February 2, 2012:
As may be recalled from the Chat Group Chapter (NGC) Annual Meeting this past December there was a discussion concerning the Chapter By-Laws. A conflict became apparent with the term limits for the office of Treasurer. There were other possible conflicts as well. The outgoing NGC Director Ken Napiokowski (Ken48) asked for a By-Law review by a committee consisting of Anthony Williamson (tonyw), and Ray Gadomski (rgwiz), and Lee Esparza (37Blue). Recommended amendments, if any, were to be subject to Chapter approval per the By-laws.
Since then the committee and Ken48 has discussed potential changes. It was concluded the only amendment necessary is to the Treasurer term limit by-law conflict. As we are presently operating the Chapter is in violation of its By-laws. The recommended amendment was submitted to the NGC Board of Directors for review and approval. Having received their concurrence, the amendment is now being provided to all NGC members for review, comment and a subsequent vote.

The By-law section in conflict is Article III Section 2 Term Subsection A. It now reads: “To promulgate rotation in office, no Officer may serve, in similar capacity more than two terms in any four-year period”. Furthermore, Article III Officers Section 2. Term; specifies that officers serve a one year term. That By-Law stipulation complicates practical operations and would create additional banking fees to set up new accounts upon each rotation. In addition, recent history has shown reluctance by members to volunteer for office or agree to being nominated for the various officer positions.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT:

It is proposed that Section 2 Subsection A be amended to say:
“To promulgate rotation in office, no Officer; other than Treasurer, may serve, in similar capacity more than two terms in any four-year period. The two year term of the Treasurer may be extended by affirmation of a majority vote."

NGC MEMBERS ACTION REQUESTED: Review and Voting

REVIEW: I am asking that you as a member of the NGC review this recommendation. If there are questions or concerns please respond via the NGC Chat Forum in this thread. This review and comment period will begin now and end when voting begins on Sunday February 12, 2012.

VOTING: During the period Sunday February 12, 2012 and ending on Wednesday February 29, 2012 Chapter members will be asked to vote on accepting or rejecting the amendment. A separate thread, also in the NGC Chat Forum, will be started at that time to ease vote recording and tabulation.

Respectfully,
Lee Esparza (37Blue),
Chat Group Chapter (NGC) Director

This is a common sense ammendment. I support it.

I also support the amendment

i too support the amendment.mike

Common sense by-law change, I support it.

Agree and will cast my vote at the appropriate time.

Sounds good to me!

I cast an affirmative vote!

So far it seems unanimous and I agree as well.
Tony

Can't you use these posts in counting the votes? You can just call it "Early Voteing"

Looks fine for me.

I am for the amendment as presented. Beamer

I agree too!

I agree.

I am inclined toward accepting Mack's idea concerning counting the "early voting" ballots. I'd like to hold off making a decision on that until this comment period ends, however. His idea seems to make good sense and would improve the efficiency of the process.

In the mean time, if anyone has a dissenting opinion regarding the amendment proposal OR "early voting" ballot concept, please weigh in.

We, as of this morning have 12 early votes recorded as accepting the proposal. We need at least 20 to approve.

As may be recalled our By-laws indicate balloting concerning an amendment must be open for a minimum of two weeks; (Article VII, Section 1). I think we have plenty of time.

37Blue

Lee
As I suggested in my PM I personally dont care if the early votes are counted as there is a record of them being cast though not neccessarily in the "voting season" but I feel to keep all appearing above board the votes should really be counted from only the "season".

I also noticed there are 2 ARTICLE V11, looks like our proof reader had a slight slip.

Tony

I agree with amendment as posted

I agree with the proposed amendment.

Bill.

Looks like I am one of the very few members that has not responded to the amendment change.
I AGREE Jim

I agree on the proposed change too.

I also agree with the proposed change.

Come on members of this group. Where are you? We still need a few more votes to reach a quorum. If we can't scare up enough members for something like this, maybe we have outlived our purpose. Beamer

Thanks, Beamer! We will need as many members as we can get to VOTE; when voting starts.

Let me be clear about this thread and the voting.

Official voting will be done beginning Sunday February 12th and end Wednesday February 29th. A special ballot using a Poll feature will be used

The ballot is already posted, but locked until then. That means Chat Group members can see it now, but can not start voting until Sunday. See the separate thread "By-law Amendment Voting 2/12-29/2012 ONLY" in the Chat Group forum.

Bill Barker has helped us initiate this polling feature, which will make tabulation easier and help in communications. The Chat Group Chapter is pioneering this concept for what could be the way we conduct future voting on chapter business. If, it proves successful it may well serve other non-geographical chapters in the future.

i agree (again).mike

Agree

Make sure your vote is cast in the Poll thread so we can make sure to include it in the count.

Voting in the POLL thread is ongoing and will end on February 29th. If you have NOT yet voted, please do.

Even though votes in favor have secured approval of the amendment, voting will continue. This will ensure we have followed our by-laws, provided everyone that so desires an opportunity to vote, and to make certain we have provided an open and above board process.

Whoever said the internet speeds up communication, obviously never tried holding a meeting and a vote process spanning virtually all corners of the globe.

I would say that this type of voting beats the heck out of by mail. Some would not get the post for another several week much less get a response back before school is out for the summer (or winter for those upside down fellas).

Thanks Chipper.
You are right about the snail mail bit but I have the Feb G & D a couple of weeks earlier than expected though. So far this has been a year of pleasant changes, G & D arriving early than usual, summer not as hot as usual and more rain than usual. I hope winter doesnt get as cold as usual.
Tony

Sounds like Tony's "Living the Dream." I like the way he sees the up-side on almost everthing. Dang Pleasant Fellow.

Bill.

FWIW

I also agree with the proposed change.

Bill
Your area is a bit like mine, from extreme cold to extreme hot. I need to get an old bus sorted and become migratory (Aus north for winter and South for summer) with 3 months travelling between.

Tony

Ok fellas; only about ONE day left to cast your vote.

IF you have not already voted, please do so ASAP. Voting will end Wednesday February 29th at midnight.

Voting has now ended. The amendment has passed. Thank you all for participating.
Ken48, Chapter Secretary, will be posting the meeting minutes and vote results soon. The new revision will be posted in the By-laws thread.

A few observations:

1) At some point the Chapter membership may want to consider amending the quorum definition of the by-laws. As the Chapter grows; and I believe it will, it will could become more difficult to make appropriate changes.

2) As I indicated previously, the voting process was long and drawn out. That because of the current by-laws and my wanting to make certain the voting was open and done in the clear light of day. If anyone has ideas on how that can/should be streamlined or not, please offer suggestions. I don't necessarily think it was bad, but I wonder if it can be improved. Any thoughts? Let's start a new thread for this topic, if anyone has a thought or two to share.

3) Just a few months ago, some of us --me included--wondered if the Chapter was going to survive. I am tremendously encouraged by the the voting turnout, AND contributions to the pre-vote discussion AND All the good natured banter in the thread started by Mike McCagh "Just BSing". Thank you, Mike.

4) And lastly, Thanks to RGwiz, Tonyw, Ken48, AntiqueMechanic,42Bill and Beamer for helping guide the by-laws review and subsequent amendment voting process.

5) Now, I intend to head out to the shop and get ready for a garage hop this weekend with a local club.