In June of 2005, I first considered the idea of helping start a local unit of the National Association of Parliamentarians. I even made mention of it on my blog a couple months later, when I reported passing the NAP membership exam. Now, a solid year and a half later, this idea has finally come to fruition. I am pleased to announce the formation of the Grand River Unit, a new unit of NAP. Our first and second organizational meetings were held in January and February respectively, and our first normal monthly meeting will be held on March 14. This will also be our annual meeting for 2007, but some bylaw provisos will render it mostly harmless.

At the second organizational meeting, right after we adopted the bylaws and enrolled the initial members, I was elected president. My term of office expires in March 2008, and between now and then I will have a great deal of responsibility to ensure the new unit is successful. I will be sharing this responsibility with the able Jason Gorrie, who reprises his traditional role of secretary/treasurer; it seems just like WCRI all over again. Of course, unlike WCRI the Grand River Unit has only a few dollars, and even fewer members, so it will be an interesting challenge. I don’t know yet exactly what being the president of a parliamentary unit entails, but I look forward to finding out.

In the meantime, those of you who live in Waterloo or nearby cities, and who are interested in learning more about parliamentary procedure, should come out to our next meeting and see what there is to see. As indicated on the GRU website, we’ll be meeting in MC 1058 at 7:00 PM. Only three of the seven members are WCRI people, and I think we’ll all have a lot to learn from some of the more experienced local parliamentarians over the course of the next year.