The Raleigh Jaycees Board Meeting Minutes 8-26-08

Attendance: Ed Blackman, Jamilyn Cole, Linnell Compton, Cliff Hamilton, Stacy Hanna, Paul Hoover, Michael McKnight, Karen Ray, John Sauter, Pat Sauter, Mona Shah, Heather Snyder, Melissa Taylor, Khaner Walker, Beth Worsley, Jeff Zabawa, Andy Zeh

Call to Order – Paul Hoover                                                                                                       Pledge of Allegiance

Presentation of Initial/Final CPGs:

Project: Wine & Tapas Tasting Initial CPG by Jennifer Roberts; Karen Ray motioned to approve the CPG as written with a $100 appropriation. Pat Sauter seconded the motion. Discussion: know that you will do a great job, thanks for running the project, know it’s hard dealing with the alcohol policy; looking forward to the event; motion passed.

Project: Summer Sand Volleyball Final CPG by Peter Ansbacher; Jamilyn Cole motioned to approve the CPG as written with a return appropriation of $2.77. Khaner Walker seconded the motion. Discussion: Great event for the chapter, good to see veteran member run projects, need to change amount in the budget – total not adding correctly; motion passed.

Project: Red, White, and Blue Picnic Final CPG by Allison Anderson; Karen Ray motioned to approve the CPG as written with a return appropriation of $586.73. Motion seconded by Pat Sauter. Discussion: had a great time, enjoyed the games, thanks for running the project, Allison thanked everyone for the project chair award; Allison asked if you have any pictures to please email them to her for the CPG book; motion passed.

Project: Haunted House Initial CPG by Dave Gill; Pat Sauter motioned to approve the CPG as written with a $27,900 appropriation from the chapter. Melissa Taylor seconded the motion. Discussion: Looking forward to the haunted house this year; Dave has a lot of great ideas, large items in the budget; hoping to get donated; talked about unguided house and will be looking into it further with Michael and Paul with insurance issues; motion passed.

Project: Fall Turkey Shoot Initial CPG by Carter Pettibone; Melissa Taylor motioned to approve the CPG as written with a $36,200 appropriation from the chapter. Pat Sauter seconded the motion. Discussion: appreciate your dedication to this Chapter, running the blackout party as part of this project; everyone will know what they are working towards; appreciation events will be added into this instead of blackout party; questions on insurance about serving alcohol; questions on having the blackout party and not having it planned in this CPG; important details are missing from this CPG; ask for seasoned member to be blackout chair; Ed Blackman made a friendly amendment to remove the $1,500 from the appropriation and to appropriate it to the appreciation event for the fall projects; Melissa Taylor accepted this amendment. Appropriation for the Turkey Shoot is now at $34,700. Also asked chair to change name of vice chair to TBD based on questions asked about lifetime members. Motion passed.

Ed Blackman sending around copies of the proposals for the bylaw changes; will vote on the proposals as a block if we don’t need to have discussions. Please let Ed know before we get to New Business if you have issues with any of the proposals.

Award nominations for Monthly and Trimester awards were held.

Ways and Means Area Update – Melissa Taylor – looking for a location for the haunted house, if anyone sees anything then contact Dave Gill; Carter will be running the Turkey shoot; State Fair added an extra day and pushed it back a week; trying to make it possible to run both projects at the same time; looking for someone to chair the fall project appreciation event and will encourage that person to work closely on this with the project chairs; questions on Dave as chair and his leadership; his expectations – things have turned around; thanks so much for helping out with PONY. We will be wrapping up at the second GMM in September.

Future of PONY – Carter Pettibone presented information on running two age groups for next year; information was sent out on board list; At this time PONY only wants a verbal agreement – we are interested in moving forward; we can back out if we find other issues; they are currently looking for groups in this area if we are not interested in running the Tournament. Heather Snyder made a motion to accept the information presented by Carter and move forward with adding additional age groups to the Tournament. Motion seconded by Melissa Taylor. Michael McKnight friendly amended the motion to read: I would like to make a motion that we move forward with good faith negotiations for adding additional age groups and hosting the tournament for additional years in the future and we are not committing at this time. Carter Pettibone will be the representative at this time. Amended motion seconded by Khaner Walker. No other discussion; motion passed.

