A WestPac meeting was scheduled during the PTG Convention in Arlington, with a complete rewrite of the WestPac bylaws on the agenda. Unfortunately, there was a coordination issue with the meeting space, and Region 7 was unable to meet separately from Region 6. Because of this, we were not able to discuss — as a region — the implications of the proposed bylaws changes or the future of conferences in Region 7.
Carl Lieberman (Los Angeles Chapter) led the combined meeting and proposed that WestPac adopt the new bylaws. It was decided, however, that before moving forward with any bylaws rewrite, WestPac needed to fill several open Board positions. Will Perkins (Salt Lake Chapter, Utah) and Mikah Sundholm (Eugene Chapter, Oregon) agreed to step into Board roles, and Roger Gable (Portland Chapter, Oregon) remained as Treasurer. We also learned that WestPac currently has approximately $25,000 in its bank account.
The group agreed to postpone discussion and voting on the proposed bylaws changes until a later meeting.
In addition, Ryan Sowers (Olympia Chapter, Washington) had submitted a separate bylaws proposal — one that had been shared with Region 7 but not Region 6. This proposal would restructure WestPac by removing Region 7 from its operations and turning the organization over entirely to Region 6 as their regional conference organization. As part of this change, WestPac would grant funds back to Region 7 equal to our proportional share of membership, providing roughly $10,000 in seed money for future Region 7 events.
Region 7’s most recent seminar was conducted under the Summit Regional Conference Organization, a 501(c)(3), which has been operating at a modest profit and is positioned to continue hosting educational events independently.
The current WestPac bylaws, along with both proposed changes, will be posted here for review.