Notification of May General Meeting

Normally we only have one General Meeting per year in February. In a general meeting we ask the club members attending, or voting by proxy, to cast votes on club business. In February this year we asked the members to vote on candidates for the board of directors. We also asked them to consider an amendment to correct a procedural difference between our original bylaws and the normal parliamentary procedures for conducting meetings.

In reviewing the bylaws this fall I found three other areas where the procedures should be improved. I presented these three proposed changes to the board during the January meeting and the board voted that we should ask the members to approve them. Unfortunately the bylaws require us to give the members notice before such a vote can occur. There was not enough time to give this notice before the February meeting. Thus the board is notifying the members that the May meeting will be a second general meeting where these three amendments will be considered.

1) Definition of Absence

link

Under the current bylaws a board member is excused if he gives the board prior notice. The current mechanism allows someone to continue to be a non contributing member as long as he remembers to send an email. It is only after being forgetful for three times that such a non-productive member can be removed.

The proposed change requires that members participate in the meetings either in person or by proxy. The existing bylaws provide for a means to cast votes by proxy. Doing so means the member is contributing to the operation of the club. Failure to either attend or cast votes by proxy will be counted as an absence.

2) Qualifications for Board

link

The bylaws are inconsistent on the qualifications to be a board member. One section gives several methods of qualifying for board membership. These include being a member for 12 months, but also include attending a certain number of meetings. This meeting schedule is different from what we use. Amendment 1 states simply you have to be a member for 12 months.

The proposed amendment makes the “be a member for 12 months” the rule.

3) Notification of Candidacy

link

The existing bylaws allow candidates not nominated by the Nominating Committee to start a complicated process to notify members of their candidacy. In the era before the internet such a process was required. These days there are three ways of communicating with the members; the Ephemeris, our announce mail list, and our website. The proposed amendment provides the candidate access to these faster and cheaper routine methods of communication.

Of course there is no absolute requirement for entire prior notification process anyway since the bylaws also permit a candidate to be nominated at a meeting.

The board believes each of these changes are in the best interest of the club.