Proposed PLAI Constitution & By-laws

Members of PLAI-House of Delegates (HOD) met last July 28, 2007 at the PLAI National Headquarter Office to deliberate on the proposed revision of the association’s constitution & by-laws. The draft constitution was submitted to the HOD for consideration last November 2006 meeting of the General Assembly (GA). The HOD then unanimously deferred its endorsement for GA approval pending exhaustive deliberation and grassroots consultation with the 16 Regional Councils of its salient provision that envision to correct the deficiencies or limitations of the existing constitution & by laws.

After the whole day activity, almost 95% of the provisions of the draft constitution were agreed upon and the remaining 5% will be threshed out via email exchanges of the HOD members to come out of the latest draft scheduled for release to Regional Councils by early September 2007. The HOD members per each council will then spearhead the information dissemination and gathering of additional comments if any from the members. Thereafter, the consolidated and final draft will be presented to the GA come November 2007.

Aside from the draft Constitution & by-laws, the HOD agreed to submit a transcript of the deliberation to guide future interpretation of the meaning, definitions of the various provisions. Also an Implementing Rules & Regulation (IRR) to serve as transitory provision to guide the smooth implementation of the new constitution & by-laws.

The salient provisions incorporated in the draft constitution & by-laws are as follows:

1) Each Regional Council is entitled to one NBOT (National Board of Trustees) member, thus the NBOT members with voting powers will be composed of the members nominated by each of the 16 Regional Councils. The HOD then during its Annual Business Meeting will elect and rank the NBOT members wherein the top 8 will be the officers of the association while lower 8 will served as directors of the NBOT.

2) The 8-top ranked will then elect among themselves the position of, President, Executive Vice-President, VP-for Luzon, VP-for Visayas, VP-for Mindanao, Treasurer, Auditor, and Press Relations Officer (PRO). The President, with the approval of the NBOT, will then appoint the Secretary.

3)Term of office of NBOT members will be for 2 years. (Which is also the proposed term of office of the members of the Council Board of Trustees). In case an officer resign or becomes incapacitated, the replacement will be elected from among the Directors serving for the unexpired term only. The CBOT where the resigned or incapacitated officer(s) belong will then name a replacement of their representative in the NBOT serving only for the unexpired term of the previous trustee.

4) A simple majority (50% + 1) is needed to transact official business for NBOT. Minimum of 9 members of NBOT constitute a quorum. The Chairperson of HOD is an automatic member of NBOT with no voting powers. The appointed Secretary is also a member of NBOT with no voting powers. Both the Chairperson of HOD and the Appointed Secretary is not counted in the determination of Quorum.

5) Current NBOT members must chair all Standing/Special Committees. The chairs of the committee will then select/identified the members.

6) The elected President, Vice President and a third member of each Regional Council will constitute the HOD. A total of 48 members (16 Regl Council x 3) during their Annual Business Meeting will elect the HOD Officers (Presiding Officer, Vice Presiding Officer and Secretary) from among themselves.

7) The association adopts the calendar year, January to December, as the fiscal year. The year 2004 will be the cut-off point for determining member of good standing.

8) Members granted with Lifetime membership in the past will be accorded the same privilege of not paying their annual dues.

9) Membership fee is a one-time fee paid by newly accepted member only. (P300.00), while the annual dues of P200.00 per member must be paid yearly. Arrears (unpaid annual dues) must be fully settled first before paying for the current dues. The cut-off year of reckoning is 2004.

10) Council Treasurer are mandated to remit on or before June of each year the collected membership fee/annual dues for the year of the council to the National Treasurer of the association.

11) CBOT elected officers during their Regional GA are as follows: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Auditor, PRO, 3rd HOD member and an NBOT nominee. The President with the approval of CBOT will appoint the Secretary. The number of directors of CBOT will be based on local conditions of the council.

12) The CBOT are free to conduct their respective businesses as long as it is in accordance with the existing association Constitution & by-laws. If ever conflict arises in the interpretation of the Constitution & by-laws, the HOD in their Annual Business Meeting or Special meeting will resolve the dispute.

13) Election of CBOT officers or Regional GA must be within the months of May to October of each year. Since CBOT officers serve for 2 year terms, if ever, election in the next year will be only for the position vacated either via resignation or incapacity and for the unexpired portion of the term only.

14) 50%-50% sharing of the membership fee/annual dues of National and Council will be retained.

15) Six months prior to the next general elections in the CBOT, the current CBOT must constitute/create NOMELEC committee to handle pre-election, election, and post election duties and activities.

The above-mentioned salient points are my notes of the heated deliberations of the HOD. As the Vice-Chair of the HOD and talking (as devil advocate) most of the time than taking down notes, I may have omitted some salient provisions which I humbly request my co-HOD members to provide by dropping a comments or two to this post (RBManlangit).