Response in-line. On 2/12/2013 6:17 PM, Rob Salsgiver wrote:
You might want to give some more consideration to a few points here, given how "turf" oriented some aspects of amateur radio (and other organizations) can become.
Specifics:
Membership is "automatic" to everyone. This should have some entrance criteria of some kind. Not sure what -- having a ham license isn't necessarily a better qualifier, and may screen out some valuable folks.
I agree, and that's why the constitution refers to an "enrollment process". I believe this process needs to be defined in the bylaws.
Board elections -- need to rotate so that one board member comes up each year. The "worst case" scenario you are trying to prevent is a pocket of malcontents coming in with a flood of new members and taking over the board and changing the organization to what they want. Seems extreme but I've seen it. Rotating one each year at least buys time if you do have a group of malcontents to work things out.
I dunno, who's the say the malcontents aren't right? If they can win majority on the board, that may be a sign to the old guard to change. If they act as a destructive force on the board, they can be removed should the membership agree. It's up to the "good guys" to do some electorate education and lead the way. If the "good guys" get lazy, it's time for them to move on, regardless of the goodness in their hearts.
Our club has 4 officers (pres, vp, secretary, treasurer) that are elected each year, with the Pres and VP allowed to serve 2 consecutive terms. They must be off the board for 1 year before being re-elected to (that) post. We also have 3 director positions that rotate -- 1 each year and are elected by membership. Rounding out the group is the immediate past president and a presidentially appointed trustee -- the trustee serves continuously until they resign or are removed or pass on. 9 is the total which is too many for this probably, but it demonstrates the idea of retaining a continuity of leadership and preventing absolute chaos if part of the group goes psycho.
Elections -- will work for now, but as the organization grows you will find you want more time to push the paper of the election process.
Ugh. Elections. A waste of time I'd like to minimize. The less the better, I say!
Director removal -- at 3 board members, you will never reach the 75% benchmark to remove one. This only works with 4 or more.
This is by design. The board cannot shrink below 3 members.
PDF of the bylaws of the Snohomish County Hams Club is attached as a reference. It's not perfect, but it does a pretty good job.
Rob