Among other accomplishments at its annual convention in August, the National Business Travel Association gained approval from direct members to alter the organization's bylaws in several areas. Most importantly, new language related to membership and board eligibility is designed partly to help NBTA avoid squabbles over eligibility--one example of which the group dealt with this summer, sources said.
"The changes were drafted by a task force of members with the dual goals of modernizing the governing document to bring it up to speed with current business practices and clarifying some points about membership that have led to debate among members in recent years," according to COO and executive director Mike McCormick. "The update also creates a Membership Committee to interpret Membership definitions and enforce the bylaws as related to membership. Having that committee in place will mean a group of members is able to review member status and eligibility of candidates for the board of directors."
The new committee will enable the organization to take a closer look at the qualifications of members seeking election to official posts, including the board. The changes were not effective for the 2010 vote, in which direct members elected to the board Johnson Partners director of business services Chrystle Johnson. According to sources, NBTA officials fielded complaints that Johnson--whose two-year-old recruiting firm near Houston was founded by Clint Johnson--was not qualified as a direct member to run for the board.
Under the old bylaws, direct members were defined as individuals who were "regularly employed to (1) procure business travel services for other employees of the corporation or organization, or (2) promulgate and administer travel policies for the corporation or organization;" and direct members were eligible to run for the board if they had been "a direct member in good standing for at least three years," they had "been in the travel industry for at least five years" and had "at least one year of service to the association or a local chapter."
According to Johnson's LinkedIn profile, she spent 14 years at National Car Rental, ending in 2009.
With help from legal counsel, NBTA rewrote the bylaws to indicate that buying business travel services or administering travel policy must be the person's "primary responsibility." Board eligibility requirements no longer include being in the travel industry for at least five years, but the rule on being a direct member in good standing for three years was clarified to say three "consecutive" years.
More importantly, though, the new bylaws established a membership committee composed of the president, vice president, the vice president of the Allied Leadership Council and the non-voting executive director. The committee "shall have responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the membership, ensuring that membership standards are met, interpreting membership definitions, where appropriate, and enforcing the association's bylaws as they relate to membership."
NBTA officials said tightening up the bylaws' membership and board eligibility language had been considered for several years. They declined to specifically comment on Johnson, and Johnson declined to comment. In a prepared statement, NBTA officials wrote, "As a member-driven organization, NBTA is proud to have a board of directors that represents the broad spectrum of our industry and is largely made up of leaders elected by the membership to represent the community. All elected members currently serving on the NBTA board campaigned and were elected by their peers--either the direct members or allied members."
NBTA's board consists of 10 buyers (direct members) and four suppliers. Johnson and Dominion director for travel and corporate services Donna Kelliher won election to the board in August over buyers from Deltek and Microsoft, Karoline Mayrand Ann Parsons, respectively.