GBA Bylaw Revisions

Gilroy Beekeepers Association (GBA) is a 501c3 educational non-profit corporation. GBA is required to have a set of Bylaws that outline how the Board of Directors and General Member meetings function – how decisions are made, how members join the Board, Board Officer positions and responsibilities, etc.

The Board, with expert guidance from current Secretary Chris Burnett (thank-you Chris!), have created an amended version of the Bylaws. The General Membership is required to vote to approve the changes. There is a lot of RED revised text in the “Before and After” version. Many of the revisions are non-substantive tidying and reorganization to improve readability and usability.

Changes

The more substantive changes include:

• Apiary Program
  • Article I, Section 3e – Establishment of the Apiary Program.
• Memberships
  • Article II, Section 8 – GBA members must be 18 years or older.
  • Article II, Section 9 – Clarification of Family Memberships.
  • Article II, Section 10 – Suspension by non-renewal.
  • Article II, Section 11, 12 – Member resignation.
• General Membership Meetings
  • Article III, Section 16
    • General Meetings via video sharing (e.g. Zoom).
    • Meetings for election of officers, amending the Bylaws, or dissolving the Association require 15 day written notice.
  • Article III, Section 17 – Minimum of 4 Board of Director meetings per year.
• Committees
  • Article III, Section 18
    • Formation of an Education Committee.
    • Committee organization and quorum
• Board of Directors
  • Article IV, Section 19
    • Board Offices
    • No more than 2 “At Large” Directors
  • Article IV, Section 21 – Board member office terms changed from (1) year to (2) years.
  • Article IV, Section 22 – Replacement of Officers.
  • Article IV, Section 26 – Nomination and Election of Officers.
• Quorum
  • Article IV, Section 27 – Definition of Quorum
    • A Quorum is the number of members required to be present for certain votes, e.g. electing Board Members.
    • Proxy votes – a member who cannot attend a meeting my ask another member to vote for them.
• Board of Directors Duties
  • Clarification of Board Member duties.
  • Definition of the duties of the Directors of Education, Communications, and Activities.
• Member Rights – Artic
  • Article VI, Section 38
  • Art
• Voting and Member Rights
  • Article VI, Section 38 – Member Rights.
  • Article VI, Section 39 – Actionable Referendum.
  • Article VI, Section 40 – Notice to members.
  • Article VI, Section 42 – Family Memberships get two votes.
  • Article VI, Section 43 – How to carry out a vote by ballot.
• Bylaws
  • Article VIII, Section ? – How Amendments to the Bylaws are made.
• Articles VIII – Amendment
• Article IX – Dissolution of the Association
• Article X – Savings

Additional Changes

There is one additional change not included in the PDFs below:

Sec. 16(d) – “A quorum for moving business of the general membership shall consist of no less than seven (7) individual members in good standing.”

Amended Bylaw Documents

Here are the links to the Amended Bylaws:

• Before and after version, showing all amendments.
  • The existing Bylaws version is in black text
  • The updated text is in red.
• Amended Bylaws.

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