Proposed Bylaw Amendment - U.S. IPA 2021 - International ...

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-1

Type of Proposal: (check one)
      [ ] Statute
      [X] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: NEC                                             Vote required: Majority

Date: 12 Feb 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

S.R. 1105.00 Annual region reports shall be made in writing to the National Secretary-General
not later than February 15 1 of the following year. Each region shall utilize the standard
National Report Form, which may be sent by U.S. Mail or by email to the Secretary-General.
Regions may also provide copies of their annual reports to other regions. The report must be
signed by the Region President and Treasurer, and must contain, at a minimum, the following
information:
        • dates that general membership and Region Committee meetings were held;
        • the names of current region officers along with their email addresses and phone
        numbers, and the date each officer’s term will end;
        • a record of region elections held during the year and their results (if applicable);
        • a brief financial report, including cash on hand at beginning and at the end of the
        previous calendar year;
        • a statement that the region is operating in compliance with applicable government
        laws and regulations, and with the IPA Bylaws; and
        • documentation that any applicable tax forms were filed and taxes paid.

Reason for the Proposal:
This change in the “due date” is needed because, beginning in 2021, International changed the
date that Sections’ reports to them are due to 15 February. There is information from the region
annual reports that must be included in that report, so information is needed earlier in order to
prepare and submit the report to International on time. Regions have all of the information they
need on 1 January, so submitting the report by 1 February should not create an undue hardship.
The sentence being deleted is unnecessary, as it is permissive, and not mandatory, and regions
will continue to be free to provide copies of their reports to other regions if they wish to do so.

Fiscal Impact: None known.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-2

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [X] Statute
       [ ] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: NEC                                             Vote required: 2/3

Date: 22 April 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

1204.10 In an election year, the NDC meeting shall be held between September 1st and
November 30th. No later than 90 days before this meeting, written nominations for national
office must be sent to, and received by, the Chair of the Election Committee. A written
nomination may only be made by a Region President or other elected officer, seconded by a
President or other elected officer from a different region, and must contain a signed statement by
the nominee that he/she is a candidate for the office. These required items may be contained on
multiple forms. The Election Committee Chair shall insure that the list of nominated candidates
for office is sent to all NDC Delegatesofficial region email addresses and Region Presidents
within seven days following the nomination deadline. The Secretary-General shall, after
certification by the National Treasurer, provide to the Election Committee and the NDC a
register of all regions eligible to vote.

Reason for the Proposal: Some regions do not designate an NDC Delegate until they are
required to do so, which could be as late as 30 days before the NDC; before that date, there
would be no NDC delegate to send a list of nominated candidates to. Therefore we are
recommending that the requirement to send the list of candidates to the NDC Delegate be
changed to sending it to the official region email address, as well as to the Region President. The
other proposed change would clarify that the 3 required pieces of information for a nomination
can be contained on more than one form, which is what is typically done because it is logistically
easier.

Fiscal Impact: No known fiscal impact.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-3

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [ ] Statute
       [X] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: NEC                                              Vote required: Majority

Date: 27 June 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

S.R. 1105.00 Annual region reports shall be made in writing to the National Secretary-General
not later than February 15 of the following year. Each region shall utilize the standard National
Report Form, which may be sent by U.S. Mail or by email to the Secretary-General. A region
that fails to submit its annual report properly completed and on time will have the region
portion of dues for that calendar year withheld until the report is properly submitted. Regions
may also provide copies of their annual reports to other regions. The report must be signed by
the Region President and Treasurer, and must contain, at a minimum, the following
information:
        • dates that general membership and Region Committee meetings were held;
        • the names of current region officers along with their email addresses and phone
        numbers, and the date each officer’s term will end;
        • a record of region elections held during the year and their results (if applicable);
        • a brief financial report, including cash on hand at beginning and at the end of the
        previous calendar year;
        • a statement that the region is operating in compliance with applicable government
        laws and regulations, and with the IPA Bylaws; and
        • documentation that any applicable tax forms were filed and taxes paid.

