:
student, non-resident, and general.
a. Associate student membership shall be open to regularly-enrolled students in an accredited institution of higher education
in Oregon, or to an Oregon resident regularly enrolled in an
out-of-state degree-granting institution.
b. Associate non-resident membership shall be open to those
persons having qualifications of professional membership, but who are
employed out-of-state.
c. Associate general membership shall be open to any other person
who is interested in furthering the objectives of this Association
and benefiting from its activities activities including Joint OLA members and
representatives from The Oregon State Library.
Section 5. The association year will be July 1 to June 30.
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ARTICLE V
Divisions and Sections
Section 1. The Association shall consist of the following
divisions: Building Level, Higher Education, Commercial, and
District. These divisions are for the purposes of program and
representation on the Board of Directors.
Section 2. Each member shall be affiliated with one division to be
determined by employment status at the time of payment of annual
membership dues.
Section 3. The Association shall be divided into geographical
regions. The number and geographical description of the regions
shall be determined by the Board of Directors. Each region shall
be entitled to one representative on the Board of Directors.
Representatives will be liaisons for membership, program, and
board activities for their region.
Section 4. Interest area sections may be formed, or existing
organizations affiliated, by the approval of a majority of the
members of the Board of Directors upon written petition of ten
professional members of the Association. The Board of Directors shall
determine prior to approving any such petition that the Bylaws of
the petitioning organization, if any, are in harmony of purpose
and effect with those of the Association.
Section 5. The activities of each division, section, or region
will be open to all members of the Association.
Section 6. The organization, the selection of officers, the
activities, and the management of the funds of each division,
section, or region are under the direct control of the Board of
Directors of the Association.
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ARTICLE VI
Officers
Section 1. The officers of the Association shall be the President,
the President-elect, the immediate Past-President, the Secretary
and the Treasurer. The officers shall be professional members of
the Association. The officers shall perform the duties prescribed
by these Bylaws and by the Parliamentary authority (current
edition of Robert's Rules of Order) adopted by the Association.
Section 2. All officers shall be elected by mail or email ballot. All terms
of office shall coincide with the Association year, or until
successors are elected. The Association year shall be July 1-June
30.
Section 3. No member shall hold more than one office at a time.
Section 4. The President-elect shall succeed to the office of
President for a term of one year. The President shall succeed to
the office of immediate Past-President.
Section 5. Should the President be absent, the President-elect
shall preside. Should the office of President become vacant
between elections, the President-elect shall assume the vacancy
and continue through his rightfully-elected term.
Section 6. The Board of Directors is empowered to fill vacancies
by appointment or special election except the office of President.
Should it be necessary for the President-elect to assume the
Presidency, the Board of Directors is empowered to hold a special
mail election to fill the President-elect vacancy.
Section 7. The Secretary and the Treasurer shall serve for
alternating two-year terms and shall be eligible for re-election.
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ARTICLE VII
Board of Directors
Section 1.The voting members of the Board of Directors shall
consist of the five officers of the association, one elected
representative from each region, the elected representative from
the Higher Ed, Commercial and District level divisions, three
elected representatives from the building level division (one each
from elementary, junior high/middle and senior high), and one elected
paraprofessional representative. All other board
members must be professional or paraprofessional members of the Association except for
the representative members from OLA and OSL.
Section 2. Non-voting members of the Board of Directors shall be
the representatives from the Oregon Library Association, a
representative from the Oregon Department of Education, a
representative from the Oregon State Library, the Archivist, the
Interchange Editor and staff, the Newsletter Editor, a Parliamentarian, the Executive Director
and other appointed board positions.
Section 3. A quorum of the Board of Directors shall be a majority
of the voting Board members.
Section 4. The Executive Committee shall be the Executive Director, five officers of
the Association and two other voting members of the Board of Directors
elected from the Board for a one-year term. At least one member of
the Executive Committee shall be a member of the largest division
of the Association. A quorum of the Executive Committee shall be
the majority of its members. The Executive Committee is empowered
to act for the Board of Directors.
Section 5. The Board of Directors shall have general supervision
of the affairs of the Association between its business meetings,
develop a set of written policies to assist in the transaction of
the business of the Association, make recommendations to the
Association, fix the hour and place of meeting, and shall perform
such other duties as are specified in these Bylaws. The Board of
Directors shall be subject to the orders of the Association, and
none of its acts shall conflict with the action taken by the
Association.
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ARTICLE VIII
Meetings
Section 1. The Board of Directors shall have the authority to plan
the schedule of meetings for the Association. In that schedule, at
least one state conference is to be held each year.
Section 2. An annual business meeting of the Association must be
held during the first statewide conference each year.
Section 3. Additional business meetings of the membership may be
called by the Board of Directors or by a petition signed by 10% of
the professional members of the Association.
Section 4. For any business meetings the membership must be
notified not less than fifteen (15) days in advance of the
meeting. An agenda is to accompany the notification of any
business meeting, only those items on the agenda may be acted
upon; however, items from the floor may be discussed and action
taken at a future business meeting.
