Proposed District Changes

We have had a long-standing issue with many districts getting continuous active participation in

running for District Director. Angel LeSage once wrote about this in the 2016 Spring edition of the

Fluff, “In January, as we were renewing the Charter, we ran into a problem with ARBA requiring that

all director positions must be filled.” This has been an ongoing problem as often there are not

enough active members within a district therefore, causing the board to ask for someone within

that district to fill the position in “name only”.

After speaking extensively with ARBA Director Eric Stewart, he encouraged the board to help club

find a way to assign representation that would accurately reflect our club’s population. He also

gave examples of ways other clubs make these divisions or how they assign representatives per

geographic district. Some have 3 or 5 zones with a certain number of representatives in each. I

encouraged the board to think about ways to assign representation for our club. And we then

discussed the various options. There were 8 options, including all of those forwarded by Eric as

examples, a couple of that reduced the number of districts to 7, based on population in each area.

The board eventually settled on one of the 7 district options which they felt gave equal

representation of each area. Districts were divided into fairly equal geographies based on raw

population as well as “active” population of those showing. The districts differ in size

geographically, but each has an equal population. The idea is that there are more people in each

district to draw from for our board representation, therefore ensuring fair representation for all

members.

There are two proposals and three options that you will be able to vote on put before you. Each of

these can be found in more detail on our website under the tab (Proposed CBL Change) on our

website www.jerseywooly.org.

(1) The first proposal/option is the board-selected proposal (by a vote of 11-1) of 7 districts,

split by population rather than geography, so that each district has roughly the same

population, and equal representation. Each district would have 1 voting representative to

the board for a total of 7 district representatives. See option 1 with maps and list of

states/foreign countries assigned to districts.

As an example, for option 1, the CBL wording would read similar to the following:

ARTICLE V – OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SECTION 1: The Board of Directors of this club shall consist of four (4) executive officers: President,

Vice-president, Secretary, Treasurer, and seven (7) directors.

SECTION 2: One director shall be elected from each of the seven (7) districts as defined by the

BOD.

(see separate list of districts by state, plus foreign territories)

How would we make this shift:

If a change option is chosen, we have an implementation plan as follows:

Implementation plan:

A special election will take place for all District Director positions in June 2025, with all even numbered

District Directors having a 1-year term, and all odd numbered District Directors having a 2-year term.

This will keep staggered elections for board continuity. Regular elections would resume with the August

2026 election for even numbered Director positions, and President. The following regular election

would be in August 2027 for odd numbered District positions, Vice President, and Secretary.