Re: Motion passes (SC chair)

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

OK, I'll start already.  My take on things:

> 1.  Conventional wisdom is that it is a good idea to have periodic
> meetings of the Board of Directors, keep a minute book, etc.  Mary tells
> me that most Board (Steering Committee) decisions are made by exchanging
> e-mail and reaching a consensus.

> There are several sections of the Bylaws that describe Directors' meetings
> (Article 3, sections 7 through 13).  Similarly, Members meetings are
> described in Article 12.  These sections, as drafted, describe a more
> traditional organization, and need to be revised to realistically reflect
> the AGA.
> 
> Please let me know how you would *like* Board and membership meeetings to
> be structured.  I, in turn, will find out what we can best do to
> accommodate the ideal arrangement.  Note that the election of the Board is
> probably best addressed under the topic of membership meetings.


Provisionally we have been holding our "meetings" in a less than formal
time frame, i.e. "continuously".  Meetings are held on top of each other,
begin when an issue needs to be raised, allow a (typically 1 week)
discussion period with the full Management (Advisory) committee, then when
discussion is closed, votes are called from the Steering Committee
(board).  I know when Karen was acting chair, she tried to structure it
along more traditional meeting lines, but it was very difficult.

Now, do you all think we should continue having our "meetings" in this
manner, or should we try to adopt something more traditional?


> 2.  Article 11, sections 2 through 4 and 9, address the requirements for
> membership in the AGA.  Please let me know how you would like these
> sections to read.  The issues here are:  what are the dues, when do new
> members get voting rights, when do membership privileges lapse, and
> whether there are any requirements other than payment of dues for
> membership.

The easy parts:

Dues are $15 per year, $28 for two, $40 for three for US/Canada/Mexico,
$28/$52/$75 for other countries, respectively.

This is the only requirement for membership, I assume, right?

Harder:

I would suggest we have yearly elections, say October, with new officers
taking their positions January 1st of the following year.  It would seem
reasonable that all members in good standing (paid up) on October 1st (or
such) would be entitled to vote.  In this manner, we could distribute the
ballots in the Q4 TAG.

Reading over the bylaws, I notice it refers all over the place to an
annual general meeting. At this point we don't have any such thing, but
perhaps if the conference is a success, we can consider the general
meeting as part of the conference in future years?  But right now, we
don't have any sort of general meeting.  Can we hold this over some sort
of media like an Internet chat room?

> 3.  I intended to name the initial Directors in the Articles of
> Organization (another document which must be filed with the State).  When
> you wish to hold another election is up to you and can be specified in the
> sections we're working on.

This sounds good.

> The Directors will serve two year terms, with one half of the Directors
> being elected each year.  Do you wish to specify the remaining term of the
> existing directors, or should those terms be selected at random (one-half
> with one year remaining, one-half with two)?

The current officers are myself, David, Karen, Neil and Dorothy.  My
suggestion would be to make Karen, Neil and Dorothy the terms that expire
sooner, as they've been on the board longer and should have first right to
leave after a year.  David and I have only been on the board for
about a year.

We also need to nominate and elect a sixth member to fill the vacancy.

Whew... OK, 'nuff from me.  
Please guys, take a look at the proposed bylaws at
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/bylaws.html
Bob's done a very good job here.

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com