This header could be applicable to today's meeting, but it's not. I want to digest what happened at the board meeting and will start another thread on that tomorrow. Nope, this one is just a heads up as i will add to it. I have in my possession, boxes of documents from earlier RCSC years (mid 90's-early 2000's). I have just started sorting through them and i'll be damned, there's virtually no resemblance to what we have to read through today. NONE! Just one example: There was a document entitled Now That You Are A Director: A Guide For New Board Members. There's 5 pages to it with several headers on each page. Here's the second header down on page 1: Representing Your Membership Your membership looks to you to represent their ideas, to present their own and to make the most informed decisions possible. Here are some suggestions and observations that may assist you in serving more productively. 1). Become familiar with your Recreation Centers' Articles and By-laws. They are the sources of your authority as a Director and your principal guide in policy issues. 2). Your Guide is to help your Recreation Centers. To do this effectively, concern yourself with the major policy issues facing your Recreation Centers. 3). Be sensitive to the needs of your membership. Be prepared to serve them by introducing their wishes and suggestions at the proper time and place, proposing the proper course of action. 4). The Recreation Centers' members look to you as the definitive source for information on the inner workings of the Recreation Centers. Avoid offhand statements, rumors, or unjust criticism. Know your facts before you speak. Directors should present a united front before the Recreation Centers' members; criticism should be expressed in private. 5). Look to your Recreation Centers' officers for advice on programs which require your particular attention. 6). Feel free to discuss your concerns with your Recreation Centers' General Manager, who is intimately familiar with the workings of the Recreation Centers. Be sure to put your ideas in writing. 7). Do your homework! An effective Director is an informed Director. It is imperative that you study the legal, legislative, policy or fiscal issues which are facing your Recreation Centers. Imagine the concept; telling new board member they were actually elected to represent the membership. What a novel freaking idea.
I am sitting here seething. I just read the Corporation By-Laws dated December 16, 1993 but contain all Amendments to it through Dec 6, 2005. Then i went through the Articles of Incorporation that were Revised Dec of 1990 and Amended on November 20, 2003. I literally blew through them, they were straight forward, no ambiguity and no hoops to make the members jump through. None. One of the pieces of information i requested from the RCSC was the By-Laws from 2005, i don't need them any longer. Hence my anger. The simple reality is this: For 45 years our documents were crafted by those living here and working in conjunction with the Del E Webb Corporation employees. It was a labor of love with a focus on creating the perfect document where the board, the membership and sometimes the management all had worked in concert to insure a distribution of power/control. Perfect symmetry. Then a really, really odd thing happened: Somebody, after June 30 of 2005 changed the entire equation. For example this language was added: The Board serves the Corporation in a fiduciary capacity calling for their undivided loyalty to the Corporation. That language was never in the document i have in hand; nothing even close. Why would it be added? What was the need to dump the pages mentioning the board members roles, especially the one spelling out Representing Your Membership and inserting "undivided loyalty to the Corporation? What a freaking paradigm shift. One can only speculate the rationale for it; members simply no longer mattered. Ah, but it gets worse. The By-Laws before June 2005 had very simple language spelling out how to vote a board member out of office. They were clear as could be in both the Articles of Incorporation and the By-Laws were no more than three sentences long. Somebody after June of 2005 rewrote and replaced (actually no such Article even existed prior to) and inserted this convoluted pile of steaming crap: ARTICLE IX – INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL PETITIONS Per the Articles, any initiative, referendum, or recall petition must have a total number of signers not less than ten percent (10%) of the voting Members of the Corporation as of the preceding July 1. All signers must have signed in person and they must provide their Property address, Member Card number and the expiration date thereof. The completed petition will be filed with the Secretary of the Corporation. A recall petition will set forth the name of the Board of Director whose removal is desired and the reasons for the recall. A referendum petition must set forth the existing policy or regulation that is being challenged in clear and precise language that will allow the challenge to be determined by a “YES” OR “NO” vote. Any proposition will be subject to the requirements and limitations of the Corporate Documents. Before an initiative petition is filed, the party or parties intending to circulate and file such a petition, will submit to the Board the proposal in the exact language that the initiative will contain. The Board will have sixty (60) days from the date of submission to accept or reject the proposal. If the proposal is accepted, the petition will be assigned a petition control number by the Secretary of the Corporation. If issues can be resolved without the petition process, the Board and the Members will achieve savings in terms of cost and time while avoiding disharmony and