Constitution and Bylaws Proposed Changes

The following changes have been voted for by your Board of Governors. These changes are open for comment by all members of our CPMT Society (email d.palmer@ieee.org). In addition, they are being reviewed for consistency with the IEEE policies by the IEEE expert.

1. Amend Article VII Section 3 of the CPMT Constitution to read:

A quorum of the BOG shall consist of at least 50% of the Elected Members At Large and at least 50% of the total BOG Members with Complete Voting Rights.

Explanation: Current constitution calls for just 6 of the 18 Members at Large as the quorum. This was a hold-over from 30 years ago when flying to meetings was considerably harder than it is now. For each of the past 6 meetings your Board has attained the new definition of quorum stated above. A larger percentage of membership that is needed to reach a quorum should reflect the members better.

2. Amend CPMT Bylaws 9.1 to read in part.

Any voting member of the BOG unable to attend a meeting may submit a written or email proxy to the Secretary, President, or Executive Director in advance of the meeting giving notice of their intended vote on matters to come before the BOG.

Explanation: the underlined additions account for modern email, the current position of CPMT Executive Director, and a replacement of "his" from an era when there were very few women engineers.

3. Amend CPMT Bylaws 9.2 to read in part.

If less than a quorum physically attend or virtually attend (phone, video, internet) at a duly called meeting, tentative actions may be taken which will become effective upon subsequent written ratification by other members needed to achieve quorum.

Explanation: The underlined words are to reflect the increasing reality that members can virtually attend a Board meeting and effectively listen, debate, and vote. This also helps define quorum to include those members that virtually attend.

4. Amend the CPMT Society Bylaws by adding a new Bylaw 13 as follows:

13. ECTC Representatives: The sitting ECTC General Chairman and General Vice Chairman shall be ex-officio members of the BOG with Limited Vote.

Explanation: ECTC has always been our major meeting which reflects the majority of our members interests. Over the last few years ECTC and CPMT have improved coordination by overlapping ECTC technical committees and CPMT TC committee membership.This management overlap will further help achieve this goal.