Bylaws and Standing Rules

[ArkGeo_Board]

It's been brought forward that we, as ArkGeo, should review our Bylaws and Standing Rules. We would like to open up this thread as an invitation to all members for recommendations to changes, deletions or additions to the either of the Bylaws or the Standing Rules. Any and all thoughts and suggestions will be considered. Also, there has been discussion of a committee being put together temporarily to help with any and all changes to the Bylaws and Standing rules. If you would be interested, please say so! We'd love to have your input.

Bylaws (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd3zmvfp_20d598bmhd)

Standing Rules (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd3zmvfp_19fpcj4pgb)

Thanks!
(Posted by Morgan O'Neal under the ArkGeo account name)

[floaten]

Both documents are locked. I assume that was intentional. I've never looked at the Bylaws or Standing Rules and was interested to see them. I've requested permission. Thanks

[kcackler]

Morgan posted the private links it looks like. You can see the Bylaws at http://arkgeocaching.org/index.php?pageid=bylaws and the Standing Rules at http://arkgeocaching.org/index.php?pageid=standing_rules

[Spice]

Kevin, The link to the bylaws works, but the link to the page with the Standing Rules is blank.

[kcackler]

Looks like Google docs was screwing up. The rules are showing up now.

[drmo913]

Thanks for helping Kevin.

sorry guys. Wasn't trying to keep secrets.

[floaten]

Appreciate it. Thanks

[perm74]

Standing rules is blank for me as well.

[perm74]

But without bothering reading them my suggestion is that the committees actually meet once a month. Even if it's by conference call. Currently a few people are doing everything. Allow other committee members to participate, give ideas, lead. Allow the membership to "host" things without jumping through a ton of hoops. It should be simpler than we are making it. The events committee should be easy to contact if someone from the general membership wants to run with an idea. The committee member contacted should have a required due date of seven days (just like the reviewer) to get back to the general member on approval for using arkgeo or denial. Seven days is plenty of time to contact the appropriate board members. If seven days can't be accommodated, at times it will happen, the committee owes it to the general member to give them a reason for the hold up. With over 100 people that have logged in over the past two years I am sure we as a group can do a much better job reaching our organization goals. If the committee members aren't participating in the committee that they signed up for than they need to be removed to allow other active organization members to participate for the betterment of our organization. Board members have some accountability and I feel committee members should have the same expectations. My two cents.

[drmo913]

But without bothering reading them my suggestion is that the committees actually meet once a month. Even if it's by conference call. Currently a few people are doing everything. Allow other committee members to participate, give ideas, lead. Allow the membership to "host" things without jumping through a ton of hoops. It should be simpler than we are making it. The events committee should be easy to contact if someone from the general membership wants to run with an idea. The committee member contacted should have a required due date of seven days (just like the reviewer) to get back to the general member on approval for using arkgeo or denial. Seven days is plenty of time to contact the appropriate board members. If seven days can't be accommodated, at times it will happen, the committee owes it to the general member to give them a reason for the hold up. With over 100 people that have logged in over the past two years I am sure we as a group can do a much better job reaching our organization goals. If the committee members aren't participating in the committee that they signed up for than they need to be removed to allow other active organization members to participate for the betterment of our organization. Board members have some accountability and I feel committee members should have the same expectations. My two cents.

Thanks, John.
Excellent thoughts.

[OldRiverRunner]

Sorry I haven't commented on this thread earlier, but I have been away for most of the month. However, here are a few of my thoughts on some needed changes:

(1) Modify the term limits for Board members so that the 3 year limit includes all members of the Executive Committee, with no exceptions for President and Secretary/Treasurer, except as noted as follows. If the President is in his or her 3rd year on the Board, provide an exception to allow him or her to serve a 4th year as the Immediate Past President. However, if the President is in his or her 2nd year on the Board, then he or she would be limited to the normal 3 year term. The Website Manager position should also be exempted, as this is a non-elected, non-voting position and also requires special skills/training/knowledge that may not be widely held among the general membership.

(2) Modify the eligibility requirements for Board members to restrict two immediate family members from serving on the Board at the same time. This restriction is commonplace in many other organizations and is good for the health of the organization. Immediate family should be defined, also, perhaps as "spouse, parent, child, or sibling."

