Constitution - another post has disappeared on me!

[Mark Dexter]

Aha. You're simply looking for advice for the constitution that is being written, right?

1st, NEVER, EVER, EVER give the president the authority to suspend a member of the executive board!!! Let me repeat that. NEVER, EVER, EVER give the president the authority to suspend a member of the executive board!!! If you were to allow something like this to happen, it would be a grevious offense against the spirit of the rules of parliamentary procedure.

2nd, with the suspending a member; I'd be careful here, too. There can be many reasons for missing an assignment (some good, some bad), but I don't think suspension is the proper punishment in either case.

If you decide, however, to give the president the authority to suspend a member, I would recommend the following three provisions:
(1) It can only be for certain offenses (list these in the constitution - i.e., accepting a bribe, putting the association in an extremely bad light, etc. - whatever you feel is bad enough).
(2) The president's suspension only lasts a certain time period. Probably 48-72 hours during the season, up to a full week in the off season.
(3) Have a separate hearing board (3-5 people) made up (which does not include any members of the executive) to hear the charges against the member. Their decision should be final regarding the member's status (unless something new comes up).

You might want to run your constitution/by-laws through a lawyer before ratifying them, just to make sure they comply with local laws.

And, BTW, I have a bit of experience with by-laws, constitutions, and rules of order, so feel free to e-mail me with any more questions. (I do live in DC - it shouldn't be hard to find a politico if I don't know the answer )!!