Reason for the Proposal: Every year there are several regions that fail to submit reports on
time, and several that don’t submit them at all. It is critically important that they be completed
and submitted on time, as some of the information contained in them is required for National’s
annual report to International, which is due shortly after the deadline for the region reports.
Currently the only sanction available when a region fails to complete the annual report is to
declare it in violation of S. 805.00 and beginning a process of placing the region on inactive
status. What is needed is not to impose this rather serious disciplinary action on a region, but

rather to encourage its submission of the required report. This proposal will allow the NEC to
withhold the region share of dues from the region until the report is properly submitted. The
region will receive all of the funds it would have received once the properly completed report has
been submitted.

NOTE: If this proposal and proposal 2021-1 both pass, the changes contained in 2021-1 will be
incorporated into the changes made in this proposal.

Fiscal Impact: There will be a temporary financial impact on non-compliant regions until their
annual report is submitted. There would be a permanent impact only if the region fails to submit
the report at all. (For example, if a region failed to submit a report for 2021, it would not receive
its half of 2021 dues received. The clock would reset for 2022, and if it files a 2022 report, it
would receive its 2022 dues, but not those for 2021 unless that report is filed.)

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-4

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [ ] Statute
       [X] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: NEC                                         Vote required: Majority

Date: 27 June 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

S.R. 1005.00 The National Membership Coordinator shall process all membership records for
the United States Section. Specifically the Membership Coordinator shall:
     A. Process all membership applications, renewals, and reinstatements and issue
        membership cards, stamps, and related materials.
     B. Maintain the official roster of the United States Section membership.
     C. Provide membership lists , labels, and other materials reports as authorized.

Reason for the Proposal: The reference to “stamps” in S.R. 1005.00 is outdated and should be
removed. The reference to “labels” is also outdated, as there is no business need for the
Membership Coordinator (MC) to generate labels. The term “materials” would be replaced with
“reports” because “materials” could imply involvement with things like recruiting materials,
which are not currently under the purview of the MC.

Fiscal Impact: No known financial impact.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-5

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [X] Statute
       [ ] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: NEC                                            Vote required: 2/3

Date: 13 July 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

1204.20 Voting for National Elections shall be done through a reputable online election
company, as approved by a 2/3 vote of the NEC with the following restrictions:
      1. The Chair of the Election Committee shall oversee the election and work with the
      online company during the election period.
      2. No officer or candidate shall contact or interact with the online election company
      during the election period, which is defined as the period between the election deadline
      dissemination of voting instructions to the regions and the delivery of the voting results to
      the Chair of the Election Committee.
      3. The online voting results shall only be delivered to the Chair of the Election
      Committee in a sealed envelope no later than 5 days prior to the NDC meeting, to be
      opened and the results announced immediately prior to the final adjournment of the NDC
      business meeting.

Each Region shall have one vote that shall be cast based on a majority vote of the Region
Committee, as certified by the Region President and Secretary.

Reason for the Proposal: Since it is not clear what date the term “election deadline” refers to,
and that could be subject to varying interpretations, we are recommending that the period be
defined as beginning when voting instructions are sent to the regions and ending when voting
results are delivered to the Election Committee Chair.

Fiscal Impact: None known.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-6

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [ ] Statute
       [X] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: President Bernd Kuerschner, R-24               Vote required: Majority

Date: 14 July 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

S.R. 410.00 It is important that membership records be kept current to ensure effective
communication and to accurately reflect our current membership. Therefore:
    Each member should update his/her member record or notify the Membership
       Coordinator within 30 days of any change of mailing address, email address, phone
       number, or change of law enforcement employment status (e.g., resignation, retirement).
    Each region should periodically check its roster of members and notify the Membership
       Coordinator anytime it becomes aware of the death of a member or of any change in the
       member’s mailing address, email address, phone number, or change of law enforcement
       employment status.