Membership Area Update – Membership Team in Ali Houchin’s absence – open houses will be run at the director level since no one stepped up to run the project; activation is going well; will be sending out info for members to sign up to volunteer; 3rd trimester socials run on director level; new member fall kick-off will come up soon; don’t have any of the numbers – asked to email out to the board; questioned about project being run on director level if not done by chair.

Individual Development Area Update – Jamilyn Cole – have provided great opportunities this year; great to have some competitors winning at the state level; home improvement project – Adam will be the chair; some projects are almost done; have a few projects still having events; any plans for tools training – don’t have a chair at this time; want to have options for people to have other projects to attend besides Turkey shoot and Haunted house.

Business and Communications Area Update – Beth Worsley – thank you to everyone for your patience in this area; working to figure out what needs to be done and how we can still get it done; Meagan O’Dowd has stepped up to help with PR/marketing info; Karen Ray will be the director over the Installation Banquet; John Sauter will be office assistant; Pat Sauter will be the director over the Ski Trip; working on marketing for projects; please remind the project chairs that we need info for marketing early; working on booth at the Convention Center grand opening; Beth could use some help at this event; Discussions with NBC-17 meeting about new website – working on haunted house and chapter level; put out stories and then put up on news; office design – basic design of the room now; will have smaller tables; will have a screen in the corner; back corner will be the info center; will make room for food and will have a workstation. Continue to keep it clean; please clean up after yourselves – we have visitors that come in on a regular basis; submit your article for Jaycall; have project chairs – Allison Anderson for Installation Banquet; Leah Breckstein for Ski trip; if you know of any marketing opportunities – please let us know – Harleyfest is coming up; Ed Blackman – website – excuse the delays; will be making the changes and sending out to the board again.

State Director Area Update – Stacy Hanna – had a great time at convention; won lots of awards and will be giving them out at the GMM next week; did have two winners that are possible to go to national convention; will get email out of idea on motion for money to send the winners to national convention; great opportunity for these folks

Treasurer Area Update – Heather Snyder – any checks/deposits get those to me tonight; will be updating the budget report and getting that out to everyone once we get number for PONY wrapped up

Legal Counsel Area Update – Michael McKnight – everything has already been discussed.

Secretary Area Update – Heather Snyder – Heather motioned to approve the minutes for the July meeting. Jeff Zabawa seconded the motion. No discussion. Motion passed. Please get your agenda topics to me early – this will be the different format for the GMM

New Business:

Jeff Zabawa mentioned that he was elected as VP for the State JCs at Convention; Stacy Hanna will be a regional director; looking forward to new positions

Bylaws Committee Update – Ed Blackman – Ed Blackman motioned to include the report of the committee to be entered into the minutes so that the proposal and rationales would be available to future boards. Seconded by Stacy Hanna; motion passed. Please see attached proposals. Ed Blackman motioned to allow him to use the Chapter announce list to send info to the members about the bylaws and updates from tonight’s meeting. Motion seconded by Stacy Hanna. Motion passed. We have seven proposals with only one needing further discussion. Ed Blackman motioned for the board to endorse proposals 1-4 and 6-7 as presented by the bylaws committee. Stacy Hanna seconded the motion. Discussion: had plenty of discussion by email; motion approved. Ed Blackman motioned for the board to endorse proposal 5 as presented by the bylaws committee. Stacy Hanna seconded the motion. Discussion: this proposal changes the bylaws that changes practice, only title of VP as it stands now; Membership VP would get the roster responsibilities; Beth Worsley would like to see a VP of Communications; in the past we had designated VPs but bylaws committee feels not necessary to have as chapter is run; motion passed.

