The world was a different place when Friends of the Parks and Trails was founded in 1985. All these years later, the current board of our organization is aiming to better reflect and represent the City of St. Paul and Ramsey County as they are today.
That’s why — when we reviewed our bylaws after more than a decade — one of the primary changes we adopted was to make the language more inclusive. Our goals: We want the bylaws to include women and girls; and we want the language to affirm and represent nonbinary people, and others who use they-them pronouns.
In that vein:
- Chairman became chairperson.
- Use of generic male pronouns, such as referring to members as “he” and “him,” became not “he or she” and “him or her” — but they and them.
Our board considers these small but significant changes, and a welcome step forward from the more patriarchal, less inclusive society we knew almost four decades ago.
Membership dues, fiscal year
Other changes to the Friends of the Parks and Trails bylaws included establishing our fiscal year as the calendar year. So fiscal year 2023 will end on December 31 of this year. We also clarified that dues-paying members retain their membership for one year from the date that they last paid their dues. The organization currently has no minimum contribution for membership.
Note: Members will vote on the bylaws changes at the Friends of the Parks and Trails annual meeting on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, from 5 to 7 p.m. If you are planning to attend the meeting, please e-mail your name and the number of people you’ll be bringing to amy@friendsoftheparks.org.
