Revision as of 12:38, 26 June 2009

Overview

This page is for brainstorming about changes to our current bylaws to not only cut down on confusion but the overall bureaucracy that bogs down meetings and generally getting things done.

Changes

• Methods of voting in new members.
• Roles placed on the Secretary.
• Membership application.
• Resignation of board members

Discussion

Use this area for discussing bullet points from above. Please keep the discussion to an appropriate section.

Methods of voting in new members

• Our current method of voting in new members has proven to be broken in many ways.
  • Few people vote, or should for that matter, because they don't come to the shop often enough to meet much less get to know potential new members.
    • Possible Solution:
      • Voting should be a count of Nays more so than Yays. Nays must express reason for voting as such.
        • This will eliminate the problem of having to wait 72 hours or whatever for people unable or unwilling to come to the meetings to vote. --strages 10:15, 26 June 2009 (CDT)
        • I have a problem with this "default accept" policy. There still needs to be a minimum number of people who vote "Yay" Maybe we have a Yay percentage of the people who voted, with a minimum number of people required to vote? --Brimstone 11:24, 26 June 2009 (CDT)
        • I like the idea of a percentage of votes and I wonder this this can be applied other votes beyond new member voting. --strages 12:38, 26 June 2009 (CDT)
  • Individual votes are public
    • It's not necessary for a member to know who voted against them for membership, keyed access, or office position. This seems like it could cause friction, and possibly cause someone to vote their social conscious rather than how they really feel.
    • Possible Solution:
      • Have Officer Elections, Membership Proposals, and Keyed Access proposals be closed ballot. The President and Secretary would count and record the outcome of the votes, assuming no conflict of interest.
    • I'm against public votes. If I'm against someone being a member, I can let the board know and that person know. I like the closed ballot idea, but it will create more paper(digital) work for the president and secretary. --Brimstone 11:24, 26 June 2009 (CDT)

Roles Placed on the Secretary

• In my honest opinion, the secretary has too many roles placed upon them according the bylaws and this had gotten in the way of progress on more than one occasion due to the secretary either not being informed or unavailable at times. --strages 10:19, 26 June 2009 (CDT)
  • Possible solution: Secretary is responsible for recording and posting meeting minutes only.

Other tasks such as

1. Writing resulting proposals
2. Pinging people about their action items
3. Processing Membership applications

Would be delegated by the Secretary or Chair.

• The only problem with this is that no one steps forwards. These are tasks that can't be forced on someone, they won't be completed in the capacity required. My suggestion is that we have a secondary secretary or a position just for these tasks. --Brimstone 11:29, 26 June 2009 (CDT)

Membership application

• People should be able to ask for keyed access at the time of application to become a new member. We have a vesting period, all be it an informal one, before we vote people in as new members. This is too let people have a chance to get to know the person and a feel for how they will work with the general group dynamic. I don't see why this period wouldn't be sufficient enough to determine if they would be trustworthy enough to have a key. --strages 10:24, 26 June 2009 (CDT)

Resignation of board members

• Ok, so the whole "must do it in person" thing has now become a problem. I know why it was put in place, but it's been abused by someone unwilling to return from out of state and unwilling to allow the board to change. Bare in mind that charter members have the ability to vote as if on the board whenever they choose to. I suggest there be a vote on removing board members and that it must be unanimous, excluding the board member in question, to pass. --strages 10:29, 26 June 2009 (CDT)
  • The bylaws actually say: "Resignation from the board must be in writing and received by the Secretary." I think snail mail, fax, or scan-and-email are within the bounds of "written." It doesn't look like this has to be done in person, as per the by-laws.

Results

This section will hopefully contain a list of changes in need of being made to the bylaws as a result of open discussion y members.