Procedure for Implementing Policies

Comments Sought

The board of directors has approved this procedure.  It is now open for member comments.  Contact us.  Following the comment period, the policy may be adopted as is, adopted wirh minor revisions, or revised and presented for comment again.  The comment period will end August 31, 2009.

Any change in a written policy of the NCCNA, or any new policy, will follow these procedures:

  1. The policy will be drafted by one or more board members, or a designated sub-committee of the board.
  2. The drafted policy, new or revised, will be distributed to the entire board for review and comment.  This may be done at a meeting or through e-mail.
  3. Suggested revisions will be made as needed, and the revisions will be distributed for review and comment.  This may be done at a meeting or through e-mail.  This will be repeated as needed until the board is satisfied with the final draft policy.
  4. The board will approve the policy subject to member comment.  Approval may be done at a meeting or by unanimous consent via e-mail, as per the bylaws.
  5. The conditionally-approved policy will be subject to member review and comment as follows:
    1. The policy posted on the website as a draft, and will be distributed by e-mail where possible, or by standard mail for those not having e-mail, to thel eadership of each group.
    2. The policy will be open for comment for a minimum of 30 days from the date of distribution.
    3. Comments and suggestions may be made by e-mail or by standard mail.  Any comments received via mail or by e-mail to an individual board member must be distributed to the rest of the board as soon as possible.
    4. A person may elect to make comments by phone or in person, but must understand that doing so may not result in the comments being accurately conveyed.  Anyone receiving commenting by phone or in person should write up a summary of those comments and distribute them to the rest of the board, as well as to the person making the comments, as soon as possible.
    5. Comments and suggestions may be discussed among the board at any time after receipt, and may be incorporated into revisions that will be sent among the board for review and comment as in number 3 above.
    6. The board is not required to change the policy at all in response to any suggestion or comment, but shall give fair consideration to it.
  6. At the next meeting following the comment period, the board will formally consider the comments and suggestions, and make or finalize revisions to the policy as seems good to the majority.
  7. If there are no changes to the policy, or the changes to the policy are minor, the board may give a final approval to the policy.  Alternatively, the board may elect to put the policy out for comment again.  If it does so, the comment period will be open for another 30 days, and the steps starting in number 5 will be repeated as needed.
  8. Once the policy is final, it will be:
    1. Formatted for consistency with other policies
    2. Included in the Board Essentials document, and distributed via e-mail to the board.
    3. Included in the Group Essentials document, and distributed to the group leadership.  Due to the size of the document, this will only be done via e-mail.
    4. Posted on the website.

Additional Provisions

  1. These procedures will also apply to the following, with the provisions noted:
    1. Any change to the standing rules.
    2. Any changed or new procedures except those that deal only with internal workings of the board and do not affect members or groups in any substantial way.
    3. Any change to any item without a written component, but which has a substantial affect on the membership or the groups, including, but not limited to, a change in dues.  As there is no written component, step 8 above will not apply.
    4. Any change to the bylaws, except that these will have a 60 day review period if the change is significant.  The bylaws will be submitted for comments prior to being submitted for legal review.
  2. Any question about whether a specific item is subject to these procedures will be decided by a majority vote of the board.
  3. All existing bylaws, standing rules, policies, procedures, and the rest, in existence at the implementation of this policy, including this policy, will not be subject to these procedures unless they are revised.
  4. Any member may, at any time, make comments or suggestions on any aspect of the organization.  These will always be given good-faith consideration.  How they are handled will depend on the nature of the comment or suggestion.

 

Status

Approved pending comments.  Last revised July 2009.

The board of directors has approved this procedure.  It is now open for member comments.  Following the comment period, the policy may be adopted as is, adopted wirh minor revisions, or revised and presented for comment again.  The comment period will end August 31, 2009.  Contact us.

A PDF copy of this procedure is available.  Find out more about using PDF files.

Complete list of bylaws, standing rules, policies, and procedures.