John:

I've copied what I sent to by-laws committe members concerning my thoughtso on regions and elected directors.  I;ve inserted it after my name.

Personally I think that directors should be from different parts of the country and they should be elected.  As a matter of fact the Articles of Incoporation require that they be elected at the annual meeting and that there be no less than 2 nor no more than 9.  To change that the club has to go the Iowa court system and get a change approved.  Personally I think 9 directors are enough.

Anyway if you read what I've included you'll see what I'm thinking.  The four officers would remain and would be elected by all the members.  I think the hassle about a nominating committee would probably die down if the people selecting the committee were elected board members.

Let me know what you think.

Bill Brandt

Regions and Elected Directors

Seems like most everyone is in favor of elected directors if you go by what is being posted on the by-laws forum. That should not be a problem since that is what the Articles of Incorporation say must be done.

The number of directors is now limited by the Articles of Incorporation to no more than 9. The way I read that it appears the elected officers (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) would not necessarily have to count towards the limit of 9. Therefore I think we could have 9 elected "directors" in addition to the 4 elected officers. The elected officers would not be able to vote. 

Another alternative would be having the president serve as the chairman of the board and then have 8 elected directors. We could make it that president could only vote if there was a tie. Something like VP Cheney being the president pro-tempre of the Senate and he only gets to vote on bills when there is a tie.

Now as far regions go, I would make it somewhat simple. I would divide the country in half using the Mississippi as the East/West dividing line then I would go across the country using states south of Illinois and Iowa as the North/South dividing line. Then we would have 4 regions. I would then get out the directory and start counting members in each region. After those figures were known I'd divide up the number of directors somewhat like the Congressional Districts are set up within States.

For simplicity, I would call the regions Northeast, Southeast, Northwest and Southwest. Since Iowa and Illinois would be in separate regions that would take care of some concern that the members have about those states being too heavily represented on the board. As an example of what might happen the NE region might have three members, NW 3 members and the SE and SW regions 1each. 

I don't know if it would work, but at least the members from around the country would be represented. It won't make everybody happy, but I also think those areas with the most members should have a bigger representation on the board.

The members from outside the country could be included in the various regions. I supppose you'd have to divide Canada in 2 and assign those members to the NE and NW regions. Members from Europe could go the the SE and any Aussie or New Zealand members go to the SW.

I think a nominating committee for the 4 elected officers that was selected by the "elected" board would relieve some of the tension over that concern. I would let the regions each nominate their candiates for the board.

[quote:3sk3qsby]Hi Bill, Andy said that I should contact you concerning the by-laws and some ideas that you have. That is all he told me so I'm not sure what else to say. John Hume #3527.[/quote:3sk3qsby]