By Ada Zhang
Staff Writer
The Baylor Alumni Association board met on Nov. 9 and decided to take a membership vote on changing BAA bylaws.
Chad Wooten, executive interim vice president, said a BAA membership meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary.
“The sole purpose of the meeting is to allow remote voting,” Wooten said. “Back in the summer, there was a lot of talk and concern about not allowing people out of state, who couldn’t be there in person, to vote.”
According to current BAA bylaws, members must be present at the meeting to cast their vote.
“This will hopefully be the last in-person-only meeting,” Wooten said.
The vote on Dec. 7 will operate under current BAA bylaws, Wooten said, which means members must be present in order to vote and a two-thirds majority is needed for the change to pass.
If two-thirds or more of BAA members present are in favor of changing the bylaws, then future votes will allow online and mail-in participation, Wooten said.
He said, to get a good turn-out, the board intentionally scheduled the meeting on the same day as the home game against the University of Texas.
“We’re trying to make it available to as many people as we can by scheduling it on the day of the football game,” he said.
Wooten said the options outlined in a survey sent to BAA members on Oct. 4 have yet to be discussed in detail.
The survey asked members how they would like to proceed now since the university terminated the BAA’s license to use the Baylor brand on Sept. 8. The termination followed the vote on Sept. 7, where the Transition Agreement to merge the BAA with the university did not pass.
The results of the survey indicate that, of the 1,800 members who responded, 50 percent are in favor of reorganizing the BAA.
“There has been some discussion of those options that were sent,” Wooten said. “But there’s not been any decisions made yet.”
Wooten said the board believes the most practical next step is to change the bylaws.
“When we get to a decision, at least well have the mechanism in place to let everyone vote on it,” Wooten said.
