Bylaws Amendment Results

My Fellow SCIP Members,

Recently the Board sent to the membership proposed amendments to the Bylaws. There were 3 proposed revisions to the Bylaws. The first was to change the name of the Independent Specifier member from “Active Member” to “Consultant Member”. The second proposed amendment was to clarify the definitions of several of the membership categories, particularly the Affiliate Member. The third proposed Bylaws amendment was to add the membership category of Emerging Specifier. Currently no one with less than 5 years’ experience writing specifications full time may join SCIP.

We received votes from less than 20 percent of the membership. Bylaws amendments require a minimum of two-thirds affirmative votes of those voting to pass. We did not receive the required two-thirds affirmative votes, so the Bylaws amendment initiative did not pass.

The Board recently held a special meeting to discuss where we go from here. We believe that SCIP is at a crossroads for the organization. We need to make some changes for the betterment of the specifying community. For several years we have spoken at Board meetings about creating a strategic plan for SCIP as well as doing a needs assessment to decide if we should be working on rebranding SCIP. We believe that it is time to do this. In order to make the effort meaningful, we need member involvement. We need to know what SCIP members like and dislike about the organization. We need to know if SCIP members believe the organization is meeting their needs, or if we should be doing things differently from how we have been. We need to hear from all our members very soon.

Before our June 13th Annual Meeting and Conference, we will create a members-0nly forum for discussion on the SCIP website. The open forum at the annual Meeting and Conference on Monday June 13th will be focused on this topic. We hope many will attend the Annual Meeting and Conference.

We have received some very thoughtful emails from a few members, which we appreciate greatly. We need more input from the members so that we can understand what you want SCIP to be in the future. Please use the forum and the open forum at the Conference in June.

 

Thank you.

Neil Davison, RA, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, SCIP

President