Annual meeting and proposed bylaw updates for 2017

Philadelphia Family Pride’s annual membership meeting will take place as part of our January 2nd Potluck Brunch on Monday, Jan. 2nd, from 11am-2pm at Mishkan Shalom, located at 4101 Freeland Ave. in Philadelphia.

The annual meeting will consist of informal conversations about plans for 2017 and election of board members for the new year.
As required in our bylaws, this email serves as notice for the annual meeting as well as the seven day notice required before the board can vote to make the following changes to the bylaws.
In an effort to expand the amount of work PFP can take on, the current PFP board is proposing to amend the bylaws and expand the number of seats on the board of directors from the current 10 members to 16 members for 2017 and beyond.
All 10 board members from 2016 are interested in staying on for 2017. The returning board members are:
– Bryan Berchok
– Gina Cline
– Gregory Hedler
– Gregory Yorgey-Girdy
– Joel Nichols
– Kelly Durand
– Nijah Newton-Famous
– Paula Estornell
– Sandra Telep and
– Sandy DiBerardino
The new board members nominated for 2017 are:
– Adam Podowitz-Thomas
– Angel Brice
– Phyllis Chamberlain
– Ruby Augustus
– Tariem Burroughs and
– Terinae Holland
Note that while we are adding all six of the new board positions as “members at large” our plans are to pair people with committee chair positions to spread the responsibilities and knowledge of the organization.

Here are the details of the four proposed changes. (Find our current bylaws here.)

1. The last sentence of Article IV, Section 1 currently reads: “…The board shall have ten directors, directly elected in the following positions:”We propose changing that sentence to: “The board shall have sixteen directors, directly elected in the following positions:”

2. In the same section Article IV, Section 1, change “Member at Large (2)” to “Member at Large (8)”.
3. The last sentence of Article IV, Section 5 reads “Members at Large will be elected on a single ballot and all members will be eligible to vote for two candidates for that position. ”We propose changing that to read “…vote for eight candidates for that position.”

4. Article IV, Section 6 (Quorum) says that “At least five board members must be present for quorum to permit business transactions to take place and motions to pass.”We propose changing that to read “At least nine board members must be present for quorum…”
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at the Jan. 2nd brunch!Kelly
Kelly Durand
Chair, Board of Directors
Philadelphia Family Pride
kelly@phillyfamilypride.org