A Message From Your FCSLA Board of Directors

Delegates Have Opportunity to Embrace Positive Change

	Watch the informational video.

If there's one characteristic that symbolizes the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, it's our capacity to embrace change. This ability remains one of the major reasons we are still in business and going strong after 118 years.

Successful organizations know that needed change comes about through careful planning and for good reasons. That's exactly the approach our board of directors took two years ago when it began to look carefully at what the Association might do to better prepare itself for the increasingly complex world of regulations and government oversight in which we operate.

The result was a formal strategic planning process involving all members of the board and several subcommittees focused on specific issues. One subcommittee looked specifically at the way FCSLA currently selects its management team: its national president, national secretary and national treasurer along with the national editor. Close examination of the selection process produced concerns. The board quickly realized that the current process—an open election at the national convention where any delegate could stand for these offices—could, potentially, put the Association at risk by allowing a candidate with no qualifications to win one of these critical positions.

The board acted deliberately to address the situation and developed the recommendation delegates will vote on at the special convention in October. That recommendation changes FCSLA's bylaws so that responsibility for selecting the national president, national treasurer, national secretary and the national editor moves from the delegates' shoulders to those of the board. Delegates will continue to elect the members of the board, and thus, will have a say in choosing the Association's most important positions—those of the Board of Directors.

Notes board member Steven C. Hudak, "The bylaw recommendation is certainly a change for FCSLA, but like many other changes the Association has undergone over the decades, this is a good change—one that will help position us for continued growth and a secure future."

Watch future issues of Fraternally Yours for more information about this change. Click here to watch the informational video about the bylaw change. Members of the National Board of Directors also plan to attend District and Branch meetings in the coming months to discuss this proposal and answer your questions about it.