San Diego - Following a heated campaign period, the
Global Business Travel Association on Wednesday announced that no changes
will be made to the association's bylaws this year, which indicates that both
of the two main proposals to do so were not approved here by two-thirds of the
voting Direct members at the association's annual convention.
The election pitted a proposal to change the association's bylaws sponsored by nearly two dozen GBTA
Direct (buyer) members, headed by NetApp travel manager Mark Ziegler, against a
proposal sponsored by GBTA's board of directors. A third option on the ballot allowed
members to vote for no changes to the association's bylaws.
Proposal B, the Ziegler
proposal, called for all Allied (supplier) seats on the GBTA board of directors
to be filled though elections rather than appointments. It also called for the
dissolution of the Allied Leadership Council.
Proposal A, put forth by
GBTA's board of directors, would have kept the ALC intact and increased the
number of board members to 14 from 13—seven allied and seven direct members,
all elected—including a president who would always be a Direct member
and a vice president who would always be an Allied member. The proposal also
would have seated automatically on the board the president of the Chapter
Presidents' Council.
One controversial
element of the Proposal A was Amendment 26, which would have made it more
difficult for a member to propose a bylaw change in the future.
GBTA did not
immediately release additional details of the voting results.
GBTA also announced that
Altour senior vice president of sales Doug Payne was elected to the one open
GBTA Allied member-at-large board of directors seat, over Concur senior
director of marketing Christopher Juneau.
— Chris Davis
contributed to this report.