divisiveness in Sun City, Arizona. SECTION 1: STEPS TO TAKE BEFORE CIRCULATING A PETITION Consider alternatives before beginning the petition process: Bring the issue to the attention of the Board at Board meetings or in other direct communication with the Board. The Board will consider the issue and provide in writing their consensus regarding such. If the Board approves, action will be taken accordingly. If the Board disapproves, proponents may initiate the petition process. File request to circulate your petition with the Secretary of the Corporation. Submit: The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the petition organizers. The organization, if any, supporting the petition. The text of the proposed petition on the official petition form as required. Receive from the Secretary of the Corporation: Written notice of approval or disapproval of petition as submitted. If approved, official petition with control number for use by all Circulators. If approved, petition regulations. If approved, your petition start and completion dates. Copy official, numbered petitions. Copy as many copies of the official, numbered petition, as needed to circulate your petition. No other petition form is acceptable. Number each page. Each page should have: The exact wording of the petition as approved by the Board. The control number as assigned by the Corporation. The Certification on the back of each page. Select and orient Circulators to the regulations and procedures to follow in circulating petitions. SECTION 2: ACCEPTABLE PRACTICES DURING THE PETITION’S CIRCULATION All Circulators: Must be Members in good standing. May not use intimidation, misleading statements or payments in securing signatures. Obtain signatures of current Members only. Privilege Cardholders are not eligible to vote or sign a petition. Must certify, as their legal obligation requires, that he/she witnessed the signatures of each individual signing. Petitions will not be: Circulated within or at RCSC Signers of the petition, in addition to being current Members, must: Be the actual person, a wife may not sign for husband or vice versa. Legibly sign in ink. A printed “signature” is not acceptable, unless that is the usual way the person signs. Indicate date on which they signed; otherwise signature is voided. Write legibly their Property address, Member Card number and expiration date thereof. Legibly print their name below their signature. Signers of the petition may withdraw their signatures at any time during the validation process. SECTION 3: POST-PETITION CIRCULATION PROCEDURES When petition circulation is complete: File completed petitions with the Secretary of the Corporation in book form, including: A cover page specifying the quantity of individual official petition forms filed, the total number of signatures claimed, and the date submitted. Number each signed official petition submitted. A cover page to verify each group of petitions submitted and certified by each Circulator. The Corporation will: Provide a dated receipt for submitted petitions. Initiate the petition verification process. The petition verification process will include, but is not limited to, the following: Investigation of Circulators: Circulator must be a current Member in good standing. Circulator must witness every signature. Circulator must sign the affidavit of Circulator on the reverse side of the last official petition form submitted in a group. Irregularities, including false or misleading statements by the Circulator, in obtaining, verifying and certifying signatures will result in rejection of all petitions of the Circulator. Inspection of signatures for: Legibility Printing instead of signing. Absence of dated signature, Property address, and Member Card number. Duplication D. Time required for petition verification: 1. Once the completed petition is filed with the Corporation, the Corporation will have thirty (30) days from the filing to determine and announce whether or not the required number of signers has been obtained. E. Upon completion of the verification process: 1. If the number of verified signers is insufficient, the petition is declared invalid. 2. If the number of verified signers is sufficient, the Board will set the date to present the petition to the Members for their vote which will be conducted by the Election Committee within sixty (60) days of the validation announcement. Literally every thing you see in bold was added and frankly is gibberish. Tomorrow i will capture the old language and what you will see is the most basic of steps for the membership forcing a recall election. Somebody went to great lengths to destroy a process that worked for 45 years and shred it. It is simply painful for me to see it in print and know how deliberate this all was. I am sickened by it.
I told you i would show you the article that covered the recall provision that was replaced by the mess above: It was contained in Article 10 Election of Officers. The first 5 sections spell out how candidates are elected. Section 5 (a) says this: In a removal replacement election, a director shall be deemed removed if the majority of votes cast are for his/her removal. 5 (b) says this: In the event a director is removed in an election as set firth herein, the person receiving the highest number of votes to replace the removed director shall be deemed to fill the unexpired term of said director. So we are clear, Article 3 Meetings covers all of the various types of meetings, including the quarterly membership meetings where the quorum was 100 and also the details of the annual membership meeting. It also details how the membership can change provisions in both the bylaws and the articles but they are so stated in a single paragraph and there was no ambiguity or confusion. Imagine.
