By Charlene Richards
As voting closes Friday evening for NABJ’s elections, two amendment proposals for the organization’s constitution have been stirring contentious debate among membership.
Dorothy Tucker, NABJ’s current president who has served two terms, was hesitant to comment on the new amendment proposals, saying that she will not speak directly on the matter because she doesn’t want to “influence anybody’s vote.”
Proposal No. 3 “formalizes an appeal process” and states that “membership shall be terminated/suspended for malfeasance, i.e. misappropriation of funds, other criminal acts and inappropriate behavior as defined by NABJ Operating Procedures, Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics.”
Proposal No. 4 proposes a new amendment that brings clarity to what constitutes a quorum for annual meetings.
The language states that “51 percent of a majority of the voting membership must be registered at the convention,” and that “no less than 5 percent of that number must be present at a duly called and authorized annual meeting for any resolution to be considered adopted and binding on the organization.”
Tucker did, however, talk about why the constitution committee may have proposed the code of conduct amendment, referring to preventing possible events of mismanagement of local level finances, financial improprieties on the national level and sexual harassment to name a few.
“I think it’s important for us to make sure that when our members feel as if they have a complaint, that there is a code of conduct in place that has some teeth behind it, to address their concerns,” Tucker said. “That amendment makes sure that under the code of conduct, there is an ad hoc committee that will hear your concerns and respond.”
Former NABJ member Ernest Owens, a journalist, author and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, was suspended by the board in March for a “sustained pattern of violations over several years of misinformation, disinformation and defamatory statements” which violate the NABJ Code of Conduct according to an official board document exclusively obtained by the NABJ Monitor.
Owens said in a social media post he was told by the organization he had made NABJ history.
Sia Nyorkor, NABJ’s parliamentarian, told the NABJ Monitor that the amendment proposals came “directly from membership” and were selected from 21 submissions. She added that she was not at liberty to say who proposed them, nor was that information public.
“These are things that people have been keeping eyes on, things that they feel that we need to tweak or we need to amend.” Nyorkor said. “The membership, though, has to approve them, and in order for you to have a say you’ll have to vote on them.”
Business Meeting Turns Contentious
Heated discussion on the quorum proposal, which is vital to conduct business at the annual conference, became intense during NABJ’s business meeting on Wednesday, where longtime members were in attendance.
Constitutional committee member Paula Madison, a longtime veteran of NABJ, said during the business meeting that the issue of quorum has been “a longstanding one.”
“We decided that we would tackle it while we were tackling these 20-plus proposed changes to the constitution. So what’s in front of us and what’s on the ballot is for members, whether they attend the business meeting or not, to vote on those,” Madison said. “We’re trying to clean up the ambiguities and trying to make things clearer than they presently are. So that’s how this particular issue came up this year not because anything happened last year, not from the board perspective. It was that there was a slew of constitutional amendments that were presented and we had to decide based on research, based on talking to people.”
Following Madison’s comments, former NABJ President Vanessa Williams, who served from 1997 to 1999, expressed her disappointment before walking out of the meeting.
“Thank you for your work, but last year was the first time we were told we could not vote as members sitting in a business meeting,” she said. “That is a fact, that is the first time we were told by the board, ‘I’m sorry, according to some interpretation, we didn’t have a quorum. Y’all can’t vote.’”
Some members verbally expressed agreement with Williams’ comments as she continued to get emotional about her stance.
“You’re talking about disenfranchising dues-paying loyal members based on a hypothetical, and you know, you sound like you’re afraid your members are going to do something, you’re scared of your members? What is up with that? I mean, it’s just not a good feeling.”
Election Candidates Weigh In
The language in the NABJ Code of Conduct amendment proposal makes presidential candidate Tre’vell Anderson skeptical, they said, due to the last line that “a subsequent Board of Directors cannot overturn that decision.”
“You know, as a board, we can only make a decision based on the information we were presented at that time,” Anderson said. “If a future board gets new information, I feel like they should be able to take that information to account and if necessary, overturn that previous board’s decision. And so that’s why I’m voting no on it.”
Current NABJ Treasurer Walter Smith-Randolph, who has been in office for two terms, said that proposal No. 3 should be codified into the constitution.
“We’ve had members who have done some things and there’s nothing really written down, or at least codified about what we can do,” Randolph said. “As treasurer I’ve had to deal with somebody allegedly taking funds from one of our chapters. So we have to be able to look at that and say, ‘Okay, what recourse do we have? So that’s why I’m in favor of it.”
Proposal No. 4 regards membership meeting, powers and voting eligibility with intent to bring clarity to what constitutes a quorum for annual meetings, which was never established.
Presidential candidate Ken Lemon said that he agrees with the quorum proposal saying, “We don’t want a situation where a group of people are able to come in, put something forth, make a decision for the entire body when they are nowhere close to represent what the body looks like when we’re asked for 50% to be present. When you don’t reach that number, It’s not fair.”
Voting members reaffirm change
Younger members also expressed their thoughts on the proposals including Kayla Dealcam, a student from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University who said that proposal three would “hold people accountable” all while protecting “the integrity of NABJ.”
Kendall Williams, a junior at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University attending her first NABJ convention, said that being a person of integrity is important, also saying that “it’s important to hold yourself accountable for your actions and that you’re a representation of the organization you’re a part of as well.”
Of the four amendments proposed on this year’s election ballot, voting members now have until 5 p.m. Central Time Friday to vote yes or no – two-thirds of the vote needed in order for the amendments to be passed and remain permanent.
Elijah Pittman contributed to this report.
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