Members of IBEA:

At the April 2020 Board meeting a task force was formed to examine the current constitution and bylaws. One of the major issues we have seen in our governance is that we are too board heavy! We have roughly 200 members (with one-fourth being retired) and 30 on our board. That's about 15% of our members on the board. Research suggests that boards for nonprofits should have 5-10 members.

Preliminary work began in July 2020 by taking a look at the direction we want to go. Getting past minor delays, the task force has come up with an updated constitution.

In this special edition of our newsletter, you will see the proposed constitutional changes. These changes will be voted upon at our annual Business Meeting on Friday, November 5, 2021.

If these changes pass in November, we will begin work on changing the bylaws to match the new governance structure. All changes will take place after the 2022 fall conference.

Please click the link below and review the documents presented. You must be logged in as an IBEA member to view the document. If you have any comments or concerns, please contact our Executive Director, Gary Hutchinson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Monday, November 1, 2021.

pdf IBEA Fall 2021 Reports - Special Edition - Proposed IBEA Constitution Changes (947 KB)