2019 LEO Constitutional Amendment Proposals

At the 2019 LEO Member Convention, we will vote on 3 proposed constitutional amendments, all intended to streamline the timing of union elections.

The Union Council voted unanimously to support all three amendments. The text of the amendments appears below.

The convention will take place Sunday October 27th at Matthaei Botanical Gardens (1800 N Dixboro Rd, Ann Arbor), 1:00-4:00 pm (light dinner snacks provided). RSVP here!

The proposed amendments:

Petition 1

It is proposed that Article XI Section 1 of the LEO Constitution be amended to exclude the sentence about “the term of office” as follows:

Every two years the President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Union shall be elected by a majority vote of all Union members in good standing. Voting shall begin one week before all votes are counted on the third Friday of March. The terms of the four union-wide officers shall be staggered. The first election for the President and the Secretary under these rules shall take place in March 2019. The first election for the Vice-President and the Treasurer under these rules shall take place in March 2020. The term of office for these officers shall run from May 1st of the year they are elected through April 30th two years later. Members wishing to run for these offices shall present to the Elections Committee a petition supporting their candidacy, signed by at least twenty (20) members in good standing, no later than thirty (30) days in advance of the election date. They must have supporting signatures from at least two (2) campuses. In addition, a candidate for the office of President shall present to the Elections Committee a written statement disclosing his or her work commitments and plans to deal with any work overloads if elected. The disclosure statement shall be submitted with the candidate’s petition.

It is further proposed that the material excluded from Article XI Section 1 above replace (with slight adjustment) the current language of Article XI Section 6, which is as follows: 

Successful candidates assume office within fifteen (15) days of the conclusion of the election.

Article XI Section 6 amended would thus read as follows:

The term of office for successful candidates shall run from May 1st of the year they are elected through April 30th two years later.

Petition 2

Currently, Campus Chair elections are linked to the timing of the Annual Convention (which takes place no sooner than 120 days before January 1), as stated here in Article XI Section 2 of the LEO Constitution (see underlined sentence).

Every year, the Chair(s) of each Campus Council shall be elected by a majority vote of the members in good standing from their campus, according to the process set out in this constitution and the Bylaws for their campus. Members of the Dearborn and Flint campuses shall each elect one (1) Chair; members of the Ann Arbor campus shall elect two (2) Co-Chairs. These elections shall take place at least forty (40) days, and not more than sixty (60) days, before the Annual Membership Convention.

It is proposed that the Campus Chair elections run concurrently with the Union Officer elections in March. The proposed change to the Article is as follows (see underlined sentence). 

Every year, the Chair(s) of each Campus Council shall be elected by a majority vote of the members in good standing from their campus, according to the process set out in this constitution and the Bylaws for their campus. Members of the Dearborn and Flint campuses shall each elect one (1) Chair; members of the Ann Arbor campus shall elect two (2) Co-Chairs. These elections shall take place at the same time as the Union Officer elections (see Section 1 of this article).

Petition 3

Article IX Section 3 of the LEO Constitution states the following (note the underlined sentence): 

The Convention must be scheduled for a date not more than one hundred-twenty (120) days in advance of the start of the fiscal year as determined by the Union Council. In years in which the union elects its President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, the Convention shall be scheduled at least twenty-five (25) days after the election.

It is proposed that the underlined sentence be omitted so that this article will read as follows:

The Convention must be scheduled for a date not more than one hundred-twenty (120) days in advance of the start of the fiscal year as determined by the Union Council.