Richard Kline (pictured), VP, communications of Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles, said the Society should have leadership of the "best and brightest — not just the relatively few who are APR."Kline, the 195th signer of the petition, said that the Society should "immediately and forever remove from its policies the unnecessary and inappropriate APR requirement for national office and board service."
The Society's board can call an Assembly with ten days’ notice that could pass such a rule using proxy votes, which were made legal in the Assembly last November. This would allow open elections to take place this summer.
Otherwise, candidates would be announced on the Society website June 21 and comments would be allowed until July 12. The 21-day period includes the July 4 holiday.
There is no provision for members finding out how the candidates stand on issues facing the Society. The nominating committee is headed by Jeff Julin, 2008 chair.
Other signers of the Committee's petition who are asking for immediate action include Dian Terry, assistant VP of Teradata division of NCR, Dayton, who says the change should be made as soon as possible, and counselor Ken Ulrich, who says the change is "long overdue."
The Committee has obtained 229 "signatures" as of today but the recent trend has been for about one-quarter of them to sign "anonymously" or "name not displayed."
Thirteen of the most recent 54 "signatures" of that type.
None of the 110 chapter websites of the Society have mentioned anything about the Committee’s quest thus far and none has made any arrangements for a vote by chapter members.
There is no mention of the Committee on the website of the New York chapters, some of whose members formed the committee.
The national board said it is taking a neutral position of the initiative.