8. The
Evolution of the ASN Standing Rules (1969-1982) - Claude F Baxter
The story of the Standing Rules of our Society really must be divided
into two parts: 1969-1982, and 1983 to 2000. Early in the history of our
Society there were no Standing Rules. They evolved slowly in bits and
pieces in the late 1970's and were distributed gradually and selectively
to a few ASN members. Finally in 1982 they were ratified by the ASN Council
and by the membership. That's the first part of the story that I will
describe in some detail. In
1983 George DeVries became the Chairman of the Standing Rules Committee
and he was instrumental in having the Rules and their changes published
as a regular part of the ASN Annual Transactions. Thus they became available
to all ASN members. George will tell you about the evolution of the Standing
Rules in and after 1983 at some future date.
When the ASN was formed
in 1969, the founders established Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws.
These were published and disseminated to all members of the ASN. However,
Standing Rules were confined to a folder in Jordi Folch's Office. When
I saw them for the first time in 1975 they consisted of 3 pages of notes,
part typewritten and part in Jordi's handwriting. They were filed in the
same folder as the Bylaws. This lack of any "formal" Standing
Rules was no oversight on the part of the ASN founder (and first Secretary).
Jordi believed sincerely that although the ASN had to have Bylaws (brief
and to the point), Formal Standing Rules were really unnecessary and their
creation a waste of time.
I was elected the
2nd ASN Secretary in 1975 and took over my duties in1976. Sometime between
these two dates, Jordi passed on to me two file boxes with papers and
folders relating to the establishment and the running of the Society.
At the time the ASN had no Historian and there were no ASN Archives. Thus
these file boxes contained the ASN's historic documents, correspondence
and memorabilia, together with endless revisions of ASN membership lists
(that Marjorie referred to earlier) and pages and pages of materials relating
to ballots. Incidentally, they also contained Jordi's rudimentary notations
concerning Standing Rules.*
As Bernie Agranoff related to you, he had taken the dramatic step in 1975
of appointing a parliamentarian (Cara-Lynne Schengrund) to insure more
orderly Council meetings. That in itself became a Standing Rule to which
Jordi submitted gracefully. However, in addition, some formal written
instructions were required to pass on accepted procedures for the orderly
function of all ASN Committees and to guide individuals responsible for
the planning, hosting and running of Annual Meetings. Normally, these
needs would have been covered by Standing Rules, but everybody knew that
Jordi was opposed to Standing Rules. He had told me privately that, as
the ASN Secretary, I was free to formulate such rules, but not to count
on him as President to support them. At the time, I was Jordi's junior
by almost a generation and compared to most of the other Council members,
a fairly recently coined Neurochemist. I discovered only gradually that
other Council members were as concerned as I was about the lack of Standing
Rules. However,none of us were willing to challenge the President and
Founder of the ASN about these needs.
I did outline, for myself, the responsibilities of various officers, committee
chairpersons, meeting functionaries, etc. and also the deadline dates
that had to be maintained. Two years later these outlines formed the basis
for the first set of Standing Rules.
The following year (1977) at our Annual Meeting in Denver Colorado some
progress was made. At one session, Robert Burton and I offered to write
a Meeting Manual for the ASN that would outline the responsibilities and
procedures that were to be followed for the organization of the Annual
Meeting. We were especially careful not to call this manual "Standing
Rules" and thereby avoided Jordi's objection. But this subterfuge
proved unnecessary.
At our meeting in April of 1978 in Washington DC, Jordi Folch was absent.
With Lou Sokoloff presiding, Bernie Agranoff was free to request the formalization
of Standing Rules for the ASN. The Council approved the request. I was
instructed to formulate Standing Rules that could be discussed and evaluated
at subsequent meetings.
During the next two years I assembled a preliminary version of Standing
Rules using the drafts that I had made earlier. This preliminary version
was sent out for critique, additions and deletions. I received lots of
suggestions, particularly from those who had held the described positions
in previous years. I remember receiving letters from Fred Samson, Bernie
Haber, George DeVries, Joyce Benjamins, Lou Sokoloff, Abel Lajtha and
others. Unfortunately the individual letters no longer exist in the ASN
Archives* and my recollections of the details are fragmentary. I do remember
that I received verbal counseling; in particular some sage advice from
Cara-Lynne Schengrund.
Jordi Folch Pi died
in 1979. It seems fitting that in his lifetime no Standing Rules for the
ASN were ever adopted.
In 1980 Janet Passoneau, as chairperson of an ad hoc Committee on Procedures,
made a report on the Standing Rules assembled thus far, and we had our
first lengthy, open discussion about what should be included and what
should be excluded. During my final year as the ASN Secretary, in 1981,
the first complete version of ASN Standing Rules was mailed (before the
Annual Meeting) to Officers and Chairpersons of Standing Committees. By
1982, during our meeting at Grossingers NY., Norman Bass, the first Chairman
of the new "Standing Rules Committee", presented a version of
the Standing Rules that had been slightly modified from the Standing Rules
submitted the previous year. (The documentation of this modified version
has been lost.*) Norm Bass, in making his presentation, commented that
some rules applicable to the conduct of the Annual Meetings required further
study.
In 1982 I presided over the Council Meeting and subsequent Business Meeting
at which both Council and the ASN membership approved the Standing Rules.
Thus in March of 1982, after thirteen years of existence, the ASN at last
acquired "officially ratified Standing Rules".
George DeVries became the Chairman of the Standing Rules Committee in
1983. I think that both of us believe that Standing Rules are necessary
and suitable tools for the running of our Society. Whereas Bylaws contain
those rules that can be changed only by a majority vote of ALL society
members (often impossible to obtain within a reasonable period of time),
the Standing Rules can be changed by a majority vote of the Council. Thus
they are adaptable to the changing needs of the ASN.
For those who will
be entrusted with reformulating the ASN Standing Rules in the future,
here is a cautionary note: To be effective, Standing Rules must be necessary,
realistic and not unreasonably burdensome. Members must be willing to
abide by them. For if there is no compliance with the Standing Rules,
they will be useless and Jordi Folch's prediction "that they are
unnecessary baggage" will become a reality.
* FOOTNOTE:
Prior to the establishment of ASN Archives, materials of historic interest
were collected in cardboard filing boxes and passed on from one ASN secretary
to the next. In 1982, I passed on 6 such boxes to Marion Smith in Palo
Alto. I recall clearly a few of the items that they contained: There were
the bylaws and the original 3 pages of Jordi's Standing Rules all in one
folder. There was the correspondence concerning Standing Rules, and the
different versions of Standing Rules. There was correspondence about bylaws,
elections site preferences, committees, appointments, ballot counts, liaison
matters, annual lectureships and public policy matters. Some correspondence
with other professional societies and members of congress were included.
The original design of the ASN logo (by Ruth Roberts) and correspondence
regarding a patent also come to mind. Fiscal matters and correspondence
about specific fiscal emergencies were documented. Additional documents
may have been added by Marion Smith and Larry Eng during their tenures
as ASN Secretary.
When I became the ASN Historian (in the mid nineties) these boxes could
not be found. Marion Smith reconstructed their probable fate as follows:
"The storage space that these boxes occupied at the VAMC Palo Alto
was reassigned. Unaware of the historic value of the documents in these
boxes, together with other outdated files, they were dumped and destroyed."
Sadly we must accept the reality that this documentation of ASN history
has been lost.
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