Meeting Information:

 

Name:                    Ad-Hoc Committee Open Forum for Bylaws.

Date:                      October 1, 2006

Start Time:           12 PM CST

End Time:              2:30 PM CST

Moderator:            Rabiul Islam

 

Agenda was approved by the AHC members.

 

AHC Bylaws process update.

-Identified skeleton articles that need to be addressed in the bylaws.

 

Community member suggested there should be a provision in the bylaws to get other counties like Hays involved in the community activities. It was refuted that Bylaws cannot enforce such a method. However, the future BOD can think up some ways to involve them.

 

Community member suggested if someone wants to get more involved in the bylaws process more that open meetings and inputs, he/she should be given a process to do so. It was also recommended that the draft skeleton with Subcommittee comments should be published, even if they are not final or discussed yet.

 

    - Three Community experts has been selected and invited.

    - Three articles have been worked on, in consultation with the community experts.

 

A few community members suggested that the selection of the Community Experts should have been open and solicited in open email. Since the subcommittee has to functional, limit number of members.

 

As the community elected body, it was refuted that AHC has the authority and privilege to select experts of their choice in whichever task they need for. However, AHC can attempt to conduct more frequent open meeting for transparency.

 

What's Next?

 

    - Work done so far will be published on the web for public view and comment.

    - A number of bylaws authoring sessions in consultation with community experts will be held.

    - Open forum will follow with the new articles that have been worked on.

    - Target for first draft for AHC approval: 11/30/06

 

On request of the community members present, the Bylaws process was revisited:

Step 1: AHC assigns Bylaws subcommittee to lead the effort.

Step 2: Start with an open forum. Open forums are scheduled no later than 45 days. No voting takes place here.

Step 3: Bylaws Subcommittee Meeting

a.        Closed meeting with possible invitation to selected community members.

b.       Minutes sent to AHC only.

c.        Subcommittee will decide which section to publish on bagatx.org based on progress.

d.       Solicit inputs on published section by email.

e.        Prior to next open meeting, publish sections by email

f.         Voting at subcommittee (simple majority)

Step 4: Repeat Step 2 and 3.

Step 5: After Bylaws Subcommittee approves, send it to AHC for approval (simple majority)

Step 6: Next step TBD

 

Following suggestions were offered by Community members:

Last step: Informal approval in open forum after AHC approves.

Frequency of open forum may be increased.

Publish bylaws subcommittee meeting minutes to Public.

Wherever applicable, bylaws related voting should have 2/3rd majority, instead of simple majority.

Voting should be done in public, according to the constitution committee guideline. No voting was necessary so far.

 

All final decisions on the community recommendation will be taken in AHC meeting.

 

AHC presentation and discussion:

 

a. Membership

Following recommendations were made regarding Fees.

Implement No membership fee to encourage members to join association.  No fee for first five years.

Introduce Fees for office bearers only; or Paid members can seek office.

Introduce large Fees for candidates only.

Introduce nominal fee for practical reasons like how to make voter lists current, residents who move to other cities. In the absence of updated member list, quorum may become a problem.

Introduce fee, even if it is $1.

 

Following recommendations were made regarding Termination of membership:

Do not implement termination. Members are members whether good or bad.

Termination policy will require reinstatement and term to be specified in the bylaws.

There should be a provision for termination for individuals involved in harmful anti-social activities, terrorism, felony etc. There may be legal reasons to implement termination.

 

Other recommendations:

-            For membership application require signature of some sort.

-            Define a cutoff date for minimum age like Jan 1st.

 

b. Election

Community members recommended the following:

-    There should be a better mechanism for breaking tie.

-    Voters should be required to vote fewer than available slots. (example:  Vote exactly 4 out of 15 slots from 20 candidates.). The required number can be 1/3rd of BOD size. This will reduce paneling.

-    Bylaws should not have specific numbers like 14days or 48 hours.

 

c. Board Of Directors

Community members recommended the following:

-          2 years is too long a term.

-          Number of Directors should be 10.

-          Number of Directors should be odd.

-          In the removal section, change the word ‘found’ to ‘proven’

-          Make the term 1 year and term limit 2 terms. Do not implement staggering.

-          Make the structure 6 voted by public, 9 chosen by standing committees (bottom-up)

-          Make the number 12 with 6 voted each year. Implement Staggering.

-          Minimum and maximum number of directors should be Percentage instead of specific number.

 

Open Table.

 

-          Fundraising for BD ideas were solicited.

-          Deadline for Bylaws was requested to be 11/15 instead of 11/30.

-          Venue should be chosen immediately.

-          Bylaws on Ballot? Announce in open forum email and discuss in the next meeting.

-          How is the association run? BOD controls the committees, or committees are independent and BOD only oversees?