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ARTICLE IX
Elections
Section 1. On or before the winter board meeting of each year, the
Nominating Committee shall present nominees for
President-elect and other officers and representatives to the
Board. The nominating committee should consider the rotation of
the presidency among the divisions of the Association.
Section 2. Nominations for President-elect and other officers may
be made by petition signed by ten professional or paraprofessional members of the
Association. Petitions must be submitted to the Past-President by the
announced deadline.
Section 3. Provision shall be made on the ballot for write-in
candidates.
Section 4. The Executive Director shall mail or email ballots to the general
membership by late winter. Included in this mailing
shall be appropriate descriptive information on all candidates.
Section 5. All ballots received by the deadline as stated on the
ballot shall be counted and the candidate for each position
receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared elected.
Tie votes shall be decided by lot.
Section 6. Election to all Board positions, except for
President-elect, shall be for two years. Approximately one-half of
the Board shall be elected each year. Regional representatives
shall be elected from within their region. This election may take
place at the Spring Conference. In the event that a spring
conference is not held in a region, or an election is not held at
the spring conference, a mail ballot will be used. The Past-President
must be notified of the Region Representative election results
before the spring board meeting.
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ARTICLE X
Dues
Section 1. Dues for the various classifications of membership
shall be set by the Board of Directors.
Section 2. A dues change may go into effect ninety (90) days after
the membership has been notified.
Section 3. A proposed dues increase must be submitted to the
entire membership by a mail ballot if ten percent of the
professional membership submit a written request to the
Association Secretary. Acceptance of the proposed dues increase
will be determined by a majority vote of the ballots received
within thirty (30) days of the ballot mailing.
Section 4. Membership dues are collected as defined in the
Policies and Procedures Manual.
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ARTICLE XI
Committees
Section 1. The President shall appoint committee chairs for all
standing committees. The President shall appoint all chairs for
any ad hoc committees as the Board of Directors of the Association
shall deem necessary from time to time to carry on the work of the
Association.
Section 2. The standing committees of the Association shall be
Membership, Promotions, Awards, Scholarship, Nominating,
Intellectual Freedom, Legislative, Telecommunications, the
OLA-OEMA Joint Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation, and
the Connie Hull Committee, and OSLIS (Oregon School Library Information System).
Most committee chairs shall serve a two-year term and may be
reappointed.
Section 3. The Nominating Committee shall consist of the three
most immediate past presidents of the Association and sufficient
additional members to insure at least one representative of each
division. The chair shall be the immediate past president.
Section 4. The President shall be an ex-officio member of all
committees except the Nominating Committee.
Section 5. Each committee (Standing and Ad Hoc) shall present a
goals statement by the summer board meeting and a summary
report at each full board meeting. A final written report is to be
submitted to the Secretary by the end of the Association year.
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ARTICLE XII
Officer Attendance at National Meeting
The Association shall budget annually an amount of money to be
determined by the Board of Directors for the reimbursement of
delegates' travel expenses to the annual national conventions of
the American Association of School Librarians, the Association for
Educational Communications and Technology, and other out-of-state
meetings as approved and budgeted in advance by the Board of
Directors.
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ARTICLE XIII
Amendments
Section 1. Amendments to these Bylaws shall be presented in
written form to the Secretary by the Board of Directors or by
petition of a group of ten professional members. After presentation
there must be opportunity for discussion of the proposed amendment
at a called business meeting of the Association as provided in
Article VIII.
Section 2. Voting on the amendments shall be determined by Board
action and must occur either at the next regular annual election
of the Association or if decided by the Board to be of an
emergency nature, a special election may be held not sooner than
fifteen (15) days nor later than thirty (30) days after discussion
of proposed amendment.
Section 3. Ballots shall be sent to all members.
A two-thirds majority of all members replying to the ballot
within thirty (30) days will be necessary to amend these Bylaws.
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ARTICLE XIV
Official Documents
Section 1. The officers of the Association shall develop, and
maintain, official documents that shall include, but not limited
to: position descriptions, affiliation agreements, business
procedures, minutes, and conference procedures.
Section 2. Each Board member shall be issued a governance manual,
and shall be responsible for maintaining that manual during their
tenure and for transmitting them to the Secretary upon completion
of term of office.
Section 3. The President shall charge the Archivist with the
development of appropriate storage and retrieval processes. The
maintenance of those historical records shall be referred to as
archives.
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ARTICLE XV
Special Service Contracts
Section 1. The Board of Directors shall have the authority to
enter into special service contracts for services that the Board
deems necessary to facilitate the on-going activities of the
Association. These contracts will be used for, but not be limited
to: an Executive Director, printing jobs, and conference
facilities.
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Amended Oct. 1991
Amended April 1994
Amended April 1997
Amended April 1999
Amended April 2000
Amended April 2004
Amended April 2005
Amended October 2006
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