Amendments Template (DOC) |  Resolution Template (DOC) | National Bylaws (PDF)

How to Propose Legislation

Background

Have a great idea on how to make our Bylaws easier to understand? Think you have the answer to our financial issues? Want to revise one of our Rituals to make it more meaningful and elegant? Fantastic! Doing these things is a great form of service to the fraternity. However, in order to make your ideas heard at the National Convention, there are a few steps you have to follow. The process for changing (amending) the Articles of Incorporation, National Bylaws, Standard Chapter Articles of Association, Rituals, Ceremonies, Insignia, or Toast Song are outlined in Article XIII, Section 2 of our National Bylaws:

SECTION 2. PROCEDURE FOR AMENDMENT. Every proposed amendment to the Articles of Incorporation, National Bylaws, Standard Chapter Articles of Association, Rituals, Ceremonies, Insignia, or Toast Song shall be submitted to the National Executive Director in writing or electronically at least ninety (90) days before the first legislative session of the next National Convention. All proposals shall be submitted by the National Executive Director to the Chapters and the National Board of Directors at least eighty (80) days before the first legislative session of the next National Convention. Any corrections to the text of proposals must be submitted to the National Executive Director in writing or electronicallyat least sixty (60) days before the first legislative session of the next National Convention. All text or omission corrections of proposals must be submitted by the National Executive Director to the Chaptersand the National Board of Directors at least fifty (50) days before the first legislative session of the next National Convention. If there are no corrections, the National Executive director must send notification of this to the Chapters and to the National Board of Directors no later than fifty (50) days before the first legislative session of the National Convention.

Written testimony pertaining to any proposal may be submitted to the National Executive Director no later than the opening session of the Convention. Fifteen (15) copies shall be provided. TheNational Executive Director shall be responsible for transmitting such testimony to the appropriate Convention Committee. All proposals submitted shall be considered by an appropriate convention committee, prior to the opening of the legislative session of the convention. Such committee shalldetermine the proposals to be placed on the agenda of the legislative session of the convention. Such committee shall also have the power to propose amendments to lesser documents to maintain consistency with proposals made to superior documents.

Proposals not placed on the agenda of the convention may be brought to the floor only by adelegate from the Chapter proposing the amendment, or by a Member of the Fraternity who proposed itand is present as a delegate at the convention, or by a petition signed by all of the delegates present from five Chapters.

Okay, so what does all this mean? First, let’s consider what each of these documents is and what theydo. (download the current version of all three here):

• Articles of Incorporation: This document, created in 1968 after the last constitutional convention, is what establishes Alpha Phi Omega as a legal entity under Missouri law. Its primary purpose is to define what the fraternity is, establish its non-profit status, and address other issues required by law for the creation of a full-fledged, non-profit organization. This is the most high-ranking document of the fraternity and takes precedence over all other documents.
• National Bylaws: These are the primary rules that tell us how to operate, how we are to be structured as a national organization, and who has what powers and responsibilities. The Bylaws define the governance of the fraternity and are the second most important document after the Articles of Incorporation. If you’re considering a proposal to change the Bylaws, make sure there is no similar section in the Articles of Incorporation. If there is, you’ll need to propose an amendment to both documents in order for your idea to be eligible for adoption, since the Bylaws cannot conflict with the Articles of Incorporation.
• Standard Chapter Articles of Association: The third and lowest level document in our hierarchy, this forms the basis for all chapter bylaws. Those of you who have recently chartered or sponsored a petitioning group are probably most familiar with this document. If you are considering a change to the Standard Chapter Articles of Association, be sure to check both the National Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation for similar sections and propose amendments to these higher-level documents in order to maintain consistency.
• Rituals, Ceremonies, Insignia, and Toast Song: While these items have no bearing on the documents
  discussed above, they are all extremely important to our history and traditions and are a large part of what binds
  us all together. If you are a brother in the fraternity, you should be familiar with most of these items:

• Resolutions: What if you want to suggest a theme for the next National Service Week or have a great idea for a new award? These types of proposals are what we call resolutions and do not affect the legal documents or the rituals etc. discussed above. In many cases, these types of issues do not require prenotification as described in Article XIII, Section 2 of the Bylaws, however doing so is always appreciated by the voting delegates from other chapters. Additionally, Reference Committees can, and often do, propose new resolutions to address issues during the convention itself. The one major exception to this would be a resolution regarding the time and place for our next national convention. The Bylaws require preliminary notification to the National Executive Director by July 1 and a formal proposal ninety (90) days prior to the beginning of the legislative session for all national convention time and place bids.

Process

So, you have the ideas of what you’d like to change and a description of the documents that you can change, now let’s look at the process part of Article XIII, Section 2 of the National Bylaws. “Every proposed amendment should be submitted to the National Executive Director in writing or electronically at least ninety (90) days before the first legislative session of the next National Convention.” Pretty straight forward – you have until September 30, 2006 (90 days prior to December 29th when the legislative session begins) to get your proposal to the National Office and the National Executive Director. You have two choices on how to convey this information – in writing i.e. via the US Postal Service or an express delivery service such as UPS or FedEx or electronically i.e. via email executive.director@apo.org. In this age of electronic communication, we expect that nearly everyone will opt for the latter. Regardless of which method you choose, your proposal must be in the proper format and in the proper template in order to ensure that it is properly included in the legislative packet. Using these templates is also a great help to the national office staff and the several volunteers who process the incoming proposals.

Once your proposal is received, the National President or his designee will assign it to the appropriate legislative reference committee. After the September 30 deadline when all proposals are in, the legislation will be assembled by the national office staff and mailed to each chapter within ten days (by October 10, 2006).

If you need help in writing your proposal, please contact your chapter advisors, section staff, Section Chair, region staff, or Region Director. If you have any questions pertaining specifically to these templates or the process for submitting legislation, you may send an email to the National Convention Legislative Director at Legislative.Director@apo.org.

Templates

Please Note: These templates are MS Word documents and must be returned to the National Office as MS Word readable files. If you wish to do your proposal writing and editing using another word processor or text editor, that is your prerogative so long as the final document you email to the National Office can be read by MS Word. In addition, please DO NOT change any of the fonts, font sizes, table settings, line spacing, or other document settings as these have been selected to streamline this process.

• Amendments Template (DOC)
• Resolution Template (DOC)
• Instructions (PDF) - The above text available as a printable PDF document.