Ridecamp: RE: [RC] new bylaws and citizenship

This is a very important point. If the By-Laws are approved the following outlines the procedures necessary for any, ANY, change to them.

 

PLEASE READ AND HEED

 

Note the very important statement in 13.01 that declares, "a sufficient number of returned ballots having been received to meet the quorum requirement of 20% of the Voting Members". This is means that in order to change the Bylaws in the future - at least 20% of the voting membership needs to return their ballot - and of those 2/3 must approve the change.  In the previous bylaws - only 2/3 of the returned ballots had to express approval of the change. This means that after these Bylaws are passed - of the present voting membership - at least 760 members of the roughly 3800 voting members would have to return their ballots - and of those - 504 would have to approve.

13.01. Amendments to these Bylaws shall be placed before the membership of the Conference for a vote upon approval by two-thirds of the Board or upon petition for such amendment by at least 5% of the Voting Membership as of the date the petition is received by the National Office. A petition for amendment must be submitted to the National Office and the signatures verified and the petition certified by the Election Committee. Ballots shall be sent according to Section 6.12 with the return date being at least 30 but not more than 60 days from the date ballots are sent. The amendment shall take effect only if approved by two-thirds of those Members who return valid ballots, a sufficient number of returned ballots having been received to meet the quorum requirement of 20% of the Voting Members.

 

Bob

 

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Truman Prevatt
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 1:48 PM
To: Heidi Smith
Cc: Jutta; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] new bylaws and citizenship

I would assume if it spelled in the bylaws it would have to be changed in the bylaws which take a vote by the membership - not a board action.

Truman

Heidi Smith wrote:

Mike Maul mentioned to me in a private e-mail that this could also be handled by a board action after the vote.  But I am confused--if it takes such a major action to pass the bylaws change, how on earth can the board alter what it is we've voted on with a simple board action?  I agree that the problem has a simple solution, and that it likely was an oversight.  I also apologize for not having read this as thoroughly in advance as I should have, as I got stranded on the family problem and didn't pick up on this important issue.  My husband went to town today and got our mail, so we have our ballots here as well, and I'm willing to sit on them for a few days, but I still think the right way to deal with this is a NO vote, with the encouragement to the BoD to fix the problem and reissue the bylaws for another vote.  I'm not comfortable with voting YES based on a promise that the problem will be fixed.  Wouldn't it take another ballot of the membership to fix the problem if we vote it in?

 

Heidi

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Jutta

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 1:36 PM

Subject: [RC] new bylaws and citizenship

I talked to somebody at AERC yesterday about the bylaws changes regarding citizenship, as I am directly affected by this change.

The way I understand it, nobody picked up on this citizenship thing, it was not an intentional exclusion of  legal residents, and nobody brought it to the attention of the BOD in time. I am guilty too for not reading the proposed changes earlier. I usually don't bother with boring stuff like bylaws, but trust that "they" will do the right thing. I rather read ride reports and the fun stuff. Guess I need to pay closer attention.

AERC office explained to me that if we vote yes on the changes, and the new bylaws get voted in, the board can still make an amendment to the rule to include legal residents. I guess if the board assures us that they will motion for this amendment, I will vote yes. I know that many hours and a lot of work was put into this, and after all the BOD was elected by us to represent our interests. I can't imagine them excluding one group of people intentionally.

I guess what we need to do is let the board know that we would like an amendment to the rule to include legal residents. If I got this all wrong again, please let me know.

Jutta Schmidt