A I P
C O M M U N I C AT O R AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS
SUMMER
2021
Presidents Message: Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in the Water!
TABLE OF CONTENTS President’s Letter
1
A message from AIP Education Director
2
Notice of Candidacy
3
AIP Officers
3
Calendar of Events
3
2021 Hybrid Annual Session
3
Deadline Dates – Communicator
3
2021 Annual Session Proposed Standing Rules
4
Proposed Amendments – AIP Bylaws
5
Accrediting Department Notice
14
2021 Virtual East Coast Practicum Recap
14
AIP Welcomes New Chapters
15
New Members
16
Amazon Smiles Spotlight
16
So after over a year of the pandemic and all that it has brought to the world of parliamentary procedure, I am starting to book and participate in some large inperson meetings. It appears this is a sign of an eventual return to normalcy. Most of us, if not all of us have mastered or at least become proficient at the various electronic meeting platforms. AIP members have contributed many things to the industry in the form of standards for electronic meetings. Our members have assisted organizations in changing their bylaws, or in some cases state laws, to allow for virtual meetings and pioneered unique uses of the electronic meeting venue. All of this work and now it will be gone when the pandemic is over, and everyone goes back to in-person meetings. Right? First, I am not at all sure that business and professional societies will return to in-person meetings. This is especially true for boards and organizational meetings of less than 100 members. Many
organization meetings have seen a huge in-flux of participation in their events due to the availability of virtual participation. Some of this has to do with the ease of virtual participation and the lack of additional expenses associated with attendance. I also think that some of this additional participation has to do with the additional time available to people stuck in their homes with none of the usual distractions to occupy their time. Perhaps because people have extra time on their hands – I would like to congratulate the newly chartered NIPA (National Intercollegiate Parliamentary Association), the Betty S. Green Chapter, and the Adopt-in-lieu-of Chapter. Of course, I am kidding about this happening because of the time on people’s hands part of the story, but I do think these chapters are organizing as a direct result of the awareness of the ease of meeting electronically for both meetings and training exercises. When the first chapter approached us about a new charter, we had to dig deep in the institutional knowledge bin because none of the current or recent leadership had chartered a unit and the process was a little unclear.
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Summer 2021 | AIP Communicator Page 1