[wplug-plan] Quorum Conundrum

[Patrick Wagstrom]

On Mon, 2006-07-24 at 18:57 -0400, Michael Semcheski wrote:
> I see two issues being addressed here.  One, wplug needs a revenue
> stream (ie, dues) if it is to survive outside the cozy confines of
> cost-effective Carnegie charity.  Second, we need a quorum more
> frequently, so that business can get done, votes can be cast, democracy
> spread and beauracracy fed.
> 
> Is that accurate?  Can we change the requirements for a quorum, or
> develop an online voting system?  (I know this great company in Ohio. 
> They always deliver.)

That's basically accurate.  Another of the major reasons for money is
because we'd like to bring in more quality speakers to talk at WPLUG,
but some of them require funds to bring in.  There also are expenses now
that we're more organized, like a mailbox, domain names, server
hardware, food, etc.  I should stress, at this point we are not in any
dire financial straits, not by any means at all.  We're sitting quite
well (come to the meeting and I'll give you a full update), however some
things need to change, which will be covered in detail at the meeting.

With regards to quorum, please show up to the meeting on August 5th, and
we'll try to cover this in detail.  Our quorum is already remarkably
low.  Really, it is.  From Section 5.4 of the bylaws[1]:

The quorum for membership meetings shall be the lesser of:

     1. the sum of the prescribed size of the Board plus the square root
        of the total membership, voting and non-voting; or 
     2. the majority of the total voting membership.

Right now I believe we have about 80 members, which puts our quorum at
14 people.  Yes, 14 people.  We can't get 14 people.  I'd be really
leery of dropping this requirement any further.  As far as online
voting, it's a good idea, but misses the exchange of ideas that you get
from real discussion.  It's slow, prone to get lost, and often comes out
as being unbalanced.  I'm not in favor of it, but you're welcome to
bring it up at the meeting next Saturday.  This is something we've been
hammering out for a while and we are certainly open to ideas from other
folks.

See you on the 5th!

--Patrick

[1] http://www.wplug.org/pages/bylaws#5.4