Bylaw revisions proposed...The Times They Are a'Changinby Jack Hagerty, LUNAR V.P.We Need Your Vote!When we started LUNAR three years ago, one of the first questions asked, of course, was "when should we have the launches?" The organizing committee got together and came up with a decision which, like all committee decisions, was a compromise. We figured that one launch per month would be enough then started argue, er, discussing when to have it. The third Thursday of the month was ultimately chosen for the meeting (for reasons I can't remember right now) with the launch slated for the weekend following. The theory was that we could "prepare" for the launch (remember "build sessions"?) at the meeting. The only decision left was whether to have the launches on Saturday or Sunday, so, like any good committee, we decided on both, alternating between them month-to-month. This has not worked out as well in practice as we'd hoped. The meetings are usually sparsely attended and if there's much business to be discussed it easily takes up our whole time with none left to "prepare" (whatever that means). This is largely due to the lack of an active Education Committee chairman to plan and execute an educational program which would give members other than the board a reason to come to the meetings. [I have to plead mea culpa on that one, since I am the acting Ed Comm chairman, but I only have time to do one job here. Fixing this problem is a topic for another time.] So, if there's nothing really tying the meetings to the launches anymore, why have them be the "driver" in our schedule while the launches (which everyone is really in this club for) follow in a complicated "sometimes third weekend, sometimes fourth; sometimes Saturday, sometimes Sunday" pattern? "Good question," asked LUNAR charter member and 'clips editor Lynn Kissel. Lynn recently made a proposal to make the launches the driving schedule item. He suggested holding the launches on the third weekend and letting the meeting come the Thursday before. "Even simpler" said member Dave Redell, "Why not decouple the meetings and launches all together and have the launches on the third weekend and the meetings on the third Thursday?" This would put the meeting AFTER the launch a couple of times a year, which would allow us to do a "post-mortem" on it, if we wanted. "Not so fast," chimed in board member Warren Massey. Warren reminded us that the current meeting/launch schedule arrangement is "hard wired" into the bylaws. We can't change it without a vote of the membership to amend them. In accordance with the bylaws, then, this article is the official notice that we will hold a bylaw revision vote at the November meeting. The proposal before the membership is to revise the wording of Article 5 from:
In any case, we will still be at the mercy of LARPD (the land owner) because we are the low man on the totem pole when it comes to scheduling. We "only" pay them $50 per launch to use that park land when the normal single day use is $300 and they wanted to charge us at least $100. This means that there will likely be a few launches during the year that will not fall into any simple rule-of-thumb schedule as we are bumped to make way for equestrian events and company picnics. That's why we have a hotline! ------------------- As long as we are voting on bylaw changes, Warren Massey has suggested a minor change to Article 10 as well. This is the Article that allows us to amend the bylaws in the first place (a bit self referential there). It currently reads:
This will be a fairly important meeting so I want you all to come out if at all possible. It's where we are going to decide our calendar for next year and if you have any strong preferences, this is the time to air them. If you really can't make it just contact one of the board members and we can present your suggestions by proxy.
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