Good afternoon TENA Members. I have served on the TENA Bylaws Committee on and off for a number of years. A few years ago, several members came to me and requested the Bylaws Committee review a bylaw amendment to prevent anyone from serving on the TENA Board and the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board concurrently. The committee agreed to allow the membership to vote on this and the membership voted overwhelmingly to support this amendment preventing anyone from serving on both Boards concurrently. This bylaw amendment seems to have created a great deal of division within our state with some still in favor of it, some strongly opposed to it and some that have stated they were not quite sure what they were voting on. With that said, I have drafted the petition below in accordance with TENA Bylaws Article VIII, whereas I am proposing a bylaw amendment and a policy addition.

Things have changed over the past few years since this amendment was originally adopted and sometimes we have to change with the times or at least openly discuss and compromise. Previously we did not have Tennessee Emergency Communications Board members that were board members of other associations and that has since changed. Now we have Tennessee Emergency Communications Board members that also serve on Boards of other 911 associations in this state, so with that said, should TENA Board members have that same opportunity? At the end of the day, we are all in this to accomplish the same goal and that is to have the best 911 system for the citizens of the State of Tennessee regardless what association you are a member of.

According to TENA Bylaws Article VIII, I need at least ten (10) TENA voting delegates to sign this petition. Signing this petition does not obligate you to support or oppose this change, it simply satisfies the requirement so that it can go before the TENA Bylaws Committee for review and then to the full TENA membership for a vote.

Respectfully,

Kim Augustine, ENP

Madison County 911

PETITION TO CHANGE TENA BYLAWS

Remove TENA Bylaws Article V, Section 2, subsection M in its entirety. (See below for section to be removed).

M. At no time shall an Executive Board member of the Association serve concurrently on the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board. If a member of the Executive Board is appointed to serve on the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, the member must resign the office with TENA within fifteen (15) days of appointment. If the office is not resigned, the office will be vacated after fifteen (15) days of the appointment.

PETITION TO ADD TENA POLICY

Tennessee Emergency Communications Board Nominations. Any current TENA board member voting on Tennessee Emergency Communications Board nominees must recuse themselves from voting to prevent conflict of interest if:

One or more of the nominees are from the same ECD as the TENA board member.

If the TENA board member is the nominee.