What is in the future for the SWATA executive board?

As you all know by now at the SWATA Annual Meeting last month in July the membership overwhelmingly voted in favor for the new SWATA Constitution. Because of that the association will be able to grow, adapt, and change in the upcoming years because of the flexibility in this document.

One thing that is noticeably different in this new document is the make up of the executive board. Because everyone who has been elected to the executive board will serve out the term that they have been elected to the next few years the board will be morphing from the current make up to the new one. Currently the voting members of the executive board are made up of the National Director, President, Vice President, Second Vice President, Past President, and a state representative from both Arkansas and Texas. Also currently the President of the association only serves a one year term in that position. The membership overwhelmingly felt the president should be a two year term and that the number of voting members on the executive board should remain at seven and also that the state reps on the board should come from the state association boards. Because of that SWATA will be working off of a transition plan until 2013 when the executive board as described in the most recent constitution is finally in place. The new executive board's voting members will consist of the National Director, President, Vice President, Secretary, Member At Large, and representatives from each state associations executive boards. As you can see the positions of past president and second vice president have been eliminated and their duties will be taken over by existing board members.

The question then becomes what positions will we elect and when will we do it.

Below I have listed the positions and years that they will be elected:

2010 - Vice President (will become first two year president of SWATA under the new constitution and standing rules), Arkansas State Rep, Secretary (will be a non voting member of the executive board the first year on the board)
2011- National Director and Texas State Rep (will be chosen from TSATA BOD)
2012 - Vice President, Arkansas State Rep, Secretary
2013 - Member At Large

As you can see we will have several positions open this year and nominations are currently being accepted. If you would like to nominate a worthy SWATA member for either Vice President, Arkansas State Rep, or Secretary please contact SWATA Past President Dan O'Connor (oconnor_dan@sbcglobal.net) with the member's name and the position that they are being nominated to run. Nominations for all elected offices will close on February 15, 2010.

In the upcoming weeks and months we will use this blog and also the SWATA e-blast system to inform you about information that you as a member need to have.