(3) Specify that an annual audit of the organization's finances, including receipts for all expenditures and deposits, as well as a physical inventory and accounting of all merchandise held by the Fund Raising Committee, will be performed by a special committee under the leadership of a Board member who is not on the Executive Committee and consisting of at least 3 voting members who are not serving on the Fund Raising Committee nor an immediate family member of a Board member. The timing of this audit should be set so that it is completed prior to the annual meeting so that a full report can be provided at that time.

(4) Specify that all withdrawals from the ArkGeo bank account have the prior approval, in writing (email would be OK), of both the President and Secretary/Treasurer before the withdrawal is made. Since only one signature is currently required, this serves as a "check and balance" on the withdrawals.

I may have some other suggestions, but these are the ones that I have been considering for some time.

[perm74]

I totally agree with ORR on this one. Good points.

[apache_scout]

We hesitate to make suggestions, since suggestions often seem negative or critical. Our experiences with ArkGeo are 99% positive, but we think communication could be improved. As with most organizations with volunteer officers, there is a lot of work to be done by folks with other busy aspects to their lives.
We were confused and somewhat hurt a few years ago when we volunteered to be on the Community Relations Committee. We were asked to serve and we were placed on the committee in July. By the next January we had been removed without explanation. We sent several emails to find out if we had been removed or there was a error, but did not receive a reply. We dropped it in a few months because it was not worth making an issue.
This is a personal example of a problem that was probably a communication issue.
Once again, we are very happy with the administration of ArkGeo and the board has our full support. As lifetime educators, we sincerely believe communication is the key to good feelings and success.

[jclaudii]

Standing Rules Not working for me as well.

[jclaudii]

I would like to add something to the Article III Section 3 to include a provision similar to Article V Section 7 on Vacancies. Perhaps worded such as:

"If the vacancy occurs within 3 months of the general election AND there were loosing candidates, offer the position to the candidates, starting with the candidate that had the most votes. If there are no loosing candidates or the election was 4 months 10 months from the election Hold a special election as usual. If the next general election is only 2 months away, the board can choose to keep the seat vacant until the next general election. "

[OldRiverRunner]

I would like to add something to the Article III Section 3 to include a provision similar to Article V Section 7 on Vacancies. Perhaps worded such as:

"If the vacancy occurs within 3 months of the general election AND there were loosing candidates, offer the position to the candidates, starting with the candidate that had the most votes. If there are no loosing candidates or the election was 4 months 10 months from the election Hold a special election as usual. If the next general election is only 2 months away, the board can choose to keep the seat vacant until the next general election. "
Good input, Jason. I had a similar thought about this needing to be specifically addressed in the Bylaws, after chatting with a Board member this past weekend about the status of the special election. So I was happy to see that you had already made a comment about it. My only comment about what you are suggesting is that maybe your wording of the following part is off a little, as it doesn't make sense to me as currently stated:

If there are no loosing candidates or the election was 4 months 10 months from the election Hold a special election as usual. Did you mean to say that "If the vacancy occurs more than 3 months after the last general election or if there were no losing candidates in that election, then a special election should be held"?

I like the last part, about giving the Board the flexibility to not hold a special election if it is close to the general election.

[drmo913]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm sorry about the standing rules issue.

Copying it below just in case:

ArkGeo Standing Rules
This document is a list of guidelines that is meant to assist and give guidance to the Board of Directors on matters that are not explicitly covered in the bylaws. These guidelines are by no means meant to be the rule of law, but rather general practice. These guidelines may be changed or suspended as circumstances arise, but only by specific majority approval by the Board.
MEETINGS


