It's been a long time coming, please give us some feedback on these bylaws.
JUMP Society Bylaws | 7-3-2009
(4 posts) (3 voices)-
Posted 1 year ago #
-
Hi Pat,
The sun went behind some clouds so I can think again. It’s hard for me to describe how nearly impossible it is for me to concentrate on a sunny summer day in Juneau.
I’ve gone through the draft JUMP bylaws and I think they look pretty good. I do have a few questions and comments that I’ll list below but on the whole I feel good about the progress we’ve made as a result of your diligent work to pull them together.
First a general comment, I got confused by the reference to “Director” in the By Laws. I had assumed that “Director” was the same as “President”. After I read all the way through, I figured out that “Director” could refer to any member of the “Board of Directors”. It would help clarify things a little (for me anyway) if the phrase “Director” could be replaced with “Board Member” or “Member of the Board of Directors”. I know that it isn’t as elegant but I’m afraid that someone just reading a line or two of the By Laws would confuse “Director” with “President”.
3.5 Based on 6.7 it seems there needs to be a least one Officer present in order to run the meeting. So it might be helpful to state that a quorum consists of 5% of the membership, one of which must be an Officer of the Board of Directors. Do we want to allow telephonic or video conferencing participation?
5.5 I think this method of election is more cumbersome than I was envisioning. It’s fine but most of the Non-Profits I know of have a hard time recruiting board members. Getting lots of signatures will be pretty time consuming. I don’t mind leaving that method in the By Laws but it would be good to have an alternative method if there aren’t enough candidates. Possibly, Board Members could be elected by a simple majority of JUMP members at the meeting. Another alternative would be to have an internet based election process but I don’t have good understanding of the potential problems involved.
5.6 Does this require a 2/3 vote of the entire membership, or just a 2/3 vote of those members present at the meeting? Does this require a secret ballot?
6.6 Does the President need to approve information distributed by the Publicist?
7.1 What happens if there isn’t a meeting every 3 months? It seems like a meeting once every 6 months would be a good minimum. Once every 3 months is fine but JUMP has been plugging along by scrambling to put a show together every 6 months. I’m not sure why a minimum of 4 meetings a year would be needed.
So those are my thoughts.
I'd love to hear what other people think.
Cheers - Greg
Posted 1 year ago # -
Instead of making a movie, I was reading the bylaws. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Thanks Pat et al. for putting these together.
In addition to Greg, here are my thoughts: (Parentheticals are added language)
Section 2.1 - Perhaps rewrite the first sentence to say "Membership shall be open to all persons who have paid annual membership dues during (and for) the calendar year." This is the just to clarify that if you bought into JUMP December 20, 2009, you'd have to pony up again January 1 2010.Sections 3.3 and 3.4
I was a little confused. These bylaws were talking about the same thing. I suggest the following:
Section 3.3 - Notice of Meetings
No meeting of the Corporation shall occur unless a written notice of time, date, place, and agenda is sent to all members...
Section 3.4 - Agenda
No business of the Corporation shall be considered at a meeting unless said business is included in the meeting agenda. The agenda for meetings shall be ...Section 5.3 - The second sentence could be clearer, I think, if it said, "The (starting time for) term(s) of offices shall alternate ...
Section 5.5 - Just to be sure, by this method of election, those who received a middling number of votes may find themselves on "temporary" board seats?
Section 6.7 - This section outlines the "Order of Ascension" to the powers of president, and then specifies the president will designate a replacement of the secretary position should it become vacant. I imagine that not just the secretary, but vacancy of any officer position other than the president, will require the president to designate a replacement.
Section 7.1 - might add to the end "... as designated by the directors."
Section 10.1 - Should there be a special percentage by which to amend the bylaws beyond a simple majority?
Section 10.4 - Given that most problems any organization has is related to money, and accountability is paramount, I'm thinking there should be tighter control than the signature of two officers. I recommend that any request to spend JUMP money must have the signature of the Treasurer and the President.
Okay, those are my thoughts.
ClintPosted 1 year ago # -
Oh and the work "Commities" in the Article VIII heading is misspelled.
Posted 1 year ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.