Revision to the Society's Bylaws

[Roberta Spencer]

The System Dynamics Society is governed by a set of Bylaws and Policies. The Organization and Bylaws Committee has recommended that the Bylaws be updated. The Policy Council has accepted the recommendation and has made a proposal for a change in the Bylaws. As a member of the Society you are ultimately responsible for approving such a change. We are now soliciting comments on the proposed changes to the Bylaws. There will be an opportunity for discussion during the General Business Meeting at this summer’s conference, and then we will be asking you to vote on the proposed changes in the fall.

Most of the changes clarify language and make the Bylaws line up with current practice. For example, the old Bylaws refer to several categories of membership which are not used and to an “Executive Committee” which does not ever meet (the Policy Council always meets as a whole). The one substantive change is that the Executive Editor of the System Dynamics Review is no longer designated as a voting member of the Policy Council. This change is consistent with the executive, as opposed to representational, nature of that post and is actually a reversion to the original Bylaw’s.

More detailed information on the changes and their history is contained in the report of the Organization and Bylaws Committee below. For supporting material and discussion please see the archived minutes of the 2012 Winter PC Meeting at: http://systemdynamics.org/PolicyCouncil/2012/winter/index.html. Both the current and proposed revised Bylaws can be found at http://systemdynamics.org/governance.

If you have comments or questions please sent them to Brad Morrison at morrison@mit.edu or post them as a reply to this thread.

As we advance through this process, we will keep you posted. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Brad Morrison
Secretary 2012