[wplug-board] January board meeting

[John Lewis]

On 01/12/2015 02:00 PM, Pat Barron wrote:
> Also, responding to your other points / questions asked in your previous
> note.
> 
> As we mentioned before, there isn't anything in the bylaws that prevents
> anyone from attending a board meeting.  While other committee members
> can't subscribe to the wplug-board list, they can follow the traffic in
> the archives.

Are they properly being informed of this? I didn't know that until I was
on the board this year, and this is my second time on the board.

On 01/12/2015 02:00 PM, Pat Barron wrote:
> That being said, unless my understanding is flawed (and someone can
> correct me if I'm wrong here...), while there isn't anything that stops
> anyone from attending a board meeting to observe, others aren't entitled
> to actually participate in deliberations unless invited to do so by the
> board (for example, having a committee report it's status to the board,
> or like before when we asked a non-board member to attend to discuss the
> WSCC network project with us).  Certainly, if the board wants to know
> what news a committee may have about it's activities, it's definitely
> helpful to have someone from that committee in the room already.

We have heads of committees that are technically in a bard seat, but it
would be a dumb idea in my opinion to make it any harder than it already
is for them to present a report since those reports are what allows use
to keep WPLUG running. When a committee has nothing to report it means
that the committee wasn't effective in doing that job in between meetings.

A good example of WPLUG not doing its job is the WSCC network project.
It was an epic failure because we somehow didn't have the skill to read
and implement ANSI/TIA-568-C and we commissioned a third party to do it
whenever which tuned out to be never. It is things like that are why
there absolutely needs to reform our process.


On 01/12/2015 02:00 PM, Pat Barron wrote:
> But, board meetings are not general member meetings, and aren't intended
> to be.  It sounds like some of what you want to do might be better
> handled in regular member business meetings.  Except as constrained by
> the bylaws (e.g., only the chair is allowed to sign contracts on behalf
> of the organization), the membership can do pretty much anything in a
> business meeting as long as there is a quorum present, including
> overriding a decision made by the board, or directing the board to take
> some action.  In fact, some things (like authorizing the spending of
> funds on new/different activities that aren't currently being done) are
> reserved exclusively to the membership.  The board's function is to
> handle the day-to-day operation of the organization so that the
> membership doesn't need to be concerned about that - but as long as
> there is a quorum of members present, there can be any kind of
> deliberations during a general membership meeting, and maybe we should
> do more of that. Maybe there is a view that the member business meetings
> are "just some annoying thing that we need to get over with before we
> get on with the presentation of the day", while we could be doing more
> with them.

The problem is that the general membership can't trust the board to
provide the general membership with the minutes as requested. Some one
asked for the minutes to be read and we didn't have the minutes! Things
can't be handled properly in regular business meetings because the board
isn't providing the membership all of the information necessary to make
a good decision.

We must encourage participation of the Membership in board meetings for
the good of WPLUG. We are responsible to make it as easy as possible for
the membership to look over the board's shoulder and making sure we are
functioning properly.

If the board is handling day to day operations properly how do you
explain the bust that is the WSCC network project or all of the bowling
events in 2013?

If there is a view that the member business meetings are "just some
annoying thing that we need to get over with before we get on with the
presentation of the day" then maybe, just maybe we are doing it wrong.

> --Pat.
> 
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