Important Bylaws Changes

Hello,

For some time, there has been some discontent with the ways in which certain
aspects of SPI operate, and certain ineffencies and confusion. To help SPI
work through those issues, the Board created [2] the Bylaws committee in
January, 2003. The committee was tasked with looking at issues brought to
our attention, then issuing recommendations as appropriate for amendments to
the SPI Bylaws to fix or improve those problems. The committee does not
have the power by itself to make any actualy changes. The original
resolution called for a report by July 1.

Back on July 1, the bylaws committee issued its report to the board and
members of SPI [1]. The report contained fixes for issues that the
committee considered most important -- things such as election and
replacement of board members, e-mail voting, and other important
clarifications.

Changes to the bylaws must be approved by the SPI membership under the rules
in place in the existing bylaws. To that end, I attempted to start a
discussion [3] at the end of July towards that goal. However, it met with
little interest. (The same thing happened with the board)

My own opinion is that these changes are of significant importance to SPI
and should be enacted ASAP. I would therefore ask people to put some
thought into the issue, and I volunteer to help answer any questions that
may arise about the proposed changes. I'll also volunteer to draft a
document on which the membership can vote.

[1] http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2003-July/000871.html
[2] http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/resolution-2003-01-06.wta.2
[3] http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2003-July/000910.html