No other business.

Meeting adjourned with the JC Creed.

 

2008 Raleigh Jaycees Bylaws and Policies Committee Report to the Board Attached below:

Proposal 1:

 

To strike the words “tenth day of the month established as the anniversary month” in Article IV, section 1, and replace them with “renewal date established by the North Carolina Jaycees”.

 

ARTICLE IV  DUES

Section 1.      AMOUNT

 

Membership dues in the Raleigh Jaycees shall be determined by the Board of Directors on a per annum basis, payable annually in advance no later than the tenth day of the month established as the anniversary monthrenewal date established by the North Carolina Jaycees. The dues may be increased the exact amount of any State or National Jaycee dues increase without an amendment or modification of these Bylaws. Any additional dues increase will require a majority vote by those members present at any General Membership meeting. Written notification must be given to all members two weeks prior to voting.

 

Rationale:

 

This bylaw dates from the time when the end of anniversary month was the due date for membership renewals.  It has changed since then, so we need to update our bylaws accordingly.

 

However, rather than changing our bylaws to comply with the current NC Jaycee policy, which may change again in the future, the Bylaws committee believes that it would be best to change the bylaws to track future changes.

 

We therefore recommend that our bylaws should be changed to specify that annual dues are due on the renewal date set by the NC Jaycees.

Proposal 2:

 

To strike the text “an ex­officio member” in Article V, section 1, paragraph A, subparagraph (i), and replace it with “a non-voting ex-officio member.

 

ARTICLE V  BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Section 1.      GENERAL PROVISIONS

(A) Composition

 

(i) The Board of Directors shall include the President, up to six (6) Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, State Director, Publicity Director, Legal Counsel, Immediate Past President and ten (10) additional directors. An additional director shall be added to the Board for each additional twenty members over two hundred (200) who shall join the Raleigh Jaycees. The additional directors will be determined by the membership total as of January 1 of the current year, and the total number of directors shall not exceed fifteen (15). The Immediate Past President shall automatically become a member of the Board of Directors for a term of one (1) year and shall serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Any local member who shall hold office as an officer of the United States Jaycees or the North Carolina Jaycees shall during such term of office automatically become and remain an non-voting ex­officio member of the Board of Directors.

 

Rationale:

 

Raleigh Jaycees members who become officers in the US and NC Jaycees are given a position on the Raleigh Jaycees Board of Directors because of that office (ex officio is Latin, meaning “by right of office”).  However, different boards have reached different conclusions over the years as to whether an ex officio director should be allowed to vote or not.  The Bylaws committee discussed whether to retain the ex officio directorships, and if so, whether they should be voting members.

 

We determined that ex officio directors can be a valuable communication channel between our chapter and the NC and US Jaycees, and so should be retained.  However, we determined that they should not be voting members because they have not been elected to represent the Raleigh Jaycees, and because their duties to the NC or US Jaycees may not always allow them to attend board meetings regularly.

 

We therefore recommend that our bylaws should be changed to specify that  ex officio directors are non-voting members of the Raleigh Jaycees Board of Directors.

 

Proposal 3:

 

To strike the entire text of Article VI, section 4 and replace it with “A new election will be held to fill any vacancy after annual elections and before installation. Members seeking office shall inform a member of the Nominations and Elections Committee no later than one week prior to the general membership meeting at which the member seeks to be elected.  The membership shall be notified of nominations via an official Raleigh Jaycees announcement email list (such as Broadcast) on the Sunday prior to each general membership meeting.  Nominations of such members shall be made by the Nominations and Elections Committee at the beginning of that meeting as the first order of business, followed by the election.  Time will be allowed for candidates to address the membership in accordance with Article VI, section 2, paragraph B (iii).”

