[NSRCA-discussion] Proposed NSRCA Bylaw changes

[Jim Quinn]

Jon,

Thank you for your thoughts.
 
Your comments are exactly why I told you that I did not want to publish a Board 
of Directors rationale for each proposal.
Your comments, I hope, will provide a basis for full membership discussion.
I really like the fact that one individual member can tell the entire 
organization, be it only on the website, that he, "strongly recommends..."

 Jim Quinn 




________________________________
From: Jon Lowe <jonlowe at aol.com>
To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
Sent: Mon, December 3, 2012 9:55:17 AM
Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Proposed NSRCA Bylaw changes

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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