RE: GSAS Email Forum

["Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@boeing.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Olson [mailto:erik@thekrib.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 8:11 AM
To: gsas-board@thekrib.com
Subject: Re: GSAS Email Forum


On Thu, 1 May 2003, Rick Rose wrote:

> 1)                   Should the Board establish attendance (and/or other
> requirements) to be imposed on its own members in order to "remain as a
> board member"?

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Erik Olson wrote:

While I beleive it is valid (but not necessary) to have the OPTION of
revoking the status of a board member, I feel very strongly that this
should not be implemented as an "automatic" rule that kicks in after N
missed meetings.  The benefits I see from such a rule are that it keeps
the books cleaner, and it makes things easier on the president and other
board members (who now do not have the responsibility of contacting the
wayward board member).  But the drawbacks are great: First there is a lack
of dignity for the person involved; there is no attempt to first find out
WHY they are not attending; they are treated like children with "strikes" 
against them shown in meeting minutes.  While some see no insult in that,
others (such as myself) do.  With "strikes" against me, I am not
encouraged to come back and participate.  Third, there is no accounting
for WHY they may have missed the meetings, and as demonstrated this year,
seemingly no attempt to find out.

Second point: what is the damage of having an inactive board member still
listed?  I do not see any.  Their name stays on the list until the end of
the year, and then presumably they don't get re-elected.

Another point I've been trying to make (and perhaps it is only a side
issue, so feel free to disregard in this forum) is that it is not clear to
me how important attendance IS at board meetings.  My experience has been
over the past few years that it is easier to get input and a quorum on
issues through e-mail forums such as these than at the board meetings
themselves.  One can review the issues carefully, and compose an answer at
their leisure that says exactly what they want.  Oftentimes I find that
issues get "ramrodded" through at the board meetings without even time to
discuss or vote on them.  Other issues are discussed ad-nauseum and take
up (IMHO) far too much time at the board meetings, and I'd prefer to just
skim over and vote yes or no.

Finally, a paradox I've noticed: how do we now rectify some of the needs
for "special" board members such as (apparently?) the newsletter editor,
with such a hardfast rule?  If the newsletter editor doesn't need to be at
board meetings because they are the newsletter editor (arguably the
person who's, in the best of all possible worlds, the most on top of
what's going on, because they're the liaison to the general membership
every month), why do the other board members have this rule?

Now, I'll go with that "be positive" suggestion... what I *think* should
be the policy for board membership is this:  if a board member is doing
actual DAMAGE to the club by non-attendance or other means, they should be
asked first if they want to continue on the board.  "Hi John, you haven't
been at the last few board meetings, and you're supposed to have planned
all the speakers for the next year.  Are you sure you want to keep doing
this, or should we try and find someone else?"  The next phase would be to
transfer their responsibilities to another, more active, member.  When I
was president, this ALWAYS worked.  In fact, most people were real polite
about resigning themselves in advance due to other committments.

Clay writes:

I do not see any problems with what is proposed above, so long as the Board 
Members take on their responsibilities to coordinate their attendance or lack 
of attendance prior to the Board Meetings as well.  I do not think the 
President should be made Emperor, but, neither should the President be made a 
mother of the club either.  I would love to see the club run by simple email, 
but, that likely will never work for a couple of reasons: 1) Some of us get far 
too much email on a daily basis to be able to adequately address random (random 
in timing only) notes such as this one (I personally get between 200 and 300 a 
day, so, answering email to me is not necessarily fun and is oft times looked 
upon as work in my mind).  2) Some of us do not even have email addresses or 
reasons to get one. (No one on the Board is in this situation currently, but, 
we do have members in this situation)  3) Trying to maintain a readable thread 
such as this one for an important issue, again such as this one, is very 
awkward I think. (note: this is all my personal opinion, no concrete data to 
support all of this, well, except the number of emails I get...~~laughing~~)
I do understand the current policy can be offensive to some and for that I 
think we do need to change....but, how do we find a policy that does not offend 
anyone?  I have not seen anyone in politics (either at club level or higher) 
who has been able to do this.  I wish I had all the answers, I would be Emperor 
then.....~~laughing til I cry~~....yeah, I am teasing.  But, seriously, that is 
why we are having this discussion, to come up with the best answer possible and 
I think that is GREAT!!
I am rather suprised that there is a feeling that "oftentimes" the Board has 
"ramrodded" issues through.  I have felt that we have given ample opportunity 
for discussion on all matters in the last 2-3 years (the only time I have been 
involved with the Board since my long hiatus from the Club).  Perhaps, I have 
been wrong and will reassess this.  I do feel it is the Board's and the 
Membership's responsibility to address any and all concerns that come up within 
the Club.  So, if anyone, and that means ME too, is ramrodding something 
through, I think it is the responsibility of all those present to make sure 
this is stopped in a positive, "win-win" approach.  I have no problem with 
others correcting me when I am wrong (I readjusted my approach when Kathy 
recently pointed out the error of my ways, relative to the upcoming Club Guest 
Speaker topic, would be a good example) and would hope all of us are that way.
The issue of Newsletter Editor and the Board position is an interesting one.  I 
am unsure how to best approach this.  I will say it will take alot of 
coordination amongst the Board and the Editor to make sure we have the best 
Newsletter possible.  I think that we should discuss this item with the Editor 
and come to an agreement on the best possible format for this communication and 
work from there.

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Erik Olson wrote:
> 2)                   How can we improve participation from the general
> membership?

Rick's right, this is a totally separate and unrelated topic, should have
been in a separate e-mail "forum" after the first one is completed.

I have found the best way to get participation has been to involve the
membership in the activities.  The member profile column, new members
list, and even just walking up to people at the meetings helps a lot to
this end.  Asking a member to host the board meeting/open fishroom is
always succesful.

I guess this is tangentially related to the first topic, in that I beleive
you'll get more participation from non-board-members by making it easier
and more fun to be on the board, or even if not on the board, allowing
folks to have something they 'do' for the club without a lot of
interference, rules, and general red tape.

Clay writes:
The ideas that Erik points out are all excellent ideas....should we share them 
with the entire Club at some point?

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Erik Olson wrote:
> 3)                   Suggestions for holding general elections for board
> members - again, maybe this is a mute point since we've found the bylaws
> (or maybe not?)  Let's see what comes of it.

This should be a moot point, and/or separate discussion.  traditionally,
nominations from the general membership are held in may, and elections
held in June.  We discussed at a board meeting a while back of putting
them off until the fall, because it would end the problem of changing over
a regime during the summer break, and historically the fall tends to be a
bit slower than the spring for the club; a perfect time to elect and
welcome in a new set of board members (I think the Christmas party is a
good day to do the changeover, what with it being a laid-back "fun and
distractions" meeting to begin with).  The absolute worst experience I had
with elections, and probably what we essentially stopped doing them, was
trying to coordinate them (AND the nominations which had been blown off
the previous month) the same night as a big national speaker.  It just
eats into the time people would prefer seeing what they came for.

OK, 'nuff said.  I'm done.

  - Erik

Clay writes:
I am everso thankful that Erik found a copy of our bylaws and feel we should 
definately spend some time to update them to reflect today's more digital 
World.  They seemed out of date, in some areas, the last time I was president 
in the 80's.....so, I am all for reviewing them and changing them to fit our 
Club's needs in today's World
Finally, I would like to THANK ALL OF YOU for addressing these issues, because 
if we do not, we will surely parish in a quagmire of disenchantment and 
possibly resent as well.

 

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