For the 2023 elections, the below amendment to the current NAMI Bylaws has been submitted by the 2022-2023 NAMI Board of Directors.
NOTE: Additions to the Bylaws are designated in red text. Text that is to be deleted or replaced is designated by a strike-through.
Proposed Bylaws Amendment: Amending and Updating Sections Regarding Peer Leadership Council Representation.
RATIONALE: The current NAMI Bylaws require NAMI State Organizations to elect a state representative to the National Peer Leadership Council (PLC). This amendment will allow NAMI State Organizations the option of either electing or appointing a state representative as long as the method of selecting a representative is included in the State Organization’s bylaws. The amendment also updates the descriptive language regarding the PLC representative's lived experience expectation and codifies the option for a State Organization to appoint an Alternate, reflecting current and standard practice.
ARTICLE I, Section 2(3)(f)
(xii) National Peer Leadership Council Representation – The method by which the Organization elects or appoints a Representative to the Peer Leadership Council as prescribed in Article IV Section 7.
ARTICLE IV, Section 7
Section 7. Peer Leadership Council. There shall be a Peer Leadership Council of persons who have or have had mental illness. Each state voting member, or if there is no state voting member in a state, then the local voting members of that state, by consensus, shall elect a person who has or has had mental illness to the Peer Leadership Council. The Peer Leadership Council shall serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of Directors and shall elect one of its members to the Board of Directors. All Peer Leadership Council members shall be members in good standing of a state or local voting member. that serves in an advisory capacity to the Board of Directors and shall elect one of its members to the Board of Directors. The Council shall consist of NAMI members with a lived experience of mental illness and are in active recovery. Each state voting member in good standing shall elect or appoint one Representative to serve on the Peer Leadership Council for a term of not less than one year. Each state voting member may also appoint one Alternate to serve in the absence of the Representative. Affiliates in states and territories without a state voting member shall elect by consensus one Representative from their membership to represent the whole of a single state or territory lacking a state voting member and may appoint one alternate to serve in the absence of the Representative.