Voting at October 8, 2025 GM
Two Constitutional amendments will be voted on by the members present at the October 8 CWAJ General Meeting. They have both been discussed at two Board meetings as required, and approved by the Board for sending to the membership for a vote. These amendments will:
- officially change the name of the Education Committee to Community Service, and
- remove some details of membership payments from the Constitution.
Note that the CWAJ Constitution and SP&P are found under the “CWAJ Board” drop-down menu in the Members Only area of the website.
Amendment 1: Change name of “Education Committee” to “Community Service Committee”
Background and Rationale
Education/Community Service includes the Volunteers for the Visually Impaired (VVI), Foreign Students Circle (FSC), and English Outreach for Children (EOC). The CWAJ Annual Report has referred to these areas for some time as Community Service rather than Education in order to reflect their activities more accurately. The CWAJ public and members-only websites are also already using the new name. Approval of this amendment would make the wording consistent.
Amendment 2: Remove guidelines for membership “tiers” and exemption of dues for past Presidents from Constitution, and move them to SP&P
Background and Rationale
There is general agreement that for organizations “The constitution should contain the core purpose and structure of an organization. It should include articles that are rarely changed.”
An Statement of Policies and Procedures (SP&P) is different. According to a Google AI summary, “A ‘statement of rules and procedures’ is a document that formally sets forth the rules, regulations, and procedures that an organization or authority uses to govern its operations and the behavior of its members or constituents.”
Article III of the CWAJ Constitution describes Membership. Section 3, Dues, is as follows:
Annual dues shall be paid on or before September 30 of each year. New members shall pay annual dues upon admission to membership; provided that new members joining the Association at or subsequent to the January meeting of the Association but before the March meeting shall pay the first tier of prorated dues for that year only, and new members joining the Association at or subsequent to the March meeting shall pay the second tier of prorated dues for that year only.
Past Presidents of the Association prior to 2010 shall be exempt from the payment of dues.
Approval of this amendment would not change CWAJ’s rules, but only move the lines in red to the SP&P. Note that the SP&P can be changed by the Board to reflect the changing circumstances and needs of the organization without the complicated and time-consuming efforts required to amend the Constitution. Any change in the amounts of annual dues does require approval of the membership.
The vote on these amendments will be held online at the October 8, 2025, Zoom-only CWAJ GM. Approval by two thirds of the members present will be required to pass. Announcements of the upcoming vote will be made in the September and October eNews.
Parliamentarian: Ann Endo
