Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee Recommendations
The Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee has reviewed various proposals and has voted to propose the following amendments to our Constitution to be considered at our Screening and Endorsement Meeting in January, 2024. Please send these proposed amendments to the membership at least 3 weeks before said meeting.
Amendment One is to specify the age of members who can vote in the Youth Caucus and Amendment Two allows the Vice Chair for Youth to live in the same county as one other state officer.
AMENDMENT ONE
Currently Article IV Officers Section 1. B. says, " Vice Chair for Youth: The Vice Chair for Youth shall oversee and coordinate activities for recruitment purposes limited to the identified age groups as Youth. The Vice Chair for Youth shall be elected by caucus of youth at the State Convention."
The proposed amendment is to strike the last 5 words of the section "youth at the state convention" and substitute the following: "certified Tejano Democrat members who are younger than 41 years of age at the annual meeting held in odd-numbered years."
Thus the second sentence would now read : "The Vice Chair for Youth shall be elected by caucus of certified Tejano Democrat members who are younger than 41 years of age at the annual meeting held in odd-numbered years."
AMENDMENT TWO
The other amendment is that the Vice Chair for Youth can come from any County in Texas and is not subject to our general rule that there can only be one state officer from a given county. To accomplish this we would amend Article IV Officers Section 4. It currently says:
"No more than one person from the same county may serve as a Tejano Democrats officer at the same time."
The proposed amendment is to add the following language at the start of Section 4: "For the offices listed in Section 1.A .of this Article....."
such that the full Section 4 would now read :
"For the offices listed in Section 1.A. of this Article no more than one person from the same county may serve as a Tejano Democrats officer at the same time.
AMENDMENT THREE
This amendment designates our annual meeting in odd-numbered years (when we elect our officers) as a Biennial meeting.
• Amend Article IV Officers, Section 1. A. by striking “annual” and inserting “Biennial”.
The amended article will then read
A. The officers of Tejano Democrats shall be a Chair, two Vice Chairs, a Treasurer, and a Secretary, each of whom shall be elected by a majority vote at the Biennial Tejano Democrats meeting held in odd-numbered years.
AMENDMENT FOUR
• Article IV Officers, Section 1, amend the Bylaws by inserting a new Subsection on the Procedure for filing for office.
C. Procedure
1.) A candidate running for Officer listed in Article IV Section 1.A. must have been a member of the Tejano Democrats for one year or greater from the date the member signed the Membership Application prior to the nomination and in good standing shall be eligible. No name shall be placed in nomination without the written consent of the nominee.
2.) Agreed to serve.
3.) The Chair shall have served one full year in another position on a subordinate chapter or state Executive Board.
4.) File a Request for Nominees Application Form for the specific office (Chair, Vice Chairs, Secretary, and Treasurer) no later than 15 calendar days after the Call of the Biennial Meeting to the Nominations Committee Chair and Nominations Committee Secretary.
Shall the 15th calendar day fall on the weekend or a holiday, the filing date shall be extended to the next regular calendar day no later than 5:00 PM CST or CDT.
5.) Nominations at the Meeting shall be allowed from the floor to be placed for Nomination for the office sought only in the same session of the meeting when candidate(s) are elected. Nominee(s) from the floor shall complete the same requirements from Section C: 1-4 minus the 15 days due date rule.
AMENDMENT FIVE
Amend Article V Meetings to eliminate wasteful annual meeting requirement and substitute a Biennial meeting to elect officers in odd-numbered years and a Screening and Endorsement meeting in even-numbered years as is our present practice.
ARTICLE V – MEETINGS
Section 1. Membership – (Strike Annual ) and insert “Biennial”
The Tejano Democrats shall have (strike--at least one) (insert) “aBiennial “meeting of the Membership between June 1 and November 1 of each (insert )”odd-numbered” year. The above described meeting shall be referred to as the (strike Annual and insert) “Biennial” Tejano Democrats Meeting” and shall be called by the Chair. The Call to the (strike Annual and insert) “Biennial” Tejano Democrats Meeting (strike ,when held in oddnumbered years only, )must be mailed to the membership by the Chair at least sixty (60) days prior to the meeting. Included in this notice each Tejano Democrats chapter must be advised that dues and a membership roster including the name, address, and voter registration number of each member must be submitted to the Treasurer at least thirty (30) days prior to the meeting. An electronic copy of the roster in an Excel format provided by the Treasurer shall also be submitted along with the hard copy roster. The notice shall include the Treasurer’s current mailing address, where chapter rosters are to be mailed.
Section 2. (Substitute this language for this section): “ Tejano Democrats shall also have a Screening and Endorsement meeting in every even-numbered year and it shall be called by the Chair.”
(thus the next section will now be) : Section 3. Membership – Special
A. Special meetings of the Membership can be called for any purpose under the following requirements:
The location must be within the boundaries of the State of Texas.
• A special meeting may be called by the Chair.
• A special meeting may be called at the written request of any
two of the officers.
• A special meeting may be called at the written request of a majority of the membership of the Executive Committee.
B. Meetings called at the written request of the officers, other than the Chair, or by the Executive Committee, shall be presided over by the Vice Chairs.
(thus the next section will now be)
Section 4. Notices: Notices of any meeting to the membership must be by email or by United States mail and postmarked no later than three weeks prior to the date set for the called meeting.
AMENDMENT SIX
Insert a new second sentence in Article VIII LOCAL CHAPTERS Section 4. Autonomy:
The local Tejano Democrats chapters shall include the PURPOSE, OFFICERS, and STANDING COMMITTEES structure as listed in Articles II, IV, and VII respectively.