Longmont Concert Band Meeting Minutes

Longmont Concert Band Meeting Minutes

Board Member Meeting

Altona Middle School

Meeting Minutes: February 24, 2016

Board Members in Attendance: Zach Garcia, Gary Lloyd, Peter Alexander, J Mixer, Ida Newcomer, Lynn Scribner, Ann McCampbell, Sandy Sartin

Call to Order - 6:33 PM – Peter Alexander

Treasurer’s Report and Budget

Ida Newcomer - We have money! (Did not bring details.)

Report from Vision Committee

Ida Newcomer - We did renew our articles of incorporation.

Peter Alexander - The question has come up in Vision Committee meetings whether the Board has the authority to change the bylaws. I have read the Colorado Statutes, and “Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws” is stated in each area. This implies that the Board does have that authority.

Having board members in the vision committee will help make sure our voice is still represented in the committee.

Some other issues regarding bylaws:

#7 - It is good practice to keep your bylaws current. It is also recommended that boards keep bylaws general and reserve details for policies. An example of something that we don’t want in our bylaws would be to keep music organized in folders because if that doesn’t happen, we would be in violation of the bylaws.

There is a distinction between non-profits with voting members who elect their borads, as opposed to self-perpetuating boards that select their own members.

POtential troubles with having members vote on every issue: Voting memberships can be fickle. And we would need to keep an accurate record of the number of members eligible for every vote.

The only legal requirement for board officers in the statutes is that be a President, Treasurer and Secretary, as currently stated in the bylaws.

Here is the issue that has been raised about the bylaws: Changes made by the Board in 2013 weren’t voted on by the band members, and Scott McLaughlin believes this makes those changes invalid and illegal.

Ida Newcomer - Scott raises an interesting issue here. We started as a group of friends that got together to play their instruments, to a group that has grown much larger in size. We must adapt as a band because the group runs differently now than when we had originally started.

Gary Lloyd - The vision committee needs to take a vote on specific changes and suggestions. We don’t need an obstructionist way to bring things up like this up.

Ida Newcomer - Maybe our first point is that we ask the vision committee to recommend that we bring this up to the board. Scott wants to go back to the old bylaws and the way things were.

Peter Alexander - If the director so operates in a way that the membership find it unpleasant to participate, that this be brought up to the board for a change.

Gary Lloyd - When I discussed changes with the board, it was my desire to have section leaders and put some policies together, which the board approved of.

If he wants to have everything approved by the band, then the vision committee needs to talk about that. I would like to see this come out of the vision committee.

Peter Alexander - We would like the vision committee to recommend some kind of clarification on these issues and that we propose to see a difference between policy and how you draw that line of the membership being able to vote on each policy. There is question on whether there is a specific distinction between bylaws and policy.

J Mixer - We need to define the difference between bylaws and policy.

Peter Alexander - #9 - Reserve the details for policies, not bylaws. Some organizations of bylaw committees.

Gary Lloyd - Or grievance committees.

Ida Newcomer - These are the bylaws, these are the issues that have been raised, lets vote on it.

J Mixer - I move to table the discussion to our next meeting

motion seconded

Gary Lloyd - The next two vision committee meeting are on March 2nd and March 16th. Our next board meeting is on March 23rd.

Adjournment - 7:05pm

Meeting adjourned