Proposed Bylaw and Policy & Procedure Revisions

WGAZ Proposed Bylaws and Policy & Procedures Revision

Happy Sunday Everyone! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and can’t wait to see you all in three weeks for our September Virtual membership meeting. It is my pleasure to provide a presentation for everyone today that talks about a project that myself, Karen Ferrin, the board and a committee of current members for the bylaws and policy and procedures has been working on this summer.

Two years ago, I did research with 7 other organizations like ours to help build a stronger foundation with our Bylaws and Policy and Procedures. We began a process that was needed to help us run our organization closer to the Roberts Rules of Order. Which has been around to help bring order to non-profit groups for decades. Karen Ferrin works for Gilbert Public School District guiding all nonprofit groups in the district to establish and setup their organizations, so we asked for her guidance this spring to review our current organization documents and her suggestions and knowledge have been pivotal in finishing the project we started 2 years ago.

As many of you know we created two documents, 1) Bylaws - these are to establish the actual workings of the organization. This controls the actions of the organization. 2) Policy and Procedures - guides decisions to achieve the outcome desired by the organization as set in the bylaws. As advised, this was the best first step in making our organization stronger, however with time on our hands we took a deeper look at ourselves and realized the template needed more structure as well as some content needed to be moved to the policy and procedures manual. Today we stand in a stronger place than two years ago when we started. We have used the Robert’s Rules of Order template to begin to move more items that belonged in the Policy & Procedures.

The task at hand was taking a look at how the organization is ran. The current model of how our organization operates, is we have 153 units who elects 8 board members to run the organization. With the growth the last few years the board agreed that the members should take a more active and collaborative role in supporting the organization. The board and the bylaws and policy & procedure committee looked at 4 different versions on how the organization could operate moving forward and landed on the current version we are proposing today. It is our goal to create layers to our organization that directly affect change and expand the strength of its members. By doing so we felt it was needed to get more individuals involved on a secondary level. Creating an Advisory board that would continue the growth of the members and be a guiding voice for the Executive Board.

The board is committed to our students, staff, volunteers and the future growth in the state of Arizona, to provide quality performances and education on all levels of our organization. I am proud at the opportunity that was given to me two years ago as well as this summer to be a part of something that is going to make a difference for our students to have a solid foundation to thrive and guide the activity for those who come through WGAZ.

Thank you so much for your time and I am excited to hear feedback and discussion at the upcoming September Virtual Membership Meeting.

Thank you,

Brandy DuBose

Colorguard Liaison