Dear Members:

As you prepare to vote on the proposed amendments to the NAEMT Bylaws, I wanted to be sure that you received the reasoning behind the Board’s decision to move these amendments forward for adoption by the general membership:

• The purpose of adding Article 5.2.1 is simply to ensure that candidates for the NAEMT Board of Directors have a basic level of knowledge about NAEMT by being an active member for at least two years and participating at a minimum level in NAEMT activities. Our current bylaws do not include any restrictive nominations process that would prevent an active member from becoming a candidate. And, passage of this amendment will not change this. Any active member meeting the minimal requirements will have the opportunity to become a candidate for the Board. Each year, there are five open director positions. The future of our association depends on active, dedicated members stepping up to run for these open positions. I encourage each of you to get more involved with NAEMT and consider running for a seat on the Board.

• The purpose of adding Article 5.2.2 is to ensure that candidates for NAEMT officer positions have knowledge about and some experience with NAEMT before they become an officer. It also ensures that candidates for officer positions are actually involved in EMS and will be able to devote the time necessary to serve as an officer.

• The proposed revision to Article 6.2 has newly elected officers and directors taking office on January 1 of each year. The purpose of this revision is to provide consistent oversight of the NAEMT budget so that one elected board is responsible for one budget cycle, and so that NAEMT’s leadership cycle is tied to its fiscal year rather than being tied to EMS EXPO’s schedule, which changes from year to year. It’s just good business practice.
 

When the NAEMT Board voted to support the proposed Bylaws amendments, I asked that our legal counsel, Doug Wolfberg of Page, Wolfberg and Wirth, review the proposed amendments to ensure that they were properly constructed and not in violation of any other provisions in our Bylaws.  We received Mr. Wolfberg's response to our request on July 16, 2009.  He confirmed that our proposed amendments "conform to all applicable legal requirements...and are written in a manner consistent with the existing NAEMT Bylaws document."  He further recommended some minor modifications to the language in the amendments to ensure they were clear and easily interpreted.  His recommended modifications were approved by the Board before being sent out to the general membership. To view a full copy of Mr. Wolfberg’s letter, click here.

I hope you can see that these amendments are straightforward and are only intended to make our organization operate more effectively for the membership. I hope that each of our active members will vote on September 14-28 for the candidates of their choice and for the adoption of the proposed Bylaws amendments.

Please take the time to VOTE. Every member matters, and your vote matters too.

Pat

Patrick Moore
President