MARYSVILLE
EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION
BY-LAWS
OF THE MARYSVILLE
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
(Amended
and approved by Representative Council
on May 22, 2007)
ARTICLE
I - GOALS
Section
1. The
Marysville
Education Association shall be a member-advocate association and shall
develop
and maintain association strength and security in working toward the
following
goals:
Goal
I: An
independent,
self-governing organization for members of the teaching profession with
which
all certificated staff can identify.
Goal
II: Guaranteed
professional and
economic rights and interests of members.
Goal
III: Effective association
influence on
public affairs and public opinions.
Goal
IV: To bargain
collectively in
accordance with the laws of the State of Washington without
discrimination in
representation on the basis of gender, race, color, appearance,
religion,
ethnic or national origin, political beliefs, marital status, age,
actual or
perceived sexual orientation, socio-economic and family background,
language,
or physical or mental ability.
Goal
V. To
promote professional
growth and training opportunities to members.
Goal
VI. Promoting
cooperation and
understanding among the district, members, and the community.
ARTICLE
II - MEMBERSHIP
Section
1. Enrollment
blanks
embodying the unified plan of membership shall be furnished by the
State
Association.
Section
2. There
shall be the
following classes of membership in the Marysville Education
Association:
A. Active
Membership shall be
open to any person engaged in the profession of teaching or in other
education
work who holds or shall be eligible to hold a baccalaureate or higher
degree or
a Washington State Certificate (where required) and shall also be open
to the
president or other released-time officer of the Association.
B. Substitute
Membership shall
be limited to employees employed by the district for more than 30 days
within
the present or past 12-month period or for a period of at least 20
consecutive
days.
C. Honorary
Membership may be
open to any former MEA member in good standing.
Section
3. Membership
may be
terminated by expulsion or suspension or a member may be censured in
accordance
with the WEA constitution for a violation of the Code of Ethics, or for
refusing to abide by the WEA constitution and by-laws.
ARTICLE III
- DUES AND ASSESSMENT
Section
1. A. The annual dues
of an active member
shall be .009 of the base salary and base T.R.I. schedule of the
district's
teachers for September of the current year.
Said dues are to be adjusted in amount to the nearest
whole
dollar ($1.00).
B. The
annual dues of teachers who
present proof of one-half employment or less shall be one-half of the
dues for
active members as listed above.
C. The
annual dues of a teacher
employed after the first month of the school year (September 1 -
September 30)
shall be the regular dues prorated by the number of months remaining in
the
school year.
Section
2. Changes
to Article III,
Section 1.A. for the ensuing year will be announced at the final spring
meeting
and will go into effect on September 1 of each year.
Section
3. The
general membership
shall vote on any increase or decrease in dues in Article III, Section
1.A.
Section
4. Payment
of MEA dues
shall be accompanied by payment of UniServ, state and national dues.
Section
6. The
local, UniServ,
state and national dues and special assessments of all members shall be
payable
to the Marysville Education Association or the Washington Education
Association.
ARTICLE IV
- EXECUTIVE BOARD
Section 1. The executive
board shall consist
of president, vice president, past president, secretary, and treasurer
of the
Association, two elementary executive board members elected by only
elementary
members, two secondary executive board members elected by only
secondary
members, and chairpersons of the standing committees.
(One elementary executive board member and one secondary
executive board member shall be elected on alternating years.)
Section 2. Meetings of the
executive board
shall be held in accordance with action of the executive board or on
call of
the president or on request of a majority (majority is 50% plus one) of
the
executive board.
Section 3. All executive
board members shall
serve for a term of two years.
Section 4. The executive
board shall act on
all matters by a majority of its members.
Section 5. The executive
board shall be the
administrative body responsible for the management of the Marysville
Education
Association.
Section 6. For official
business conducted by
the executive board, a quorum of 50% must be present.
ARTICLE V -
DUTIES OF OFFICERS
Section 1. President - The
president shall be
the presiding officer of the Marysville Education Association and
shall:
A. Preside
at all meetings of the MEA,
of the executive board, of the representative council, and of all
special/emergency meetings for which no chairperson had been previously
designated to preside.
B. Prepare
an agenda for each meeting.
C. Call
special meetings.
D. Assume
responsibility of leadership
of the MEA.
E. Coordinate
and direct commissions
and committees of the MEA.
F. Sign
contracts and other
instruments connected with the business affairs and professional
activities of
the MEA.