Dates, times, and locations for each Board meeting will be posted to the public forum at least two weeks prior to the meeting. After posting this announcement, the date, time, and location should not be changed.
When a Board member fails to meet the requirement to attend at least 50% of Board meetings within a one-year period, the matter will be brought before the Board for possible disciplinary action.
Board meetings will be held on the second Friday of the months of January, April, July, and October.
Every attempt will be made to schedule the Annual Membership Meeting so that it closely follows the close of the election.
In an effort to provide timely communication to the membership, a draft of the Board meeting minutes will be provided to the Board within one week following the date of the meeting. There will be a one-week period in which the Board may make corrections to the draft minutes. At the end of this one-week period, minutes will be approved as they read and will be posted to the web site by the Secretary/Treasurer.
Members who wish to address the Board may do so at regularly scheduled Board meetings. Members should contact the President or Secretary/Treasurer to reserve a place on the agenda at least two weeks prior to the meeting. Member speeches will occur before the business session starts and will be limited to 10 minutes.
Membership will be given up to 10 minutes during the "Roundtable Discussion" to address the Board. These comments must end before the meeting proper begins.

FUNDS


ArkGeo will only contribute to member-hosted CITO events that are held in Arkansas. Members who would like ArkGeo to consider hosting other types of events should contact the Events Committee.
The ArkGeo bank account will be setup so that no withdrawals can be made without a signature from the Secretary/Treasurer or President.
The ArkGeo bank account number will not be given to anyone except the Secretary/Treasurer and the President.
Responsibility for physical inventory and accounting of any merchandise purchased for the purpose of resale will lie with the Fund Raising Committee.
All ArkGeo expenditures must be approved by the Board as a specific amount. The Board may also choose to budget a specific amount to a committee for a particular purpose. In these cases, the committee will be informed of the amount that has been budgeted. The committee will explore ideas and develop a plan, then present that plan to the Board for final approval. In all cases, receipts will be presented to the Treasurer for all expenses.

ELECTIONS


The Election Committee will post the full ballot of nominees (real name and ArkGeo username) to the website at least two days prior to the beginning of the voting period. This ballot will include the number of available Board positions. In addition, the Election Committee will send a notification (including the finalized ballot) to all Voting Members at least two days prior to the beginning of the voting period.
To be eligible to vote in the current election, the member must be registered to vote by the day nominations close.
The Election Committee will post election results to the web site within one week of the close of the election. These results will include all candidates names (real name and ArkGeo username), the percentage of people who voted for each candidate, and the total number of votes cast.

OTHER


Web site accounts that have not been active for over two years and have no forum posts will be deleted. Web site accounts that have been inactive for over two years, but that have forum posts will have voting privileges removed.
Each officer will be responsible for maintaining a “procedure manual” for their office which will be passed on to the successor to their position at the end of their term.
All ArkGeo-owned account passwords will be changed each July by the President.

[jclaudii]

Good input, Jason. I had a similar thought about this needing to be specifically addressed in the Bylaws, after chatting with a Board member this past weekend about the status of the special election. So I was happy to see that you had already made a comment about it. My only comment about what you are suggesting is that maybe your wording of the following part is off a little, as it doesn't make sense to me as currently stated:
Did you mean to say that "If the vacancy occurs more than 3 months after the last general election or if there were no losing candidates in that election, then a special election should be held"?

I like the last part, about giving the Board the flexibility to not hold a special election if it is close to the general election.


ORR, I think I just left a word out. I meant for it to say this:
If there are NO loosing candidates from the most recent election AND the election is between 3 to 10 months AFTER the general election then hold a special election as usual (I believe this is outlined in the bylaws somewhere). This lets the board go with the Loosing candidate if less than 3 months have passed since the general election. This also gives them the flexibility after 10 months to just postpone the election for the general election. Wording can be fixed as you see fit, I am not a "legal" type writer.

[drmo913]

Thanks for the thoughts. They will be addressed and discussed tonight.

[Clark~Griswold]

I plan on presenting the revised bylaws and standing orders to the board for approval at the January meeting. If you have any suggestions, now is the time to make them.

[OldRiverRunner]

I plan on presenting the revised bylaws and standing orders to the board for approval at the January meeting. If you have any suggestions, now is the time to make them.
I would appreciate seeing:

1) A draft copy of the revised bylaws and standing orders that will be presented to the Board, at least as they stand now. This might help to stimulate other comments/suggestions for additional changes.
2) An explanation why any comments provided previously (above) have not been addressed in the draft copy.


Thanks!