Skip to main content

Maryland Pastel Society membership

About Us

Bylaw Revision, 2008


Explanation of Significant Changes for Member Review


A number of changes, some more significant than others, were made to the Bylaws by the elected officers of the Maryland Pastel Society: Jean Hirons (Pres.), Deb Maklowski (V.Pres.), Joyce Lister (Treasurer), Barbara Steinacker (Recording Secretary), and Lisa Sheppard (Corresponding Secretary). The initial draft was further reviewed by the remaining board members: Lisa Mitchell, Linda Light, and Maria Marino, and further changes were made.

The document that you will be reviewing highlights the changes that we considered significant. A number of other changes, more general in nature were made, such as degenderizing "chairmen" to "chairs," removing specific references to the Society's newsletter, and changing the names of the membership levels throughout the document.

Members are being provided with two documents: 1) the 2009 draft revision with significant changes noted in blue italics; 2) the 1999 revision of the bylaws. Please scroll down to the bottom of this web page to "click on" and open the downloadable pdf versions of these two documents.

Article III. Membership

Sec. 1. a. The name of the membership level has been changed from Artist Members to Signature Members to more accurately reflect this level of juried membership. We removed specific details about how to apply for Signature membership and just focused on the privileges. We also made it clear that it is the board that juries Signature members, rather than a panel of "qualified jurors," which we felt was vague.

Sec. 1. b. The name of the membership level was changed from Associate Members to Artist Members in recognition that we are all artists. We changed the description as well to be more straightforward. Under the privileges, we gave Artist members the right to vote. We also removed the reference to shows for Associates-only as these have been replaced with the juried "Members-Only" show.

Sec. 1. c. and d. References to receiving the Society's newsletter were changed to the fact that their names would be placed on the Society's website.

Article IV: Dues

Sec. 2. Previously there were separate sections for each level with the specific amounts given. We omitted the amounts (covered in general by Sec. 1) and included both levels together. We also changed the dates to reflect the current calendar of payments.

Article V: Officers, Executive Board

Sec. 2. We added the word "such" to indicate that these committees, as well as others, may or may not be in existence. We also replaced the newsletter committee with Communications and the Finance Committee with Education.

Article VI: Nominations and Elections

Sec. 1. We said that the president "may appoint" a Nominations Committee to provide more flexibility. We also changed makeup of the committee to 2 Signature and 1 Artist member to give better representation to the entire membership.

Sec. 7. We changed this to reflect recent practice of having new officers take over after they have been elected at the October meeting, rather than at the end of that meeting.

Article VII: Duties of Officers and Executive Board

Sec. 2. We changed "is expected to" to "may" serve to provide more flexibility as to the duties and obligations of the Vice President.

Sec. 4. : We removed references to the Corresponding Secretary notifying the membership of upcoming meetings given new methods of communication.

Article VIII: Meetings

Sec. 2./4. We changed the number of meetings from "Two" to "At least four" to reflect current status and provide future flexibility.

Sec. 3. The original (Sec. 2) stated that a quorum for all meetings was "12 Artist Members". We changed the number to 25, removed the specific membership level, and made this applicable only to meetings at which significant voting will occur.

Sec. 6. "or email" was added to reflect new means of communication.

Article IX: Amendments to these Bylaws

Sec. 1. We changed the language to "shall be made available" to allow for new methods of communication.

Questions or concerns? Send to Jean Hirons after Aug. 17th at jeanhirons@comcast.net