Changes to TNI Bylaws

Date Posted: 12-13-2013

At the request of the TNI Board of Directors, the Policy Committee reviewed the current bylaws and developed proposed changes in 2 specific areas, ex-officio Directors and stakeholder representation.  In performing this review, the Committee noticed a number of other areas for improvement.  The changes include:

  • Article VIII, Business Meetings, and been renamed and renumbered to become Article IV, Membership Meetings, and the new article requires an annual meeting.
  • Ex-officio Directors may now vote, but their participation on the Board is subject to a ratification of the membership, and a new section in Article V was developed. This ratification would be held at the same time as the Board election in March of each year, and thus the implementation of this provision would not occur until April 2014.
  • The composition of the nominating committee has been moved from Article V, Board of Directors to Article VIII, Committees and the section has been revised to have a provision if a Past Chair is not able to serve as chair of this committee.
  • The section on electronic voting from the Board has been removed.  Electronic voting on any particular motion could be allowed under the TNI SOP on voting rules when needed.
  • The section discussing the Executive Director was moved from Article XI, General Provisions to Article VI, Officers and Executive Director.
  • Section 1 of Article VII on Core Programs was modified slightly to be more general for the PT program.
  • Article VIII on Committees and Councils has been modified to allow the Chair of an Executive Committee to make appointments to committees within that program.
  • The role of the Finance Committee in Article VIII has been expanded.
  • Section 4 in Article XI on balanced representation includes new language to allow different stakeholder groups with the approval of the Board.
  • There are many other editorial and minor clarifications.

On December 11, 2013, the TNI Board unanimously adopted these changes.  The revised bylaws can be found here (PDF).