Western States
Folklore Society

Summary of By-Laws changes

The amendments to the California Folklore Society's By-Laws approved by the membership as of July 31, 2004 fall into two categories. The first category relates to changing the Society's name from California Folklore Society to Western States Folklore Society. This change reflects the growing expansion of the Society’s sphere of activity and interest and acts as a corrective to any conception of the Society’s scope as limited to the folklore of California. The change of name and redefinition of the sphere of activity and interest is also reflected in changes to the titles of officers. Changes in the second category were administrative in nature and mostly procedural. The summary given below provides a guide to the two categories of change.

Change of name

The following changes directly relate to the proposed change of name of the Society to “Western States Folklore Society”:

  1. The document title
  2. Article I
  3. A reference to the Society’s name in Article VI.

Additional changes to Articles II, III, IV, V, and IX indirectly related to the proposed name change.

Administrative changes

The following changes are administrative in scope:

  1. A change in procedure for polling the Board for decisions, from telephone to electronic mail, as described in Article V
  2. A change in procedure for membership application (Article VI)
  3. Changes in classes of membership in the Society (Article VII):
    • Expansion of the benefits of regular membership
    • Establishment of Retired Membership
    • Merging of Patron Membership with Life Membership, with redefinition of terms
    • Redefinition of “Voting Membership” as “Joint Membership”
    • Elimination of Honorary Membership
  4. Changes in procedure relating to meetings (Article VIII):
    • Change of procedure of appointed Board members
    • Changes of method of posting the agenda from surface mail to website
  5. Changes in terms of office of elected and appointed officers, providing for even- and odd-year election to ensure continuity, as well as a change in procedure for preparing the slate of candidates (Article IX)
  6. Addition of Article XII, providing for Dissolution of the Society.