On Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, all eligible voting members of the AASM (i.e., Fellow, Regular and Emeritus members) received an email invitation to review Bylaws revisions that were made recently by the Board of Directors. Members are encouraged to review the revised Bylaws and vote by Sept. 25, 2014, at 4:30 p.m. CDT. 

Bylaws Revisions – September 2014
Minor corrections were made throughout the document to improve clarity, internal consistency and grammatical accuracy. The summary below describes more significant changes that were made to specific sections of the Bylaws:

Vision and Mission

  • The AASM Vision and Mission statements were removed from the preamble to the Bylaws, which will enable the Board of Directors to expedite future changes to these statements that may be necessary to ensure their relevance to the organization and the field. The current statements will always be available to members and the general public on the AASM website. Currently, they are posted at https://aasm.org/about/.

Members

  • Replaced “Sleep Related Breathing Laboratory” (a term that is no longer recognized by the AASM) with “Out of Center Sleep Testing Facilities” to reflect recent changes in the field and in the AASM accreditation programs
  • Changed the name of a membership category from “Affiliate Members – Technicians, Nurses” to “Affiliate Members – Health Care Professionals”

Officers, Terms of Office, Elections and Duties

  • Clarified the beginning and ending dates of the term of office
  • Added language to prevent a President-elect from encumbering the AASM with indebtedness without prior authorization of the Board of Directors

Board of Directors

  • Moved language from the preamble to the beginning of this chapter, describing the general powers of the Board
  • Added specific language requiring the Board of Directors to carry Directors and Officers liability insurance to protect the funds of the AASM and its directors and staff

Committees

  • Removed language stipulating the resignation of committee members who are absent from two consecutive committee meetings

Sections

  • Removed the brief chapter describing the AASM Sections, which was determined to be too vague and general to be a part of the Bylaws, which subsequently will allow the Board of Directors greater flexibility to structure the Sections according to the needs of the membership

Funds, Dues, Assessments

  • Clarified the dates by which center and individual member dues are to be paid

To compare the current and revised Bylaws side-by-side, you can pull up the current Bylaws at https://aasm.org/about/.