Clarification of: Emergency COVID-19 Revision Vote

To: WGAZ Voting Membership

In the past few days we have had a few questions around the virtual vote pertaining to Emergency COVID-19 Revision that will occur this Sunday, May 10th. We want to thank those individuals that asked for clarity so WGAZ could review what we felt at the time was clear messaging. Your voice matters and we take all questions pertaining to our Bylaws and Policy & Procedures very seriously, we hope this message will clear up any misunderstandings.

We are sending out this email to help clarify any confusion that the use of the word "revision" may have caused our membership in the Emergency COVID-19 Revision. WGAZ does not intend to amend Bylaw 6.0 - Election of Officers. We wish to temporary suspend elections by invoking Policy 8.1.4 - Temporary Suspensions in the 2019-2020 WGAZ Policy and Procedure Manual (i.e. Bylaw 11.2)

8.1.4 Temporary Suspensions: Any of the by-laws of the Circuit may be temporarily suspended by a two thirds majority vote of the member units present and voting at any meeting of the Circuit.

In the 2019-2020 WGAZ Policy and Procedures Manual, Section 8.2 it states:

8.2 Changes to this section may be made by General Membership with the approval of the Board of Directors for those matters with a financial impact or which relate to the bylaws of WGAZ.

Health Emergencies supersede any rules or regulations requiring in-person meetings if they pose a risk to a person's health. As we are not permitted to gather in groups over 10 due to COVID-19 restrictions set in place by our State Government, the WGAZ Board has approved to proceed with the vote to Temporarily Suspend Bylaw 6.0 - Election of Officers through Competition Suite on May 10th after our Q&A forum.

Thank you again