Association of Alumni
Constitutional Amendment Subcommittee

Conference Call

Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Noon - 1 PM ET

Participants: John "JB" Daukas, Kate Strayer-Benton, Jeff Crowe, Lynne Gaudet

JB Daukas opened the call. He reported that he made a powerpoint presentation to the Dartmouth Alumni Council at their meeting in May to let them know about the potential for a proposed constitutional amendment that would be put forth by the Association of Alumni Executive Committee to address the situation that occurs when an election is uncontested. He also spoke with the Alumni Liaison Committee about this and Lynne Gaudet spoke with the Alumni Council's Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee about it. The Nominating Committee supports the idea of a proposed constitutional amendment and suggested that it include the following:

1) Retain the current petition period and process (petitioners can file to run within 60 days of the announcement of the Alumni Council nominated trustee candidate(s))

2) If uncontested, then there would be no election. The name would be sent directly to the Board of Trustees as the nominee for them to vote on.

3) If contested, then there would be an electronic election with paper ballots available upon request.

JB said that he received positive feedback from alumni councilors to the proposal to not hold an election if the Alumni Council nominee is uncontested. Jeff Crowe and Kate Strayer-Benton said that the feedback they had received from alumni has been similar and that many alumni have told them that they are aggravated by the request for them to cast a vote in recent uncontested elections.

The group agreed that the recommendations outlined by the Nominating Committee should be followed for the amendment. Each year, there is an Association of Alumni Executive Committee election and the opportunity for a vote on amendments to the AOA constitution. In a trustee election year, all items are on the same ballot and the election is run at the same time. Thus, the amendment will have to note that an election will not be held when there are no petition amendments, and no contested elections for either the AOA or the trustee.

JB will outline a draft of the amendment and email it to Kate, Jeff, Lynne and Martha Beattie so that the group can discuss if there needs to be any revisions. Once the text is finalized, then the amendment will be presented to the entire AOA Executive Committee for their approval. Lynne will contact the Executive Committee to schedule a call with them on either Aug 20 or 21.

Lynne has prepared a draft of the 2013-2014 AOA election timeline which the Executive Committee will be asked to approve during that call. The timeline requires the proposed amendment to be posted on the Association of Alumni website by November 27th. The Executive Committee will also select a Nominating Committee for next year's election.

JB adjourned the call.

Submitted by,

Lynne Gaudet, Director of Alumni Leadership