 

ARTICLE VI  NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Section 4.      VACANCIES AFTER ANNUAL ELECTIONS AND BEFORE INSTALLATION

 

A new election will be held to fill the any vacancy after annual elections and before installation. Members seeking office shall inform a member of the Nominations and Elections committee no later than one week prior to the general membership meeting at which the member seeks to be elected.  The membership shall be notified of any such nominations via an official Raleigh Jaycees announcement email list (such as Broadcast) on the Sunday prior to each general membership meeting.  Nominations of such members shall be made by the Nominations and Elections committee at that meeting, followed by the election.  Time will be allowed for candidates to address the membership in accordance with Article VI, section 2, paragraph B (iii).Nominations will be made at a general membership meeting followed by the election at the next general membership meeting.

 

Rationale:

 

Our current bylaws were instituted at a time when contested elections for offices other than President were more common, and the weeks between nomination and election to fill a vacancy allowed members the time to consider the alternatives.  Now, however, contested elections for offices other than President are very rare, and the delay serves little real purpose.  Additionally, the weeks between nomination and election drags out the efforts of a President-elect to fill vacant positions and get the incoming board members up to speed.

 

The Bylaws committee wanted to continue to have the Raleigh Jaycees  membership elect board members prior to installation, and to retain some period to allow members to consider their votes, while also speeding up the process of filling the board after annual elections.

 

We therefore recommend that our bylaws dealing with vacancies between our annual elections and installation should be changed to open nominations at the beginning of a general membership meeting, have them remain open through the meeting, and have the election at the end of the meeting.

Proposal 4:

 

To strike the last sentence in Article VI, section 7, and replace it with “A member holding the position of Legal Counsel, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, or Publicity Director may hold the same position for up to two consecutive terms.  No other Board Member shall hold the same position with substantially similar duties two consecutive terms.  Term limits for any office may be lifted by a 2/3 vote of the membership present at the second general membership meeting in September, provided that the membership is notified in writing of such a vote fourteen (14) days prior to the meeting.

 

ARTICLE VI  NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Section 7.      RE‑ELECTION

 

Any member of the Board of Directors of the Raleigh Jaycees, provided such members qualifications are certified by the Nominations and Elections Committee, may be re‑elected to serve. A member holding the position of Legal Counsel, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, or Publicity Director may hold the same position for up to two consecutive terms.  No otherHowever, no Board Member shall hold the same position with substantially similar duties for two consecutive full terms.  Term limits for any office may be lifted by a 2/3 vote of the membership present at the second general membership meeting in September, provided that the membership is notified in writing of such a vote fourteen (14) days prior to the meeting.

 

Rationale:

 

One of the missions of the Raleigh Jaycees is leadership development, and to that end our bylaws do not allow board members to remain in the same position for more than one year, since doing so prevents others from having the opportunity to learn from the challenges and opportunities of that position.  However, some of the more technically oriented positions have proved challenging to fill with a new person each year.  It is not uncommon to have the same person hold the same position for two years, sometimes using the “two consecutive full term” loophole: resigning on December 30 of the first term and retaking office on January 1 of the second term.

 

Additionally, in the past our bylaws created very specific positions for each VP and director: a candidate would not run for VP, but to be the Management Development VP, for example.  The Bylaws committee believes that when we revised our bylaws to have the VPs elected into a generic VP role, with duties specified by the President, this provision was missed.  Because the positions of VP and director no longer have specific titles, we currently should not  allow someone to run for VP if they are currently a VP, or director if they are currently a director.

 

The Bylaws committee believes that that should be allowed, as long as the person is assigned different duties in the new position, allowing them to continue their development as a leader of the chapter.

 

We therefore recommend that our bylaws should be changed to allow the Legal Counsel, Treasurers, and Publicity Director to serve two consecutive terms, to clarify that holding the same position in two consecutive terms with different duties is allowed, and to close the “full term” loophole.

