BCMA: Term limits and more?

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 54, No. 3, April 2012, Page 121 Letters
By: Jim Busser, MD, FRCPC, MHSc, Charles Webb, MBChB

Our years on the BCMA Board have made it plain that we need two changes to our bylaws. Ballots for member approval are to be mailed out by late April.

The first change will be to require term rotation for BCMA directors. Their present average of 6 years contains a range from 1 to 23, with half averaging more than a decade. Limiting the terms of ordinary directors to 6 years in 10 will achieve more flow through the Board. Officers will typically enjoy an 11-year run. Return of the ordinary directors to simple member status for 4 years, after having served for 6 as a director, will mitigate issues related to rank, entitlement, slowness to change, and any refusal to rescind well-meant but perhaps previously badly taken decisions. Past directors, after 4 such years away, will then be eligible for re-election.

The second bylaw change will permit amendment of bylaws contingent on their deliberation at future annual general meetings. Presently, the only way to amend the bylaws is through a mailed referendum entirely controlled by the Association. It is a particular concern that our membership lacks the means to openly deliberate those by­law changes where the Board’s objectivity, and the adequacy of any information the Board chooses to provide, may be in question.

The capacity to make bylaw decisions, based on informed debate, will give members a reason to re-engage at their AGMs.
—Jim Busser, MD
—Charles Webb, MBChB
Vancouver

Jim Busser, MD, FRCPC, MHSc,, Charles Webb, MBChB. BCMA: Term limits and more?. BCMJ, Vol. 54, No. 3, April, 2012, Page(s) 121 - Letters.


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