TO:                 Board of Regents

FROM:           Richard Roehm, Chair

RE:                 Order of Business in By-Laws (ITEM 118-107-R0103)

DATE:            January 16 & 17, 2003

About a year ago when Regent Mercer proposed amendments to the by-laws regarding the conduct of the Regents' meetings (see "An Alternative Format" attached to the minutes of the meeting of January 18 & 19, 2002) his suggestions included the provision that: "The Chairman shall place all matters submitted on the agenda.  The Chairman shall arrange the items on the agenda." In March when the full Board took up John's suggestions the end result was that a much more detailed order of business was included in the by-laws than had been contained in either John's proposal or in the previous by-laws. This detailed order of business has in practice turned out to be unduly constraining and the Board has on occasion varied from the newly established by-laws as convenience and practicality has dictated during the meetings. Therefore, I propose that we tweak the by-laws and introduce into them the language similar to that brought forward by John a year ago that the chair has some discretion to determine the order that matters are taken up. The attached amendments are intended to do just that.