The ASPET Council recently reviewed the ASPET bylaws and proposed a revision. At the recent Business Meeting in Chicago, the membership in attendance voted to send the following proposal for amending the bylaws out to the membership-at-large for a vote.
Please read the background and proposed change to the bylaws and then click on the link below to vote.
https://vote.associationvoting.com/aspet/
You will need to use your Member Number and Last Name to vote. If you have trouble logging in, please contact our membership department at (301) 634-7060 or membership@aspet.org.
Please note that voting will close at 5:00 PM EDT on June 2, 2017.
Background
The purpose of the proposed amendment is to provide the ASPET Council the flexibility to expeditiously revise membership categories to better reflect the changing needs of our community. For example, post-baccalaureate trainees are a growing segment of the population of young scientists, but the current membership structure does not accommodate them as they don’t qualify for either of ASPET’s trainee categories. As a result, they are not eligible to apply for travel or best presentation awards during a crucial time in their career preparation.
Upon reviewing past revisions to the bylaws, Council found numerous changes over the last 20 years relating to membership categories. The process for amending bylaws is lengthy and simple changes can take up to a year to implement.
A proposal was put forward to amend the bylaws to give Council the flexibility to make changes to membership categories rather than repeatedly amending the bylaws. Benchmarking with our sister societies, we found that other societies have amended their bylaws in this manner.
Review the current ASPET bylaws.
Proposed Changes to the bylaws shown in red below:
Current text:
SECTION 1. Membership Categories
ITEM 1. Regular Members.
Any qualified investigator who has conducted and published a meritorious original investigation in pharmacology shall be eligible for membership in the Society.
Proposed text:
SECTION 1. Membership Categories
ITEM 1. Membership Categories, Eligibility, Benefits and Dues.
Membership categories, criteria, benefits and dues shall be established by the Council.
ITEM 2. Regular Members.
Any qualified investigator who has conducted and published a meritorious original investigation in pharmacology shall be eligible for membership in the Society.
Subsequent text in this section remains unchanged.