   S.R. 410.10 If a member cannot be contacted for 3 consecutive calendar years, the person’s
   membership may be suspended by the NEC. A letter will be mailed to the person’s last
   known mailing address advising the person of the intent to suspend his/her membership, and
   if no response is received by the deadline specified in the letter, the person’s membership
   may be suspended until he/she provides current contact information.

Reason for the Proposal: This proposal would add two new sections to the bylaws. Regions
periodically have members with whom they have lost contact: mail is returned as undeliverable,
and email addresses and phone numbers on file are not current. This potentially creates a
significant amount of work for the region to try to track the person down, and interferes with the
ability to communicate with our members and to have an accurate list of who are currently IPA
members. On more than one occasion, we have found that the person has been deceased for
some time and we were not aware of that. (This most often involves Life Members, who do not
have to renew their membership each year.)

The current bylaws do not directly address this issue. This proposal would set an expectation
that a member “should” update his/her member record or notify the National Membership
Coordinator within 30 days of a change in contact information, and that regions should
periodically review their membership rosters and notify National of changes, as well as if they
become aware that a member has died. The proposal also requests notification of a change in LE
employment status so that we can know when someone retires or leaves the police service.
There are no penalties attached for failure to do any of these things.

The proposal also creates a process allowing a person’s membership to be suspended if (1) there
has been no contact with the member for 3 consecutive calendar years, and (2) the person does
not respond to a letter sent to him/her advising that the membership will be suspended if he/she
doesn’t respond. It is not mandatory that the process be followed in every case, but it does
provide the ability to do that and also ensures that a letter notifies the member that the
suspension is being contemplated in order to allow him/her the ability to preclude that
suspension of membership. Immediately upon providing the required contact information, the
person’s membership would be reinstated unless he/she was determined to be ineligible for some
reason.

Fiscal Impact: The only known fiscal impact would be the cost of any letters sent pursuant to
the new S.R. 410.10.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment – U.S. IPA – 2021
Proposed Amendment #2021-7

Type of Proposal: (check one)

       [X] Statute
       [ ] Standing Rule (S.R.)

Proposed by: William Powell – President, Region 5                              Vote required: 2/3

Date: 24 July 2021
Proposal: (New language underlined and deleted language in strike out.)

411.00 Associates. Certain individuals who are not eligible for ordinary membership may
become IPA Associates. Persons eligible are current and honorably retired non-sworn
employees; and current volunteers (e.g., reserve officers; auxiliary police officers; recognized,
credentialed police chaplains) of law enforcement agencies; and volunteers who have left their
law enforcement agency in good standing after at least 10 years of volunteer service.
Verification of agency affiliation and meeting these requirements is required and must be
provided by the applicant.

Associates are eligible to participate in IPA activities of the national IPA and the region to which
they belong that are not restricted to ordinary members. They may not vote, hold office, or
utilize travel-related IPA services and facilities; are not eligible for scholarships; and will not be
allowed access to certain personal information and portions of the IPA website that are
reserved for ordinary members. Associates may not be included in determining whether a
region has the minimum number of “members” for voting or other purposes.

All U.S. and International statutes and standing rules regarding permitted and prohibited
conduct apply to Associates, except for those which cannot apply, either due to language in this
section or for another reason. The NEC may suspend or remove an Associate for cause.

Reason for the Proposal: This proposal would allow individuals who have served as
volunteers in a law enforcement agency for a period of 10 or more years to be eligible to become
associates. These individuals have almost certainly contributed a significant number of unpaid
hours assisting law enforcement agencies, and it would seem appropriate to honor their service in
this way. It would also help deal with a situation in which a person who was a volunteer, such as

a reserve officer, had joined the IPA while serving as a volunteer, but under the current language
could no longer be an Associate once his/her volunteer service to the agency ended.

Fiscal Impact: No significant fiscal impact, except potential additional dues revenue from
newly eligible individuals who opt to join.