Linda Headland

This I suspect is the root of the underlying conflict -- Within the May meeting minutes, published 9/2019 the board has written, 'we (the board) are attempting to make this organization similar to the 'blank' organization (names omitted).' And so, I am concerned that if, these changes might be adopted that, many of the current members will no longer meet the board's new requirements for membership eligibility. Whatever the case, the board would then have the authority (contrary to our constitution) to decide who can and who can't join our organization. As I see it, what this board should be doing is to establish another organization rather, then to attempt to restructure this organization.

Only that this statement had not been written but, rather spoken to me during the November meeting.

"The board is subordinate to the membership ...." Yes, I know. It's just that the board doesn't realize this nor does most of the assembly. During the last meeting the presiding officer said, "(board member name omitted) and I decided to remove the minutes from the meeting." Here they have given the board the authority to decide for the assembly. Yet, they apparently don't recognize this error.

Last year I resigned from the board as a longtime committee person. I still do some of this work tentatively. I have not served as an elected-officer since 2013. I resigned because this board has agreed to make changes to this organization without the approval of the assembly. There were no motions, no debates, no voting nor were these changes mentioned in the recent minutes. Though these changes are relatively minor with fee increases and added program restrictions, these changes were not first approved by the membership. The "I move that the boards be ordered to..." Oh, they wouldn't have liked this at all. And it was nearly always just me against the remaining board members

Yes, and she was suggesting that I specifically use this word, 'please' when addressing the board.

For the most part I'm simply being ignored. Then too, I really don't like making demands at all. Yet, something must be done to resolve these underlying conflicts between the board and the membership or tomorrow, this conflict might be with someone else. A fellow member had suggested that I use the word 'please' more often.

By at least 2008 all of the board members corresponded by email. Most if not all completed documents were likely placed in electronic storage. I am particularly interesting in the minutes of 9/2013, as this was when the president and board had changes. The two board members who were then in office are still in office. I hope this helps to clarify.

Beginning with the research -- As a member I can request that, the secretary provides me with copies of all meeting minutes from 9/2013 to the more recent. If I were to ask only for the specific minutes containing the evidence that the membership had given the board this authority to approve the minutes, the board might then simply falsify the record or say that these minutes have been lost. Only two members have served as president since 9/2013 and both remain on the board. Within the most recent emailed minutes these exact words are written, 'the past president, name omitted' suggested that the Secretary ask if the minutes have been read, are there any changes and if not are they approved.' Within this sentence is our ex-president suggesting that the secretary ask the membership to approve the minutes? This ex-president should know who has been given the authority to approve these minutes.

Okay, first things first, as there is much for me to learn -- as the minutes procedure is being skipped, I might then stand and say, I Call for the Orders of the Day. I might then say, 'I demand that the order of agenda items be immediately resumed' and that, I might interrupt any speaker at this time. So then, the presiding officer should respond by saying, 'Orders of the day are called for' and to then hopefully proceed with the minutes. Or the presiding office might then ask the assembly, if, they would want to move onto the minutes. Now that this decision is in the hands of the membership, the membership might then opt to do what? As I understand, the call for the order of the day is not seconded nor debated nor can it be amended. At this time would a 2/3 vote by the membership be required to resume with the pending treasurer's report?

Only the last 6 years are in question, prior to that time I am certain that the minutes were approved by the membership. The same three board members are still serving and so, they should know. Then, a special 'minutes approval committee' might then be appointed for this task?

Beginning in mid 2019 the minutes have been sent out via email as pdf attachments. I am concerned if these minutes might have been sent out as 'live link' pdf files. I know very little about 'live link' programs. I have yet to determine if the membership had previously given the board the authority to approve these minutes. The membership has not been correcting nor approving these minutes over the past few years or at least not while I was often in attendance.

Perhaps, I could force the board to read the minutes aloud via my request/demand as a member and that this would at least begin the minutes procedure. Yet because the last draft-minutes contained 866 words, this demand isn't likely to be accepted very kindly.

What the board has been doing is to strategically increase the word length of the minutes where it would then be very time-consuming to read aloud, correct and approve during the meeting. Due to our minutes excessive word length the membership might not side with me. The last meeting minutes sent via email contained 866 words. (other minutes have been over 1,000 words) My computer read the last minutes aloud in about 9 minutes time. My name was referenced within the last minutes 8 times and I haven't even made a motion.

