Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered
United Employees at AT&TApril 12, 2001
Article I – Name Article II. Objective Article III. Members Article IV. Structure Article V. Officers Article VI. Meetings Article VII. Committees Article VIII. Parliamentary Authority Article IX. Amendment of Bylaws Amendment I -- LEAGUE at AT&T Foundation Bylaws Article I. Name
The name of this organization shall be Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered United Employees at AT&T. For all purposes, the acronym LEAGUE shall be equally acceptable.Article II. Objective
To make AT&T the most respected company by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered community.Article III. Members
Section 1. LEAGUE shall be comprised of AT&T employees, who shall hold their LEAGUE membership either individually or through organization at the local level in LEAGUE chapters. LEAGUE membership is also open to individuals retired from AT&T or on long term disability from AT&T employment (or employment by any of its subsidiaries,) so long as such individuals possess no conflict of interest with AT&T. Conflicts of interest shall be determined and resolved at the local chapter level wherever possible. Membership by former or other non-AT&T employees shall be governed by the provisions of Section 6 of this Article.
Non-members shall be welcome to participate in the work of LEAGUE, but may not make motions, vote, or hold office.
A local chapter may initiate the process of joining LEAGUE by submitting a written application in a form to be approved by the Board of Directors, together with a list of prospective members, to the Secretary. The Secretary shall, at the next meeting of the Chapter Presidents’ Council, report the chapter’s application for membership. Acceptance of the chapter shall be by simple majority vote.
Chapters shall be responsible for providing updated lists of members to LEAGUE at least annually.
The Secretary shall maintain a list of all Chapters. The Board may in its discretion publish the list of chapters.
The Secretary shall maintain a list of all LEAGUE members. The membership list shall be confidential, and access to it shall be limited exclusively to elected National LEAGUE officers. Access to the membership list is restricted to internal LEAGUE use.
The provisions of section 6 of this Article shall govern membership by former or other non- AT&T employees.
Section 2. The Chapter Presidents’ Council shall have the authority to levy initiation fees or dues for membership in LEAGUE, for individuals or Chapters.
Section 3. Any Chapter wishing to resign from LEAGUE shall submit its resignation in writing by any reasonable means to the Secretary, who shall report the resignation at the next meeting of the Chapter Presidents’ Council.
Section 4. Any Chapter whose President or designated representative fails to attend two consecutive Chapter Presidents’ Council meetings (other than emergency meetings convened under Article VI, Section 1), and does not notify the Secretary prior to or on the day of the meeting, shall be in Inactive status upon adjournment of the second unattended meeting. The Secretary shall duly record the inactive status. A Chapter may voluntarily become Inactive by notifying the Secretary. A Chapter on Inactive status will be excluded from the quorum count necessary to conduct any business. An Inactive Chapter shall be returned to Active status when its representative attends two consecutive Chapter Presidents’ Council meetings and will be able to vote during the third consecutive meeting.
If a Chapter remains Inactive for six consecutive months, the Co-Presidents will attempt to contact through any reasonable means representatives of the Chapter, and thereafter report to the Chapter Presidents’ Council. The inactive chapter may then be removed from LEAGUE membership by a two-thirds majority vote.
Section 5. Should any LEAGUE member charge a Chapter or member with conduct injurious to LEAGUE or its purposes, the Chapter Presidents’ Counsel may convene a committee to investigate the charges. The committee shall report its findings at the next Chapter Presidents’ Council meeting unless an extension be granted by the Co-Presidents. Following the committee's report, and upon a preponderance of evidence that the member or chapter accused has, in fact, committed one or more acts injurious to LEAGUE or its purposes, the Chapter or member may, by a two-thirds majority vote, thereafter be expelled from LEAGUE. Any expelled Chapters or members may reapply to LEAGUE for membership, whose approval shall require two-thirds majority of the Chapter Presidents’ Council.
Section 6. In an effort to involve retirees and former AT&T employees in LEAGUE, LEAGUE hereby adopts the following policy and related guidelines.
Candidates for membership must be in good standing. For a candidate for membership to be considered "in good standing," the candidate must be eligible for rehire by AT&T.
A candidates may not be considered for LEAGUE membership if the candidate has been a party to the dissemination of any information proprietary to AT&T to anyone outside of AT&T or to anyone who did not have a need to know such proprietary information for the business purposes of AT&T.
A candidate may not be considered for LEAGUE membership if the candidate works for a competitor of AT&T or has been involved in any act that constitutes a conflict of interest to with LEAGUE or AT&T. If, subsequent to the acceptance of a candidate’s membership, it is determined that the candidate was in fact not qualified for membership by operation of any of the provisions of this section, then the member’s membership may be terminated pursuant to the provisions of Section 5 of this Article.
