Dear BCDHA Member,

The Board of Directors is calling a special meeting for Saturday, April 9th, 2022 at 10 am to be held by Teams, in order to pass new Bylaws for the organization.  This is happening prior to the May AGM, in the hopes that we can re-align the geographical board seats and run a full election based on those new seats for 2022.  We have also had a full review of our Bylaws undertaken by legal, and will make some additional housekeeping changes to modernize and align our Bylaws with what makes sense in 2022.

There are two votes. The first vote will be to replace the existing Bylaws. Key changes include:

1. Eliminating the Upper Island seat and creating a “Director at Large” seat.  This will leave one geographic seat for the Island “Vancouver Island”. Eliminating the Kootenay Region seat and melding that geographical area into the “Interior” seat, and creating an additional “Director at Large” seat.
   • This will provide more opportunity for members to run for board positions.  The addition of “at large” seats, rather than the two additional regional seats, means that any hygienist, anywhere in the province, will be able to run in any given year, rather than waiting three years for their geographical area seat to be vacant
   • Elections for all 9 seats will follow a set schedule, with each seat becoming available every three years.
   • Only DHs who are registered in a geographical area will be able to vote for that director.  Director at Large positions will be voted on by the entire province.

2. Non-practising members will now be able to vote.  This will enable retired members and those on maternity or LTD, to remain as members of the Association, so long as they are registered with the CDHBC as non-practicing.

In a separate vote, BCDHA members will welcome BC’s dental therapists (currently there are four) as full members of the Association. This vote makes certain changes to the new Bylaws to include dental therapists.

Nomination forms for the Board positions as listed above, will be sent out this week.  We are excited to encourage all hygienists to put their name forward for their regional seat or a Director at Large position.  Ballots for voting will be sent on or about April 13^th, 2022.

Please click the links below to view the notice of special resolutions, the proposed bylaws for the first vote, and a blacklined version showing the changes from the current bylaws.

To register, please email bcdha@bcdha.com and you will be verified and receive the link to the meeting.

Best regards,
Susan Schmitz
BCDHA Board Chair

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

NOTICE OF SPECIAL RESOLUTIONS

PROPOSED BYLAWS

BLACKLINED VERSION SHOWING CHANGES