National Board Reform Continues

At its annual board meeting in St. Louis last month, delegates of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners passed 12 of 15 amendments to the NBCE bylaws and elected new directors in Districts I, II and V. The meeting, held May 4, 2007, marked the first time board delegates have been allowed to vote on individual bylaws amendments, and illustrates a continuing trend within the NBCE toward organization-wide reform.

Bylaws Amendments

As voted by the delegates, the NBCE bylaws will be amended as follows:

• Article I of the Bylaws was changed to conform to the language recently revised in the NBCE's Articles of Incorporation.
• The second proposal amends gender references in the Bylaws from "his," "him" and "he" to now use "his or her," "him or her" and "he or she."
• Article III, Section 3 uses the appropriate terminology of "credentialed" when referring to state delegates rather than "certified."
• Article IV, Section 1 makes it clear that there are 11 members of the NBCE Board of Directors.
• Article IV, Section 2 clarifies that certain members of the NBCE Board are appointed rather than elected.
• Article IV, Section 3 amends the accidental deletion of Puerto Rico to the District V jurisdiction.
• Article IV, Section 3c corrects the language pertaining to the existing order of District elections to conform to the actual election cycles.
• Article IV, Section 5a clarifies language as to the timing of election and seating of Directors-at-Large.
• Article V, Section 2 was amended to delete language that is no longer needed.
• Article VI, Section 2 expands eligibility for appointment to the Credentials Committee to include alternate delegates.
• Article VI, Section 2 grants discretionary privilege to the Credentials Committee to seat voting delegates who do not meet requirements due to extenuating circumstances.
• Article XII authorizes directors to receive advancement of reasonable expenses incurred in case of a proceeding against that director because of their service to the NBCE.

According to the NBCE, the three defeated proposals (listed as follows) will be reconsidered by the Bylaws Committee in the coming year:

• This proposal would have amended Article IV, Section 3b District Director eligibility for subsequent elections. Article IV, Sections 3d, 4 and 6, creating duration limits for all directors, also was turned down.
• The proposed amendment to Article XIV of the Bylaws failed to formalize a process for recommending changes from the delegate body to the Board of Directors.
• The delegate body turned down a proposal that would have allowed the Secretary to make changes to punctuation and grammar.

Election Results

Dr. Donna Craft (Michigan) was elected to serve in District II, replacing longtime district director Dr. Frank Hideg, who chose not to run for re-election after more than 30 years of service with the board. Dr. Robin Lecy (South Dakota) was elected to serve in District I, replacing Dr. Jerry Blanchard, who had been a board member for more than 12 years; and Dr. Norman Ouzts (South Carolina) was elected to District V. Directors in the two remaining districts will continue serving their terms.

After seating the newly elected directors, two at-large directors were elected. Dr. Rick Cole (Tennessee) will serve a three-year term and Dr. Edwin Weathersby (Arizona) will serve a two-year term. Dr. Vernon Temple (Vermont) and Dr. Earl Wiley (Ohio) will continue their terms as at-large directors.

The two remaining positions on the 11-member board of directors are appointed by the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards. FCLB President Dr. Oliver Smith and FCLB Vice President Dr. Daniel Saint-Germain will serve in those slots for the coming year. Executive committee members include Dr. Vernon Temple (President), Dr. Earl Wiley (Chairman), Dr. Edwin Weathersby (Vice President), Dr. Theodore Scott (Treasurer) and Dr. Mary-Ellen Rada (Secretary).

With the new amendments in place and the removal of the final "old guard" board member, it appears the NBCE reform movement is well underway. For example, for the first time in the history of the NBCE, the bylaws amendments were posted on the NBCE Web site in advance of the annual meeting. Delegates also were able to vote on the individual bylaws amendments, rather than the "all- or-nothing" single amendment the previous leadership usually presented to the delegates.

Another previously contentious issue within the NBCE was financial disclosure. The delegates finally received complete financial information on every cent paid or spent by one of the directors. As Dr. Temple stated as the financial reports were handed out: "There is no question we cannot answer." In addition to the financial reports, delegates were invited to review the specific financial records made available at the annual meeting should they have any specific questions. While the financial disclosure was much improved last year, some questions still remain. It is hoped that full financial disclosure will help to prevent the abuses of power seen in the past.

In an interview with Dynamic Chiropractic earlier this year, Dr. Temple hinted at what an adoption of these proposed bylaws changes could mean. "There's always a balance when you look at bylaws," Dr. Temple said. "You need to balance the stability of the organization and good governance structure. The bylaws are the basis by which we run this organization and we want to make sure that it is healthy, but that it also ensures stability for the organization. We looked at proposals that would allow for some flexibility and greater input by the delegates, [and] that still ensured the stability of this organization."

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Note: Since 1999, Dynamic Chiropractic has published more than 20 articles regarding NBCE activities and the need for reform. Each of those articles is available online at a single location for easy review: www.chiroweb.com/nbce.