Section 7. To protect the integrity of AT&T, LEAGUE and its operations, any non-employee candidate approved for membership by LEAGUE must deliver a fully executed Non-Disclosure agreement in a form as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors prior to the effectiveness of membership. The agreement shall be of a form sufficient to ensure that any AT&T Proprietary or LEAGUE information that may be discussed during conference calls or meetings or disclosed in any manner is kept confidential.
Article IV. Structure
Section 1. There shall be a Chapter Presidents’ Council, the membership of which shall be composed of the Presidents of the individual LEAGUE chapters. The Chapter Presidents’ Council shall have plenary authority to control the affairs of LEAGUE
Section 2. The Chapter Presidents’ Council shall have the authority to make decisions on all matters that affect more than one Chapter. On issues concerning only one Chapter, that Chapter shall retain autonomy unless it formally requests intervention by the Chapter Presidents’ Council. Should there be disagreement as to whether an issue is local or affects more than one Chapter, it shall be considered local unless a two-thirds majority vote of the Chapter Presidents’ Council decides otherwise.
Article V. Officers
Section 1. The Board of Directors of LEAGUE shall consist of two Co-Presidents, who shall also serve as presidents of the Chapter Presidents’ Council; An elected Secretary, and an elected Treasurer with at least four Executive Vice Presidents, of which one will be solely responsible for Conference Planning.. At least one Co-President shall be male, and at least one Co-President shall be female.These officers shall perform the duties prescribed by these bylaws and by the parliamentary authority adopted by LEAGUE.
Only Members who are currently employed by AT&T Corp. are qualified to hold the office of Co-President, Secretary or Treasurer.
Section 2. The Co-Presidents shall have the authority to supervise the affairs of LEAGUE between its business meetings. The Chapter Presidents’ Council may reconsider any action taken by the Co-Presidents and may overturn that action by majority vote. The Co-Presidents are bound by all votes of the Chapter Presidents’ Council.
The Co-Presidents shall confer in fixing the hour and place of meetings of the Chapter Presidents’ Council.
The Co-Presidents shall have the authority to establish committees, and these committees shall report directly to them or to any Executive Vice President as designated by the Co-Presidents. The Co-Presidents may delegate any of their duties but shall remain responsible for the results of such delegation.
The Co-Presidents shall be the primary points of contact between LEAGUE and other organizations and individuals with which it interfaces, and their names shall be distributed to all organizations needing to contact LEAGUE.
The Co-Presidents shall decide between them how to divide and/or delegate their responsibilities.
Section 3. The Co-Presidents shall serve for two years, or until their successors are elected; their terms of office shall be staggered so that one Co-President is elected each year. All other officers shall serve for one year or until their successors are elected. The term of office for all officers shall begin on July 1st following their election.
Should an office become vacant, an Emergency Election shall be held at the next meeting of the Chapter Presidents’ Council. The replacement officer elected shall serve out the remainder of that vacating officer's term. If the vacant office is one of the Co-Presidents, replacement shall be of the same gender as the officer being replaced.
Section 4. There shall be no limit to the number of consecutive terms served by a member in any office.
Section 5. There shall be a Nominating Committee, comprised of chapter presidents who are not running for any national office. The committee shall be selected and convened by the Co-Presidents, and upon being convened shall elect its own chairperson. The Nominating Committee shall set the date for nominations for candidates for LEAGUE’s Board of Directors. The Nominating Committee shall present to the Chapter Presidents’ Council a list of candidates for each office. The nominees for the office of Co-President shall be of an appropriate gender to maintain one male and one female Co-President following the election.
The Nominating Committee shall also set the date for election of new officers. The date of the election shall be announced to the general membership at least 30 days in advance. In addition to the candidates submitted by the Nominating Committee, nominations shall be accepted from the floor. Nominees for Co-President, Secretary and Treasurer need not be members of the Chapter Presidents’ Council. For the purposes of elections of members of the Board of Directors, three quarters of the total number of Chapter Delegations shall constitute a quorum.
The election of the Co-President will take place by electoral vote as follows: Electoral votes will be distributed based on the number of members submitted to the Secretary. Chapter membership lists must be submitted 60 days prior to the election date, if a Chapter fails to submit a list 60 days prior to the election date, the previous membership list on file will be used by the Secretary to determine the Chapters electoral votes. For Chapters with one through thirty-five members on the list submitted to the Secretary, the Chapter will receive five electoral votes. For each ten members over thirty-five, the Chapter will receive one additional electoral vote.
