Dear MAPS Members:

In the fall, 2011, The Strategic Planning Committee and the Constitution Review Committee recommended the following changes. This is being sent as a reminder that these issues will be placed on the ballot with Board of Directors elections in January of 2012.

Proposed Changes to the By-Laws

By the Constitution Review Committee

(Steven LJ Russo and Megan Norris)

Below, please find proposed changes in the By-Laws of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium

Society. The changes to the current By-Laws are in Bold type.

By-Laws Article III.

Section 2. The President shall be the Society’s representative to the International Planetarium Society. If the President is unable to attend a council meeting of the IPS, the Past-President shall act as the Society’s representative. If neither the President nor Past-President is able to attend a council meeting of the IPS, the President-elect or a designee appointed by the President shall be the Society’s representative.

Rationale: To document the procedure for the back-up IPS representative to IPS Council meetings; allowing the appointment of a MAPS/IPS member other than the President-Elect or Past-President.

Article III

Officers and Their Duties

Section 8. The Treasurer shall attend to the finances of the Society including collection of revenues, disbursement of funds as provided in “Section 9”, provide and maintain full and complete records of all assets and liabilities of the Society, and prepare such financial reports and tax returns as required by law. The Treasurer will serve as the Chair of the Membership Committee.

Rationale: To formally state the responsibility of the Treasurer to act as the Chair of the Membership Committee.

Article IV

Committees

Section 1. Standing committees of the Society shall be: Audit, Awards, Constitution Review, Education, Elections, Historian/Archivist, Membership, Program, Publications, and Web Site. Committee chairs shall be appointed by the president.

Rationale: The listing of the above committees will be arranged in alphabetical order, and that order will be maintained throughout the By-Laws.

Section 9. The Publications Committee shall coordinate the publications of the Society, solicit articles for publication, and provide a regional contributing editor for the IPS journal – the PLANETARIAN.

Rationale: In the current By-Laws the PLANETARIAN is referred to as a “newsletter”, but it is actually a journal.

If approved by the Membership, an APPENDIX will be added to the By-Laws. This APPENDIX will be a section to include items such as, but not limited to, Conference Guidelines, Criteria for MAPS awards, listing of past conferences, listing of past officers, and listing of past award members. Items added to this section will not include sections to govern the “legal” operations of the society.