[NSRCA-discussion] Proposed NSRCA Bylaw changes

[Scott McHarg]

Gentlemen,
   For clarification purposes only, Jon Lowe is incorrect about Article V
Section III.  Currently, the By-Laws say that any member who is delinquent
for one calendar month will automatically have their membership services
terminated.  The change makes membership delinquency 3 months which allows
us to continue sending Kfactors to individuals who may have forgotten to
pay their dues in time.  The way it reads right now, Kfactors should be
terminated along with affiliation at the end of January.  We have extended
the grace period to 3 months (the end of March).  We were trying to give
you more, not less.  I don't understand why he would recommend to vote no
on this.  I would suggest comparing the ballots to the By-Laws and make
your own decision instead of using minutes to decide what was intended.  As
hurried as the meetings are, I admit, I make mistakes as I have to take all
the information down quickly and make them into minutes.  This is exactly
why you should wait until you receive the "official" changes instead of
jumping to conclusions.  From what I saw that Jim was sending out, items
are much more defined than in the minutes.


On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 8:55 AM, Jon Lowe <jonlowe at aol.com> wrote:

> SInce the bylaw change ballots have now been sent out, in accordance with
> the current bylaws, and since the NSRCA board has failed to provide any
> rationale for the changes (if they are going to propose changes, you'd
> think they'd own up to why they want to change them), I thought I'd review
> the proposed changes here and provide comments.  Jim Quinn said that we
> could either vote for or against the entire package, or for individual
> items within the package.  I will review the changes item by item, and
> provide what I think is the rationale for the change.  As you will see
> below, I am recommending voting NO on several of the changes. I have not
> seen the official ballot yet and won't until at least Wednesday since I am
> out of town, so I am commenting on what was provided in the July 22nd NSRCA
> Board minutes. Note that there were several typos in those minutes, and
> that I have attempted to correct them where possible.
>
> Article II, Section I:  This would change the business address from the
> Secretary to the Treasurer of the club.  This is probably ok, since bills
> to the club are sent to the business address, and this could prevent delays
> in payment.
>
> Article III, Section I:  This is part of the object and purpose of the
> Society.  It would delete "...in all of its phases." from the second
> sentence so it would now read:  "To aid, insofar as possible, the Academny
> of Model Aeronautics and other AMA activites, to further the advancement of
> model aircraft aerobatics."  This change appears to be a clarification
> change, and should be ok.
>
> Article V, Section II(b):  This appears to clarify the dues payment, and
> makes clear that dues should be made payable to NSRCA and not the
> treasurer.  Appears to be ok.
>
> Article V, Section III:  This would change termination of membership from
> one month to three months dues delinquency.  I see no reason for this
> change, and would commit the club to keep mailing K-Factors to delinquent
> members for two more months.  At a time when there is a lot of debate on
> the board about the expense of the K-Factor, this makes no sense.
> Recommend voting NO on this item.
>
> Article VIII, Section II (c): This change would remove the requirement to
> mail out ballots, and changes the wording to allow whatever method the
> board deems appropriate for voting, without specifying any method at all
> for votes to be taken.  This change would also allow votes to be accepted
> until 10 days after Dec 31st, IF they were mailed out to members.  This
> change appears to be why the abortive attempt was made for an electronic
> vote for officers this year, which disenfranchised many members who were
> not aware a vote was being taken.  We do NOT require web access to be a
> member of NSRCA, and until we do, we MUST allow for ALL members to vote on
> officers of NSRCA.  Strongly recomment voting NO on this change.
>
> Article VIII, Section III (e):  This would change voting for District VPs
> in the same manner as the method in Article VIII, Section II (c) above.
> Strongly recommend voting NO.
>
> Article VIII, Section III (f): This change was listed as Article VII,
> Section III (f) in the Board meeting minutes, which I believe was a typo.
> This is a continuation of the change above to Article VIII, Section III(e)
> on voting deadlines.  Strongly recommend voting NO.
>
> Article IX, Section I:  This removes some unnecessary wording from the
> first paragraph of the Communications and Promotions portion of the
> by-laws.  It appears to be a mistake made when this portion of the bylaws
> was writen.  Appears to be ok.
>
> Article IX, Section II:  This would remove the requirement for the
> K-Factor to be mailed to members.  It would have to be "made available to
> all members", but doesn't say how.  SInce the proposed wording is unclear,
> recommend voting NO on this change.
>
> Article IX, Section III (a):  This removes the requirement for a
> Communications and Promotions manager appointed by the BOD, and changes
> that responsibility to the BOD itself.  However, it does not assign that
> responsibility to anyone on the board.  But it retains the provision for
> the board to appoint someone to be that manager. As a result the paragraph
> appears to contradict itself.  Recommend voting NO on this change since the
> resulting language is ambiguous.
>
> Article IX, Section III (b):  This change changes says that the Board
> "...shall appoint a Judging Program Manager."  It currently says "...should
> appoint..."  This change appears to be ok.
>
> In summary, I believe that there are several problems with the proposed
> changes, and recommend that you read them carefully and understand each of
> the changes.  I'd recommend either voting NO to the whole package, or
> voting against the specific changes I've outlined above.
>
> Thanks for reading.
>
> Jon Lowe
>
>
>
>
>  Jon
>
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>



-- 
*Scott A. McHarg*
Sr. Systems Engineer - Infrastructure
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