G. Perform
such duties as may pertain
to his/her office provided elsewhere in the constitution, by-laws, or
standing
rules.
H. Appoint
negotiators with the
approval of the representative council.
I. Appoint
vacancies in executive
board if such vacancies exist with approval of executive board and
representative council.
J. Specify
designee if he/she is
unable to attend Marysville School District #25 School Board meetings.
Section 2. Vice President -
The vice president
shall assume the duties of the president during the president's absence
and
shall:
A. Assist
the president in the
administration of the activities of MEA.
B. Perform
such duties as may properly
pertain to the office, carrying out administrative functions that may
be
assigned by the president or that may fall to this office as a result
of
structural and organizational changes within MEA.
C. Attend
all executive board and
representative council meetings.
D. Perform
such other duties as may
properly pertain to this office or as may be provided elsewhere in the
constitution, by-laws, or standing rules.
E. Attend
all Marysville School
District #25 School Board meetings.
The vice president will specify a designee if unable to
attend.
F. Serve
as parliamentarian or specify
a designee.
Section 3. Secretary - The
secretary shall
attend and keep the minutes of the meetings of executive board and
representative council, including record of members present.
Section 4. Treasurer - The
treasurer or
designee (president/MEA paid employee) shall:
A. Account
for the receipt and
disbursement of all monies of the Marysville Education Association.
B. Maintain
permanent financial
records as custodian of all funds of the MEA.
C. As
local agent of the Pilchuck UniServ, the WEA, and the NEA, forward all
portions
of their money(s) within thirty (30) days of receipt.
D. Prepare
financial and budget
reports required by the MEA.
E. Attend
all executive board and
representative council meetings.
F. Perform
such other duties as may
properly pertain to this office or as may be provided elsewhere in the
constitution, the by-laws, or the standing rules.
Section 5. Past
President - The past president shall:
A. Serve
as advisor to the president
and officers of the MEA.
B. Attend
executive board and
representative council meetings.
C. Perform
other such duties as the
president shall delegate.
Section 6. Elementary and
Secondary Executive
Board Members - The elementary and secondary executive board members
shall:
A. Serve
as a conduit for concerns and
information to and from their constituencies.
B. Attend
all executive board and
representative council meetings.
ARTICLE VI -
BUDGET
Section
1. The
preparation of the
preliminary budget and the final budget shall be the responsibility of
the treasurer,
designee and president. Both
the
preliminary budget and the proposed final budget shall be reviewed and
adjusted
as necessary by the executive board.
Section
2. The
preliminary budget
shall be submitted to the MEA executive board at the December board
meeting. The final
budget shall be
submitted for adoption to the representa-tive council at the first
meeting in
December.
ARTICLE
VII - COMMITTEES
Section
1. A
majority of all
members of any committee shall constitute a quorum, which is 50%.
Section
2. Ad
hoc committees may
be authorized by the executive board or general membership. Members of the committee
will be
appointed by the president, as approved by executive board.
Section
3. The
committees shall
receive their charges from the president, as approved by the executive
board.
Section
4. The
standing committees
of the MEA shall include:
A. The
political action committee.
B. The
grievance committee.
C. The
negotiations committee.
D. The
special education committee.
E. The
specialists committee.
F. The
voting committee.
1) Equal
representation of secondary and
elementary members will be on the voting committee.
Section 5. Committees should make interim reports to the executive board and to the representative council.
ARTICLE
VIII - ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES
Section
1. All
invoices and bills
submitted for payment must be approved prior to payment by the
treasurer,
designee, or president.
Section
2. All
monies received by
the MEA shall be placed and kept in such accounts as the executive
board shall
determine and shall be disbursed by such officers and in such manner as
the
executive board shall determine.
Section
3. A
review of all
Association expenditures shall be conducted annually and a report
issued to the
general membership.
Section
1. It
shall be the
responsibility of each building to determine the method of selecting
their
representative from among themselves.
Section
2. The
representative
council shall consist of at least one delegate from each faculty unit
within
the district for the first ten members; such faculty unit shall be
entitled to
an additional delegate for each 15 active members of the Association or
major
fraction thereof.
Section
3. Building
representatives shall serve the general membership in the following
manner:
A. Distribute
newsletters, reports,
bulletins, etc., to the teachers in their building.
B. Hold
building meetings in a timely
manner.
C. Inform
building teachers of
meetings, elections, and information, etc.
D. Report
to the president any
situations, concerns of members, etc. which are of importance or
require a
meeting of the executive board or general membership.
