The Central Michigan chapter of PRSA, undeterred by a letter from PRSA national raising legal issues about its move to "democratize" PRSA, has sent its proposal to the 110 chapter presidents.

Central Michigan Assembly delegate Mark Holoweiko told the chapter presidents in an e-mail that he wants the chapters and their members to have "ample time" to discuss the CM bylaw change which would block the national board from making substantial decisions without the approval of the Assembly.

Mark Holoweiko

The CM proposal, said Holoweiko, "would democratize the structure of PRSA in line with democratic principles and the bylaws of other national professional organizations."

Cited are the governance setups of the American Bar Assn. and the American Medical Assn.

"PRSA is structured as more of a from-the-top-down corporation than as a membership organization," said the Holoweiko letter.

Whether the chapter presidents will pass the letter to their members remains to be seen.

Thus far no chapter has put the CM proposal on its website although chapter presidents were sent a copy of it months ago by this website.

Art Stevens, president of PRSA/New York, the third biggest chapter and the biggest chapter representing a single city, said he would show the CM letter to the chapter board but he was not in favor of putting it on the PRSA website.

He said he would follow the structure of PRSA in which power flows from the national board to chapter boards to members.

Bolton, Lynch Don't Answer CM

The Holoweiko letter noted that PRSA COO Catherine Bolton wrote CM May
4 that the CM proposal raised legal issues such as the requirement to re-write the PRSA charter from New York State and the possibility that individual members of the Assembly could be sued if they took on more responsibility.

The chapter ask for a "clarification" of these warnings but has not received an answer thus far from either Bolton or PRSA director Christopher Lynch, who also became involved in the discussion. Lynch is the PRSA director representing the district that includes CM.

"Members of CM are looking forward to a healthy debate on the subject at the Assembly [Nov. 11] in Salt Lake City," wrote Holoweiko.

"If you would care to share your chapter's views on the subject with us – whether pro, con, or indifferent – we would much appreciate it..." wrote Holoweiko.

The CM proposal includes this wording:

"Between meetings of the Assembly, the board shall perform, not inconsistently with any action taken by the Assembly, the functions that the Assembly itself might perform. In urgent situations, the board has the authority to take those policy actions that it deems best represent the interests of the Society and the public. Any such actions by the board must be placed before the Assembly for ratification."

This wording mirrors similar wording in the bylaws of the ABA and AMA, says CM.

Two recent major decisions, the signing of a 13-year lease in downtown New York for PRSA h.q., and the discontinuance of the printed 1,000-page membership book, were made by the national board without consultation with the Assembly or the membership.