[wplug] [wplug-announce] 1st annual membership meeting discussion on wplug-plan

[Bill Moran]

"beer" <beer at cmu.edu> wrote:

> Two things:
> 
> 1.  Perhaps i missed earlier announcements, however giving the group only 2
> days to pay dues so they can be included in the election seems unreasonable.

You missed many, many previous announcements.  Both at previous meetings,
and via the mailing list.

> 2.  I am certain I am simply not being thorough enough in my search, but
> where on the website does it discuss the value of memebership and use of
> funds.  

It doesn't.  Not much, anyway.  The use of funds is up to the board (some
parts of fund management _must_ be approved by membership vote, however).
The board is elected and monitored by the membership.  Therefore, each member
has a say in how funds are used.  You'll have to read the entire bylaws
to get a feel for all the nuances of how this works, but that's the
simplified answer.

The somewhat less simplified version of fund management is this:
1) The _membership_ must vote to create a "program".  A program is something
   WPLUG does that can have money spent on it.
2) The board can then make decisions on how much money to spend toward
   each existing program.  The board can not create new programs.
3) The board recommends the amount for yearly dues, and the membership
   must approve that amount.
4) The membership has the right to override any board decision (see the
   bylaws for details) so any expenditure can be blocked by the
   membership if it thinks the board is getting crazy or something.
5) The board is required to keep records of its meetings and make those
   records available to the membership for review.  Thus the membership
   can monitor what the board is doing.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com