SOME OF THE CHANGES IN THE PROPOSED NEW BYLAWS
Here are some of the major differences between our current bylaws and the new bylaws proposed by the Bylaws Committee of 4th District Chair Toni Sessoms of Mt. Pleasant, Joe Weir of Midland and Bob Ciaffone of Saginaw.
The Article numerals refer to their location in the proposed new bylaws.
Preamble: The proposed new bylaws state that we are a unit of the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP).
Article 1: The Fundamental Principles of the MDP, as given in the Rules of the MDP, are specifically enumerated in the proposed new charter. This was done at the request of the MDP after the new document was reviewed by the MDP.
Article 2: All the members residing in the 4th District are considered members of the "4th District Democratic Party" rather than members of the "4th District Democratic Committee."
Article 3, Section 1: At our 4th District Convention, the membership may consider anything they wish to, without exceptions.
Article 5, Section 1: County chairs are automatically members of the 4th District Executive Board, but DSCC delegates are not automatically members of that body. (Note: the reason for this is we felt that some DSCC delegates would prefer to focus mainly on state party concerns.)
Article 5, Section 1: There are only three District vice-chairs, rather than four. (We had four to handle each of the four regions of the 4th District.)
The regional sub-divisions in the current Article VI has to our knowledge never been used, and is dropped in the proposed new bylaws, to avoid an unneeded layer of authority between the district chair and the district's counties.
Article 7: District endorsement of candidates for office has been de-emphasized.
Article 8: The standing committees listed are those which were recommended by Chair Toni Sessoms.
Article 8, Section 3: The selection process for delegates to the MDP Platform Committee has been described.
Article 9: We will now be able to have teleconferencing with voting, which will better accommodate a geographically large congressional district in the snow belt like ours.
Article 10, Section 2: The presiding officer at a meeting has more flexibility in re-arranging the order of business to accommodate speakers and guests.