Proposal 5:

 

To insert a new sentence at the end of Article VII, section 5 reading “One Vice President shall be designated the Membership Vice President, and shall be assigned the duty to ensure that an accurate record of the membership of the organization exists and is maintained accordingly” and strike the words “insure that an accurate record of the membership of the organization exists and is maintained accordingly, and shall” from Article VII, section 6.

 

ARTICLE VII  DUTIES

Section 5.      VICE PRESIDENTS

 

Each of the Vice Presidents shall carry out all duties assigned to him or her by the President or the Board of Directors.  One Vice President shall be designated the Membership Vice President, and shall be assigned the duty to ensure that an accurate record of the membership of the organization exists and is maintained accordingly.

 

Section 6.      SECRETARY

 

The Secretary shall report directly to the President unless directed otherwise. The Secretary shall insure that an accurate record of the membership of the organization exists and is maintained accordingly, and shall notify all members of the time, place and purpose of all special meetings. They shall keep, except as noted in Article V Section 1 Subsection E, and make available an accurate record of the proceedings of all regular and special meetings of the organization and shall serve as Secretary of the Board of Directors and shall, in general, do and perform all duties usually incident to the office of Secretary.

 

Rationale:

 

We currently give the responsibility of maintaining the roster to the Membership VP.  This proposal changes our bylaws to reflect current practice.

 

Additionally, this section of our current bylaws does not give any VP any title other than “Vice President”, but other sections give responsibilities to the “Membership Vice President”.  This change ensures that one VP will be designated the Membership VP for the purposes of those responsibilities, while still allowing the President and Board of Directors to assign other duties  as they see fit.

 

We therefore recommend that the bylaws should be changed to create the office of Membership Vice President, and that the duty to maintain the roster should be transferred to that office.

Proposal 6:

 

To strike the third sentence of Article VII, section 7, paragraph A and replace it with “All money shall be deposited by the Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer or by any other individual designated by the Board of Directors in a bank and account chosen by the Board of Directors.”

 

ARTICLE VII  DUTIES

Section 7. TREASURER AND ASSISTANT TREASURER

(A) Treasurer

 

The Treasurer shall report directly to the President unless directed otherwise. The Treasurer shall handle the money of the organization and faithfully account therefor. All money shall be deposited by the Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer or by any other individual designated by the Board of Directors in a bank and account, to be chosen by the Board of Directors, to the credit of the Raleigh Jaycees. Money shall be withdrawn only upon check signed by the Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer or by three (3) other individuals designated by the Board of Directors. All checks greater than One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00) shall require a check request bearing the signature of the President and one Vice President.

 

Rationale:

 

Currently, our bylaws state that “All money shall be deposited by the Treasurer”.  However, during our large Ways and Means projects, we collect large sums of money every day for many sequential days.  Our Legal Counsel thinks that the bylaws could be read to allow our current practice of permitting the Treasurer to delegate the duty to deposit to the Finance Subchair of the project.  However, the Bylaws committee believes that we should change the bylaws to officially allow the duty to deposit to be spread out, while requiring the additional protection of requiring board approval of any individual other than the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer.

 

Additionally, the meaning of last part of the sentence was not clear to the members of the Bylaws committee, to the point that we sought clarification from our Legal Counsel.  We believe that the changes preserve the original intent, while making that intent much more clear to less experienced readers.

 

We therefore recommend that our bylaws should be changed to allow other individuals to be given the authority to deposit money, and to clarify where that money should be deposited.

Proposal 7:

 

To strike the double period at the end of Article V, section 1, paragraph B and replace it with a single period; to strike the words “by the a member” in Article VI, section 2, paragraph B, subparagraph (i) and replace them with “by a member”; to strike the word “therefor” in Article VII, section 7, paragraph A and replace it with “therefore”; to strike the word “counselthe” in Article VII, section 9, paragraph B and replace it with “counsel the”.

 

Rationale:

 

Our current bylaws contain some typos: extra punctuation, extra or misspelled words, and a missing space.

 

The Bylaws committee therefore recommends that our bylaws should be changed to fix those errors.