E. Serve
on the representative
council.
Section
4. Building
representatives shall assume their duties at the beginning of the
school year.
Section
5. Building
representatives may be recalled or removed at any election called for
that
purpose by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of all building members. If a building
representative is
recalled or removed, a new building representative shall be selected by
the
building membership to serve the balance of the unexpired term.
ARTICLE
X - REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL
Section
1. The
representative
council shall consist of the selected building representatives and the
members
of the executive board.
Section
2. The
representative
council shall meet once a month on a date established by the executive
board.
Section
3. Special
meetings of the
representative council may be called by the president or by written
request of
three (3) building representatives.
Section
4. The
duties of the
representative council shall be to:
A. Adopt
all policies governing the
Association as are consistent with the constitution and these by-laws.
B. Approve
the annual budget.
C. Act
on reports and resolutions
presented to the representative council.
D. Be
the final judge of the
qualifications and elections of elected officers and building
representatives.
E. Retain
all powers and duties not
delegated to the executive board (officers of the Association).
F. Approve
proposed amendments to the
current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
ARTICLE
XI - NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS
Section 1. Nomination forms
for open positions
shall be sent to each active member.
The consent of the individuals placed on the nomination
form must first
be obtained.
Section 2. The candidates
will be announced at
a representative council meeting prior to the election.
Section 3. The secret
ballots shall be
prepared by the president's designee(s) and distributed under the
supervision
of the building representative for a period of five (5) days.
A. All
candidate names will be randomly
drawn and placed on the ballot in the order drawn.
Section 4. The ballots
shall be collected by
the building representative and delivered to the MEA office by the end
of the
fifth day.
Section 5. The presidentŐs
designee(s) shall
meet at the end of the five-day period and tally the ballots.
the MEA web site the
following day and
published in the next edition of the Frontline.
Section 7. The
representative council shall
certify the qualifications of candidates and validity of elections of
officers
at the first representative council meeting following the election.
Section
8. The
presidentŐs
designee(s) shall keep the secret ballots until the end of the school
year in
case a question should arise concerning the ballots or the election.
Section 9. If after the
nomination period
closes there is an uncontested candidate for a position, that candidate
shall
be considered elected and will be announced as such to the membership. The same would hold true
for a slate of
candidates for a specified number of positions.
ARTICLE
XII – VOTING
Section
1. All voting shall take place at
the building level
except contract ratification or special situations as deemed necessary
by the
executive board.
Section 2. The ballots
shall be prepared by
the presidentŐs designee(s) and distributed under the supervision of
the
building representative for a period of five days.
A. Responses
for ballots will be
randomly drawn and placed on the ballot in the order drawn.
Section 3. The ballots
shall be collected by
the building representative and delivered to the MEA office by the end
of the
fifth day
Section
4. The
presidentŐs
designee(s) shall meet at the end of the five-day period and tally the
ballots.
ARTICLE
XIII- QUORUM
Section 1. A general
membership quorum shall
consist of one-third (1/3) of the active membership.
ARTICLE
XIV- RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENTS
Section 1. Agreements may
be ratified during
summer or other vacations or holidays when a quorum is present.
Section 2. Agreements will
be considered
ratified when accepted by a simple majority of members present, as long
as the
notice concerning the ratification vote was publicized to the general
membership.
ARTICLE
XV- AMENDMENTS
Section 1. These by-laws
may be amended by a
majority vote of those present at any regular meeting of the
representative council,
provided the proposed amendment has been approved by the executive
board and
sent to the representative council not less than two (2) calendar weeks
in
advance of the meeting.
ARTICLE
XVI- REPRESENTATION
Section 1. Pilchuck UniServ Council: MEA shall be represented by the president, vice president, and delegates appointed by the president and approved by the executive board. The number shall follow the UniServ apportionment guidelines.
Section 2. State and
National
Representation: Those
planning on
attending either the WEA Representative Assembly or the NEA
Representative
Assembly must commit to attending the Pilchuck Mock Assembly. They are also required to
be on the floor and to vote during the assembly.
THE
BY-LAWS OF THE
MARYSVILLE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION CONTAIN ARTICLE I
THROUGH ARTICLE
XVI, SECTION 2.
Amended
and approved May 18, 1992
Amended
and approved October 5, 1998
Amended
and approved October 24, 2000
Amended
and approved December 16, 2003
Amended
and approved May 22, 2007