NCRA MEMBERS APPROVE DIRECT MEMBER VOTING

At the annual business meeting of the National Court Reporters Association on August 9, 2007, in Dallas, Texas, the members voted to approve an amendment to the bylaws to allow Direct Member Voting.

What does this mean?

Until August 9, 2007, under the NCRA Constitution & Bylaws, members who wished to vote for board of directors and/or bylaw amendments have had to physically attend the annual business meeting at the NCRA annual convention, which may be thousands of miles from one's home. A constant goal of NCRA has been to provide better member services; it has therefore been working on developing Direct Member Voting (DMV). This program allows NCRA members to vote online via a secure website, giving members a greater opportunity to participate in NCRA decisions. NCRA's Constitution and Bylaws Committee developed a working framework to accomplish this goal:

· All eligible voting members will be issued a user name and password to vote online via a secure Web site. A member will only be able to vote once.

· Members attending the business meeting, in addition to having the ability to vote online, can choose to vote via paper ballot on-site. If they choose to vote on-site, these members will not be able to vote online. So, again, a member will only be able to vote once.

· The annual business meeting will operate just as it has in the past. Any proposed amendment to the Bylaws will be presented, and the members at the business meeting will have the opportunity to debate the proposal. The members present in the business meeting will have the opportunity to amend the introduced amendment. A two-thirds vote of those members present in the business meeting will be required to amend the introduced amendment.

· The final amendment language, amended or not, will be posted to a secure third-party web site for all eligible voting members to vote yes or no on its passage.

· A similar process will be followed for a contested election. If there are two candidates, their names will be posted to the secure web site for a vote. If there are more than two candidates, there will be a runoff during the business meeting. The names of the top two vote-getters, as determined by those members present in the business meeting, will then be posted on the secure third-party web site for a vote.

· NCRA will continue to post the rough transcript of the business meeting to NCRA’s Web site shortly after the conclusion of the business meeting so that those members voting online will have the opportunity to become fully informed on the issues that are discussed during the meeting and the debate involving any amendments.

· In order to give all eligible voting members the opportunity to review the text of the debate on NCRA's Web site prior to a member voting, members will have 12 hours to vote once the final amendment language or the final two candidates’ names are posted. It should take no more than two hours after the conclusion of the business meeting to have this information posted to the NCRA site.

· NCRA's Constitution and Bylaws Committee will continue to develop the proposed process for conducting Direct Member Voting. If you’d like to discuss any aspect of Direct Member Voting, please feel free to contact the chair of the committee, Robert Bramanti, at rbramanti@comcast.net.