I love words, i hate to sound like i am becoming jaundiced. Truth is, i kind of am. Although, the meaning, when i looked it up said this: bitterness, resentment or envy. Honestly, the closest may be resentment. I resent being lied to and resent being treated like i don't understand what is going on. At yesterday's Member/Board meeting, we were treated to an interesting exchange. The board president invited a former RCSC board member, who is now on the election committee, to the front of the stage to read us the rules regarding the voting process for the annual membership meeting. I received an email yesterday and was asked why they (the election committee) were even involved? Oddly enough, the bylaws call for that. Section 5 says this: SECTION 5: VOTING PROCEDURES AT MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS Voting shall be by ballot of Members in good standing present at any meeting of the Members. The following procedures shall apply for ballot voting: Voting shall proceed under supervision of the Election Committee. At least two (2) members of the Election Committee shall be in attendance at all times during voting and they, along with their assigns, shall issue all official ballots, and witness the casting of the ballots. Ballot boxes shall remain sealed until all votes are cast. Votes shall be tabulated in the presence of at least three (3) members of the Election Committee. Any Member may be present as an observer at the tabulation of the votes. Upon completion of the tabulation of ballots, the results shall be certified by the Election Committee Chair to the Board and posted on the RCSC website (suncityaz.org) and/or in RCSC Facilities. So technically it was only right to go to the election committee to work out the details. The rub came shortly after reading the "rules," Tom Marone stepped to the microphone and asked a simple question: "when did the election committee make these decisions?" It was a good question, because as a long time member of the committee, he had attended every meeting and never heard any discussion regarding this matter, Huh? To the president's credit, she freely admitted those rules were decided by the general manager and her. At least they didn't try and spin the answer. Sad when kudos go out for being honest eh? I was more troubled by a couple of things; the committee played no role in setting the rules but more importantly the rumor is the member who read those rules will ultimately be a candidate for this years election. I truly hope i am wrong. Of greater concern is the continuing and diminishing role committees fill. At one point in time, committees were the life blood of the organization, hardly the case these days.
Kinda makes you wonder why we even have committees when such important things like voting procedures are decided by only two people, one of which I might add is not even an RCSC Member but simply and employee! (no disrespect intended) It would have been proper for the Chair to at least try to coordinate a meeting of the Election Committee members who are still here during the Summer months. I bet more than just the 2 people who made all the decisions would have shown up! I know I would have. I also think it's important to note that the 14 point procedure they came up with is in violation of the current Bylaws. Standing and Counting votes at a Membership meeting is not allowed because the Bylaws say, as stated above, "Voting shall be by ballot of Members in good standing present at any meeting of the Members. The following procedures shall apply for ballot voting." This is not a rule that can be suspended. So it must either be eliminated, or amended in such a manner that provides for its own suspension. Don't take my word for it, look it up for yourself! (RONR 12th Ed. 45:20) I could have and would have told them that if I were invited. In fact, I sent an e-mail to every member of the Board back on Aug. 16th about that very point but never even received a "thank you for your comment" reply! These are things that need to be fixed and that can only be done when Members come first and that will only be accomplished when we elect the proper people to the Board!
Seeing as how we already have established precedence set for how to move forward with forward with voting at a membership meeting addressed in WRITING, why does the board president, or any one else, for that matter, feel they have the right or the need to to cancel or amend the established WRITTEN policy? I know I am once again being clueless here, but since when does the GM and the board president get to dictate to change policy without a vote of the membership as written in the bylaws? It wasn't even voted on by the board in one of their sham meetings, just dictated t the membership by a lackey who claims to be a board wanna be? There is something very wrong here. Since when is it acceptable for the GM and the president to make such a policy change and not even have a vote by the board? At least back when we were screwing the membership over, we had votes by the board to make it look like it was agreed to by someone, It is not acceptable to have one member of the board to make policy that affects the entire membership with a simple reading of a statement. No one on the boad of directos of the RCSC has that kind of power, no one there is omnipotent. The GM is not the final say of policy of the running of the RCSC, nor is the President. There cannot be a single person making one statement and the entire membership be bound by that statement. This would be out of bounds, and I beleive if brought to the Attorney General's office, illegal. I know no one wants that kind of attention brought to the community or to the members, but folks, there comes a time when the power mongering that is going on here is out of control and it will need to be addressed at some level. Just saying. I feel the board needs to be taken to task by the members at the next board meeting as to why the President feels she can make edicts that effect the entire membership and not have a vote of the membership to vaildate the vote. I also feel the there is a great need to have this board be remineded of what is currently in writing within the current documents and these current dcouments do hold precendence over anything the board president desires to espouse at a meeting. That would be the law, and it would hold up in a court of law. Look it up
