[SMCARA] SMCARA By-laws revision

[Chris KC3DIG]

All,

As one of those "talented personalities" I agree with Tom, in principal, 
about the answer being to increase participation. But...

Our roster shows that we have 88 voting Members (only 33 are paid up 
*ahem*) so we need at least 18 present at a meeting to conduct business. 
On Thursday we had 23 in attendance, 3 of whom were guests from other 
clubs. 1 of the remaining 20 was a new sign-up but not until the end of 
the meeting. Of the 19 left I know that several are not paid up for 
2015-16, they are still active members if they are paid up through last 
year but if they aren't then we didn't have enough members to conduct 
any business. We've been doing it this way and the world hasn't ended so 
perhaps it's not a big deal if we're a little off for basic club 
business but for major decisions we need to do better.

As Dave pointed out in his response it's not always possible to attend a 
metting, even if you want to. It was brought up during the meeting that 
we could use some alternative method so that more members could vote 
without being present in a chair. We could keep our current 20% 
requirement but offer a new way to be involved. The suggestion was to 
use some sort of website based poll or survey site (SurveyMonkey.com 
comes to mind), post the website address on Facebook, our website and 
our email list in advance of the meeting so folks have time to vote and 
then present the results during the meeting. It would all be public and 
would represent a broader base of our membership for those big 
decisions. It doesn't help with the everyday business that we do during 
meetings but that doesn't seem to be a problem really.

The irony of course is that we'd need a quorum of people in a meeting to 
vote to change things so we don't need 18 people in a chair next time. 
:) We might also find that no one uses the alternative option because 
80% of the membership doesn't care what decisions are made. That would 
make for an interesting discussion...

I wouldn't want to see the Constitution and By-Laws changed on a 
constant basis but they have to be pliable so we can keep up with what 
works best for the club. They should be living documents that evolve 
with the club, not static museum pieces that no longer serve us well. 
For example; at some point in the near future we need to change the 
wording to allow for two Trustees for the two club call signs. We allow 
for one Trustee but that's counter to the FCC rules. I don't think 
anyone would oppose the change but it's supposed to require a quorum and 
during most meetings we don't have enough people in attendance.  
Suddenly it's months later and it's still not fixed.

Well, that's my 2 cents. My parting thought is for anyone who thinks 
it's all a bad idea... Are you going to start coming to meetings so we 
can conduct business properly? I'd be tickled to see all 121 smiling 
faces from our roster next month!

Cheers all.

*Chris Ordiway - KC3DIG*