[wplug-plan] Proposals to be debated at WPLUG Business Meeting, 9/16/2006

[David Ostroske]

Besides nominations, we'll be covering the following bylaws change
recommendations and other matters on Saturday. This message is long,
and for good reasons. If you wish to reply, then PLEASE, make sure to
prune your response, especially extraneous quoted text.

This Saturday, September 16th, we will be taking up a set of changes
to out current bylaws. The Board has come up with a list of change
recommendations, and at the membership meeting, the members will be
able to propose changes of their own. If accepted at the meeting, then
we would take all the changes agreed to and put them to a vote by
absentee ballot. This ballot would be sent along with the Board
election ballots. If 2/3 of the ballots approve the changes, then
these new rules will immediately take effect.

This may affect the Board election and the renewal of WPLUG
memberships. I want to show what the changes would be, explain them
briefly, and illustrate what would happen if we adopted them. At the
same time, this is an invitation for everyone to comment on the
recommendation, and make recommendations of their own.

The current bylaws are on the WPLUG website; just click on the Bylaws
link at the top. Or, click here:
http://www.wplug.org/pages/bylaws

There are a few other non-bylaws proposals up for vote on Saturday.
I'll discuss these at the end of this post.


READ THIS FIRST! This is what would happen if the recommendation, as
it stands now, were adopted. The details are below. Here are the
immediate effects:
* If you were a charter member, and if you didn't renew your
membership before the vote, then you'd immediately drop out of
membership. Reason enough to renew now, folks! If you joined WPLUG
anytime on or before March 16th, you'll be able to renew at the
meeting on Saturday.
* The Board election would proceed as usual, but instead of electing
seven people, we'd only elect FIVE (5) people. (Not necessarily the
same five people, just so you know. But that's another matter.)
* If your membership lapsed, then it would be extremely easy to
rejoin. You'd still need to pay dues and provide contact info, but
there would be no penalties, per se, for signing up again.


Now, the Board's recommendations, in detail.

Article 3 - Members. This article was extensively rewritten. We
separated out the terms of membership into their own section (3.2),
and specified how far in advance dues can be paid. (Surprisingly, this
matter did come up this year.) We stripped out a provision (old 3.2,
paragraph 1) that prevented new members from fully participating;
since the Board would receive all new applications, we would retain a
safeguard against "packing." At the same time, we dropped all of
section 3.3, pertaining to lapsed membership; once someone's dues
lapse, then poof, they're gone. But renewing has no penalties, so
there's no need to worry. All of this simplifies things considerably;
I'll explain why, below.

Here's how the language would look if these changes were adopted:
---BEGIN
3.1 Definition
A natural person becomes a Member of WPLUG by completing and signing
an application for membership and paying dues.

3.2 Terms of Membership
The term of membership shall last for one calendar year from the
reception by the WPLUG Board of the payment of dues and application
for membership. Renewal of membership shall be accomplished by filling
out a membership renewal form not more than 91 days (13 weeks) before
the end of the membership term and by paying the membership dues.
Membership renewal shall add an additional year to the member's term
of membership.

The identifying and contact information to be provided on the
application shall be set by the Board of Directors. Dues shall be
approved by the membership.

3.3 Voting Rights
All Members in good standing shall be allowed to vote.
--END


Article 4 - Board of Directors.

We changed sections 4.1 and 4.3 so that instead of having a variable
number of Directors based on the number of members, we would have a
fixed Board size of five members. The reason for this change is that
an executive board, a board that handles the day-to-day affairs of the
group, doesn't require a representative cross-section of the
membership, like a legislative body (or a bylaws committee) does.
After all, the membership has always had the power to dictate what the
Board can do (see the end of section 4.2). And besides, there are
organizations much larger than ours that are run quite well by a
small, fixed number of Directors.

Here's what 4.1 would look like, post-amendment:
---BEGIN
4.1 Definition
A Board of five (5) Directors shall be elected by the WPLUG membership
to handle the day-to-day affairs of WPLUG. The members of this Board
shall be individually referred to as Directors.
---END

And here's what 4.3 would look like. The last paragraph, which is
unchanged, shows how we'll be running Saturday's nominations process,
by the way.
---BEGIN
4.3 Nominations
When an election for Directors is required, the Secretary shall give
the membership at least 28 days' (4 weeks') notification of a
nomination meeting. The announcement shall state when and where the
meeting will be held and how many seats are to be filled.

Nominations for Directors shall be taken from the floor at the
nomination meeting. Members may nominate themselves, and nominations
do not need to be seconded. Nominees have the right to object and be
removed from the ballot. If there are not enough nominees, then the
Chair must nominate additional Members until there are as many
nominees as seats.
---END


Article 5 - Membership Meetings

We updated the language in section 5.4, to reflect that we now have
just one class of members. And since the Board would typically be
smaller than previously prescribed, our quorum would be smaller, too.

Here's what 5.4 would look like, post-amendment:
---BEGIN
5.4 Quorum
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 voting membership; or
   2. the majority of the total voting membership.
---END


Non-Bylaws Business

There are two proposals up for consideration on Saturday.

First, the Board recommends that the annual dues be $20.00 for each
member. We require a majority vote to pass this change, and if it does
pass, then it would take place immediately. By the way, we plan to
accept renewal payments and registrations before the meeting starts.


Second, we have a resolution to change the PR Committee charter. The
charter would look like this if the resolution passes. It will require
a 2/3 vote to pass, because its charter constitutes a special rule of
order. I've included, {as a comment in braces,} the language that
would be struck out.
--BEGIN
WPLUG PR committee
A Public Relations Committee shall be appointed by the Board, and
shall be renewed promptly after a new Board takes office. The WPLUG
Vice-Chair shall be a member of this committee {this would be deleted:
"and serve as its chair"}. Its duties shall
include:
1. To swell the ranks of WPLUG membership.
2. To establish and maintain WPLUG's reputation as a key organization
for Open Source in western Pennsylvania.
3. To maintain a high level of awareness of WPLUG activities with the
general public.
4. To obtain favorable publicity for WPLUG.
5. To establish and maintain contact with other Open Source
organizations to coordinate efforts to further the cause of Open
Source.
The committee shall provide regular reports to the Board and to the membership.
--END

Our current Vice-Chair is Beth Lynn Eicher, in case you didn't know.


That's the foundation for our business on Saturday. Feel free to hack
away at any part of it.

-- 
David Ostroske <eksortso at gmail.com>