Officers shall be elected by roll call of the Chapter Presidents Council. All candidates should either be present or have representation for so long as needed to make nominations, debate and conduct elections. For all elected offices, candidates must receive a majority of votes cast to be elected; if no candidate receives a majority, the roll call will be repeated until a candidate receives a simple majority. All Chapters present and in good standing must either cast their votes or abstain.
Candidates for Executive Vice Presidents will be submitted by the Co-Presidents and approved by a simple majority vote of the Chapter Presidents’ Council. Executive Vice Presidents may be removed from office by consensus of the Co-Presidents without approval of the Chapter Presidents’ Council. A replacement of vacant Executive Vice President positions will follow the aforementioned selection process. Vice Presidents, which will be a position appointed and supported by the Executive Vice Presidents, are created. No limitation exists regarding the number of Vice Presidents appointed by the Executive Vice Presidents. The number is determined at the sole discretion of each Executive Vice President.
Section 6. The Chapter Presidents’ Council shall have sole power to recall and remove a member of the National Executive Staff. Upon petition by at least one third of the entire Chapter Presidents’ Council, the recall of a Co-President, Secretary or Treasurer shall be debated. Following the debate, the officer shall be removed upon a vote of a two-thirds majority of the entire body in favor of recall.
Article VI. Meetings
Section 1.. The Chapter Presidents’ Council shall meet at least once per quarter.The Chapter Presidents’ Council may, during the course of a meeting, fix the time and place of its next meeting. If either is not so fixed, the time or place shall be set at the discretion of the Co-Presidents. All meetings shall be announced at least fourteen days prior to said meeting.
Either Co-President may, in the event of an emergency, call an Emergency Meeting of the Chapter Presidents’ Council, setting the hour and place of that meeting. Emergency meetings require no set advance notice, but rules of the quorum shall still apply. A Chapter cannot be placed in inactive status for failing to attend an Emergency Meeting.
Section 2. In any meeting, except those that involve the elections of National Offices, a simple majority of the Chapter Delegations to the meeting body shall constitute a quorum.
Article VII. Committees
Section 1. Executive Vice Presidents are responsible for all standing committees with the exception of Finance and Nominating Committees. The Treasurer will head the Finance Committee and the Secretary will head the Nominating Committee. The Executive Vice President, Treasurer or Secretary shall appoint membership of a committee as appropriate. If the Executive Vice President determines a subcommittee is necessary, they will appoint a Vice President to chair the subcommittee. The Vice President will appoint membership of the subcommittee. Each Executive Vice President shall be an official member of all committees except the Finance and Nominating Committees. Any member of LEAGUE may serve on a committee.Section 2. The Finance Committee shall be headed by the Treasurer and consist of least two other members. The Finance Committee shall prepare the annual budget for LEAGUE and submit it to the Chapter Presidents’ Council. In addition, the Finance Committee shall be required to submit a Treasurer’s report at every Non-Emergency Chapter Presidents’ Council Meeting.
Section 3. The Conference Planning Committee shall be headed by at least one Executive Vice President and must consist of at least five other members. The Conference Planning Committee shall plan and organize the annual LEAGUE Conference.
Section 4. All standing committees named in these bylaws shall report annually, via the Executive Vice President and Secretary, or his or her designated alternate, to the Chapter Presidents’ Council. This report shall summarize the committee's objectives and accomplishments.
The Co-Presidents shall set the date for each committee's report. Additional reports may be requested by the Co-Presidents.
Section 5. The Co-Presidents may create any other committees which they deem necessary.
Article VIII. Parliamentary Authority
The rules contained in the current edition of ”Robert's Rules of Order” shall govern LEAGUE in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special rules of order LEAGUE may adopt.Article IX. Amendment of Bylaws
Proposed amendments to the constitution and bylaws shall be submitted to the Secretary in writing by any reasonable means. The First Reading of the proposed amendment shall occur at the next non-Emergency meeting of the Chapter Presidents’ Council. The proposed amendment shall be debated, edited and/or voted upon at the meeting in which the First Reading is conducted. A simple majority vote of all Chapters is required for submission for ratification of the proposed Amendment. If the amendment fails to receive a simple majority vote of all the Chapters, it may be resubmitted in the future for further consideration.The vote for ratification of the Amendment will occur at the next non-Emergency meeting following the approval of the proposed Amendment. Ratification will occur upon a simple majority vote of all Chapters. At least 30 days must transpire between the approval of Amendment language and the vote for ratification to allow time for the Chapters to consider the amendment.
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