Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes... to the Admin Manual

Every year the Past President reviews the By-Laws and Administration Manual for suggested changes. The By-Laws update is presented to and approved by the WLIA Members, and the Administration Manual update is approved by the WLIA Board of Directors. Changes to By-Laws are few and far between, but the Administration Manual gets updated annually. Typically the updates contain grammar changes, the addition of policies that were passed during the year and the addition of the Awards and Scholarship recipients in the Appendices. This year along with the usual updates we have some substantive changes that we would like to highlight for the Administration Manual Update passed on January 28, 2025. 

Standing Committee on Finances

WLIA has "unofficially" had this committee during the annual budget creation and review. The President, President-Elect, Past-President and Treasurer would work with the Executive Services Manager (ESM), Ann, to create the draft budget. The Standing Committee on Finances was formed to make this group of people "official" and to streamline the Board of Directors meetings by taking the heavy lift of getting things done during the meetings to having separate meetings to discuss things like non-budgeted purchases, monitor WLIA investments and oversee the process to maintain ESM fees on an annual basis. 

Delinquent Account Policy

We have, unfortunately, had to create a Delinquent Account Policy for members and non-members who have registered for events and membership and selected to pay by an invoice and have not paid the invoice. This policy states that if you have an unpaid invoice, you are not eligible to register for any WLIA events. This policy also states that registrants should not create a separate account to circumvent the security on the website to register with a different account. While we understand that sometime bureaucracy can sometimes get in the way of timely payments, and we will not hold that against you, registration fees keep "the lights on" and we need to get paid in order to operate. We will always give you a gentle reminder that there is an unpaid invoice. (Please note that we consider the Membership Renewal and Annual Conference registration to be coincident, so you will still be able to register for the Annual Conference if you're membership renewal is pending payment.) 

Spring and Fall Regional Meetings Conferences

We've listened to you and have made a small adjustment that may make a big difference to attendance at the Spring and Fall Meetings. The Spring and Fall Regional Meetings will now be known as the Spring and Fall Conferences. We informally have called the regional meetings "conferences" anyway, so this was an easy decision to make. "Regional meetings" has been used in the past to ensure that we would visit different parts of the state. We have heard that some people are unable to attend the "regional meetings" because those meetings were not being held in "their region" and they would need to wait until we hit their part of the state. Also, "meetings" connotes something different than "conference." While meetings do happen at these events, there are more professional and technical education sessions than meetings. We hope this change is helpful to you.

If you didn't know, you can follow along with all of the Board's activities including financial reports, agendas, minutes, and the headquarters report in the Board Folder in our Public Document Archive. Current and past copies of the By-Laws and Administration Manual are there as well.