A Failed Process, or Is It? (A discussion of member's rights)

Member/Board Exchange Recap - Part One 

On Sept 12, 2022, several of us sat through a lengthy member/board exchange session. I expected a larger crowd, but it wasn't bad. There is any number of issues that triggered the turnout. Clearly, softball was well represented as were the dog club members looking for indoor space. Added to the crowd were several of us who have long argued for a more transparent, open process. 

Annual Membership Meeting set for November 1st

The September 12^th Member/Board Exchange began with a 14-point statement of procedures read by a member of the Elections Committee in preparation for the upcoming Annual Membership Meeting.

We received an explanation of the PROXY PROCESS

The good news is they are allowing us to print out our own proxies online (obviously it saves on their printing cost). The bad news is, the really bad news is that we still can't get a proxy signed on RCSC property. That makes absolutely no sense unless, of course, the goal is to minimize collecting proxies.

For those who don't know, proxies:

• Signed signatures collected by RCSC members
• Can be counted to establish a quorum at the yearly annual membership meetings
• In 2009, the RCSC had a requirement of 100 members be in attendance for a membership meeting to be held (one every 3 months)
• After some wrangling, it went from 100 to 3500 down to 1250. Where it remains today with just one annual membership meeting.

The net of the change resulted in the RCSC not holding a membership meeting for 12 years. In 2021, between butts in chairs (more than 700) and proxy votes (more than 700) the RCSC had to conduct a Membership meeting.

Summary of our 2021 Membership Meeting

The crowd was vocal, and they were prepared. The Quorum of Members had been established. Timely motions were filed and introduced at the meeting. No vote was allowed by the RCSC on the motions even though the Articles of Incorporation stated clearly, that we had the right to vote on them.

The motions were deferred to an ad hoc committee to rewrite the bylaws. 

So what is expected at this Membership Meeting?

When you watch the meeting from the 12th (the first 40 minutes) you will see the confusion coming from that rewriting process.

• Will the bylaws we use be the old ones or the new ones?
• It appears as if the President will vote against new ones being implemented but refused to guarantee the new ones wouldn't come into play.

Members without rights, again…

I'm not sure it matters, because once again we were told, that no matter what we do, it won't change the RCSC's actions. We were told point blank, even with a quorum, even with a standing vote count for any motions submitted at the annual membership meeting, nothing will come of them. They will be kicked back to the board for "study."

Then they went on to tell us proxies used in the process to reach a quorum die at the end of the meeting. They also implied the next course of action, should the board not act on motions voted on by the members, would be to revisit them either at the next annual membership meeting (a year later) or by the membership collecting signatures from 10% of the members (roughly 3300). To be clear, those petitions under the current bylaws cannot be signed on RCSC property. 

And yet, I have optimism

All in all, it was more of the same, different day. So why my optimism? Why my question mark at the end of the header? This meeting was posted about 12 hours ago and sent to the membership on their email list. As of 10 am Tuesday morning, there have been 430 plus views. They never used to get that in months and months on their website.

Members are paying attention and come this election, these meetings, and the cavalier attitude management and some of the board members are taking will become the lynchpin for change. After watching you will see exactly what I mean.

 

Bill Pearson – Advisory Panel Sun City Advocates