I must agree -- this could be a 'fox in the hen house' situation. And so, our board might have been given the opportunity to write the contents of the minutes or draft-minutes to suit their own favor. This appears to be the case. The recent minutes also contain many comments and view points stated by board members and committee chairs. Their names are always written in as having said and this is entirely wrong.

Yet in accordance with Robert's Rules the writing of our minutes are not accurate, in that, they contain opinions, thoughts and assumptions which can not be corrected nor proven as fact. What anyone says during the meeting is irrelevant and should be removed from the record. In this case, I would assume that the minutes or draft-minutes are inaccurate.

Only the presiding officer (president), recording officer (secretary) and treasurer sit at the 'head table' other committee chairs have always been seated within the assembly. The treasurer beyond a brief financial report could also sit with the assembly. A parliamentarian has not assisted this group in about 20 years. Because meetings are held in a large room of about 40 attendants with no mic, adequate hearing can be a problem.

Our rules of order were first established during the onset of our organization, although, the membership only now has a vague understanding of what our constitution and bylaws mean. Initially a parliamentarian did help guide us through our meetings procedures. With only a few volunteers our group does function quite well. Yes, the groups current conflict is basically a power struggle between the assembly and the board, where the board now refuses to follow the constitution, bylaws and the 2/3 approval vote of the membership. I recently unpublished our groups social-media page for fear it might become a battleground, just as our published yet unapproved draft-minutes have become a battleground which does favor the board's point of view, as they wrote and published it.

Part of the problem is that the general membership assembly feels too intimidated by the current board (members of equal status actually) and so the membership remains silent, like sheep. Then too, the membership is grateful that the board is willing to do most of the volunteer work in which, they themselves lack the skills. This isn't a very healthy situation where the minutes aren't even approved by the membership.

Got it, thanks! I have rarely ever missed a meeting and can't recall the last time the draft-minutes were read and approved during the meeting. It has been years. Our organization has been functioning so well over the past few decades that the minutes seem almost unnecessary. Yet because the board has recently been making significant changes to our group unknown to the membership, these actions had best be approved by the membership and officially documented.

Thanks, then when this minutes agenda item is reached, I can then call and raise a point of order, as, it is very likely that the chair will again refuse to deal with this agenda item. Yes the board sits at a 'head table' (rather intimidating) during membership meetings. Board meetings occur 1 or 2 times per year. The board meeting minutes are then emails to the membership. I doubt that there are any approved minutes documents stating that the membership voted to authorize the board to approve the minutes. I had asks for the date and was told this vote had occurred a few years ago, and so, I will then ask for the draft-minutes document as proof. This is scary -- during the last meeting the president told me, 'Name and I decided to omit the reading of the minutes… then Name suddenly interrupted to say 'this had been voted on by the membership…' Since mid 2019 the draft-minutes have been distributed to the membership via email as well as, about 60 other non-members. The non-members, especially, have no way of knowing if the information within the draft-minutes is true. Not all of it is true nor even factual.

I'm new here and still trying to figure out how to reply to people. Post anywhere, I'll find you eventually! :)

But in view of the fact that our current board refused to allow any minutes to be approved, how will this motion to amend result in the minutes approval. During our previous meeting, I made a motion that our group follow Robert's Rules of Order, in regards to our minutes proceedings and yet, no one would second it.

The president and entire board are ignoring one member's request to read and correct the draft-minutes during our meetings though the minutes procedure is listed within the meetings agenda. The only reason given for the removal of the minutes procedure, is that, I was told, it takes too much time (though emailed prior to the scheduled meeting) and that our groups membership had previously voted to remove this procedure from our meetings. I have no proof that this vote ever occurred. I was told this vote was taken a few years ago by the membership. The current writing of the minutes consists of many irrelevant statements that shouldn't be written into the minutes including the commenters names.

Our general membership meetings occur 6 or 7 times per year. Our constitution and bylaws have not been amended since 2004. The membership is the governing power by a 2/3 vote and always has been the authority since its beginning more that 40 years ago. Then the yet unapproved draft-minutes are being published as though they had previously been approved as Minutes, not requiring an additional approval by the membership. I suspect that our minutes have not been approved for about 3 years.

Can the membership be indefinitely denied their opportunity to make corrections to the groups emailed published draft-minutes? Can these draft-minutes be officially approved by the board members alone? I ask this question because the minutes procedure has been completely removed from our membership meetings. The secretary continues to take notes during the meeting which are later emailed as the draft-minutes, and yet, there is no opportunity for the membership to make corrections nor to vote their approval.