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Statutes and Bylaws Committee
2008–2010 term
Chair
Marvin Geller, Marine Science Research Center, State University of New York-Stony Brook, New York
Council Representative
Peter Schlosser, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York
Members
Rafael Bras, University of California, Irvine, California
Curtis Collins, Salinas, California
Christopher Harrison, RSMAS, University of Miami, Florida
Gregory Houseman, University of Leeds, Great Britain
Michelle Thomsen, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
Special Liaison
James Davis, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Staff Liaison
Robert Van Hook, AGU
Committee Charge
Through regular reviews the Committee assures that the Statutes and Bylaws of the Union are up-to-date and responsive to the needs of the membership. Changes and additions that appear appropriate to the Committee may be suggested to the Council at any time. All changes to the Statutes and Bylaws proposed by others must be reviewed by the Committee and presented to the Council with recommendations. Additionally, the Committee reviews the organizational and/or governing documents of any newly formed Section or Branch as well as all changes to such Section and Branch documents; the Committee assures that such documents do not conflict with the Statutes and Bylaws of the Union and suggests any changes it deems appropriate. The Committee provides advice both to the Section or Branch and to the Council, who must ultimately approve the documents or amendments to them.
During the 2006–08 term the Committee was specifically charged with undertaking a study that may lead to changes in the structure of AGU's Sections and governance. The 2006–08 Statutes and Bylaws Committee gave preliminary reports to Council at the 2007 Fall Council Forum and 2008 Spring Council Forum. Subsequent to those reports, the Council established a commission (now called the Forward Focus Task Force) to take an in-depth look at the scope and intent of Union activities and the alignment of governance, practices, and resources with these activities. The Task Force will then develop a set of 5- to 10-year strategies that assure the strengthening of AGU as a preeminent scientific society its ability to fulfill its Vision and Mission.
The Statutes and Bylaws Committee has given significant thought to the questions of how the Section and governance structure could be more responsive to the current and the evolving nature of our science and of our membership as well as how the structure of the Council could be made more effective. This work is an important input to the new task force. Likewise the Committee is to assist in digesting the work of the task force prior to its initial presentation to the Council at the 2008 Fall meeting.
It is anticipated that the Statutes and Bylaws Committee will be tasked with taking the concepts of the task force and developing the appropriate governance scheme and implementation documents for final action by Council and membership.
–July 2008