Maryland Nurse - April 2021

April, May, June 2021 The Maryland Nurse Journal • Page 7
ANA/MNA News
2021 Virtual Special Meeting of
the ANA Membership Assembly
Linda J. Stierle, MSN, RN
MNA Member-at-Large Voting Representative to the ANA Membership
Assembly, Chair of the MNA Committee on Bylaws & Policies (COB&P)
Due to the ongoing global pandemic, it will be necessary for the American
Nurses Association (ANA) to once again hold its annual Membership
Assembly (MA) virtually instead of in person, which is an ANA Bylaws
requirement. In order to hold the annual ANA MA virtually again in 2021,
the ANA President must issue a Call to a Special Meeting of the ANA MA
to the 200 voting representatives from the 52 Constituent/State Nurses
Associations (C/SNAs) and the Individual Membership Division (IMD),
which was issued on January 20, 2021. In accordance with the ANA Bylaws,
annual elections are conducted at the ANA MA. So, the Special Meeting of
the ANA MA must address two proviso amendments to the current ANA
Bylaws to allow for a virtual 2021 ANA MA and for the 2021 ANA Election
to be conducted remotely, as it was in 2020 due to the global pandemic. The
200 ANA MA voting representatives plus the nine members of the ANA
Board of Directors (BOD) will also be asked to suspend the submission of
proposed amendments to the ANA Bylaws that occurs in odd-numbered years
until January 2022 due to the challenges of trying to permanently amend the
bylaws virtually. These are two separate one-time provisional amendments to
the current ANA Bylaws.
However, when the C/SNA and the IMD received the Call to Meeting
on January 20th from the ANA President, the leadership, and voting
representatives were surprised to see permanent proposed amendments which
would give the ANA BOD the authority to conduct annual ANA elections
remotely and to hold the annual ANA MA virtually for whatever reason.
According to the ANA Bylaws, only time-sensitive and urgent issues are
addressed at a Special Meeting of the ANA MA because it does not permit
the C/SNAs and the IMD to participate fully in the ANA bylaws amendment
process and timeline. The two separate one-time amendments addressing
just 2021 are in keeping with the ANA Bylaws addressing urgent matters
that cannot wait and will be addressed in an abbreviated manner at a Special
Meeting of the ANA MA prior to voting on the amendments to the current
ANA Bylaws.
The Maryland Nurses Association (MNA) created a set of talking points
that addressed their concerns about considering permanent amendments
to the current Bylaws at a Special Meeting of the ANA MA. These were
shared widely with the C/SNAs and the IMD in the four geographic regions
of ANA. MNA also requested a virtual meeting of the Eastern Seaboard
Regional Executive Council (ESREC) leadership. ESREC is one of four
ANA geographic regions and is comprised of ten other states in addition to
Maryland: CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NJ. NY, PA, RI & VT. In preparation for
this meeting, which was held on March 15th, MNA created a background
document giving the history of Special Meetings of the ANA MA to address
bylaws, as well as outlined the current bylaws amendment process and
timeline in an odd-numbered year which was shared with the leadership of
the ESREC states.
The majority of the C/SNAs and the IMD leaders do not believe that the
2021 permanent proposed amendments should be considered at a Special
Meeting of the ANA MA, which limits our rights as members to engage fully
in the bylaws’ amendment process. So, on March 13th, MNA prepared a draft
letter to the ANA President and the Committee on Bylaws (COB) and asked
the other ten ESREC states if they would be willing to sign on as signatories
to an ESREC Leadership letter to the ANA President and BOD and the ANA
COB Chair and committee members. They agreed, and an ESREC letter was
sent on March 17th, respectfully requesting the ANA BOD and COB please
remove the 2021 bundle of permanent proposed amendments (Amendment
#1) to the current ANA Bylaws for adoption at the March 23, 2021 Special
Meeting of the ANA MA.
Three proposed amendments were addressed at the March 23rd Special
meeting of the ANA MA. Amendment #1 would permanently allow for
annual meetings of the ANA MA to be conducted virtually and elections to
be conducted remotely. Amendment #2 was a proviso amendment that would
just allow for the 2021 ANA MA to be held virtually and 2021 ANA elections
to be conducted remotely. Amendment #3 was another proviso amendment
that applied just to 2021 to suspend the amending of the ANA Bylaws in an
odd-numbered year until January 2022.
The MNA voting representatives to the ANA MA for 2021 are: MNA
President, Dr. Charlotte Wood; MNA Treasurer, Dr. Janice Agazio; MNA
Member, Donna Zankowski; and MNA Member, Linda Stierle.
MNA has a total of four seats and eight votes at the ANA MAs based
on its current membership. The primary responsibility of MNA voting
representatives is to protect and preserve the MNA members’ rights, elect
the ANA leaders annually, adopt proposed amendments to the bylaws, and
provide feedback on ANA policies. Each voting representative received an
email with an electronic ballot. The ballot language was confusing to some
voting representatives; so MNA sought clarification from ANA on the ballot
language which ANA provided and distributed to all voting representatives.
Therefore, the MNA voting representatives voted NO to Amendment #1
which has the potential to jeopardize members’ rights. They voted YES to
Amendments #2 and #3 which on these important issues were validated once
again to pertain just to 2021 and are necessary given the ongoing pandemic.
Voting occurred after the Special Meeting of the ANA MA starting at 8:00
PM and ended at 11:59 PM on March 28th, 2021. The results of the 200
ANA MA representatives and the nine ANA BOD voting on the three 2021
proposed amendments were as follows: Amendment #1 was not adopted as
71.1% of the voting representatives opposed it; Amendment #2 was adopted as
92.1% of the voting representatives approved it, and Amendment #3 was also
adopted by 77.1% of the voting representatives voting in favor of it. The MNA
voting representatives were pleased that MNA’s perspectives were validated
by the majority of the other C/SNA and IMD voting representatives on these
important membership issues.