Ohio LongArm Quilters
To explain some of the reasons for the changes made:
- The difference between By-Laws and Rules & Regulations is that the By-Laws require advance notice of the projected change being published 20 days prior to the vote. These would be ultra important changes for the group. The Rules & Regulations do not require any notice being published in advance. We could just discuss it at a meeting and take a vote and the change would be in effect. Therefore, I moved everything that is LIKELY to be changed in the near future to the Rules & Regulations, just to make it easier on us.
- Dues and Hostess Fee I moved the Dues figure ($20) and Hostess Fee figure ($3) to the Rules & Regulations because those will definitely change from time to time.
- Committees The By-Laws list the Standing Committees – those that are likely to be in existence for the life of the group. Those that may be eliminated in the future, I moved to the Rules & Regulations. All committees carry the same weight, but some will be Standing Committees and others will be Committees that could be eliminated. My thinking in moving the NEORQC Rep is that we could decide that we don’t want to be members or that we can’t get anyone to attend the meetings to represent us. Also the Trunk Show Coordinator was moved because we might decide that it is just too much work, or became too expensive.
- Participation Requirement We voted not to require members to attend a minimum of meetings per year. We agreed to require participation from each member in some way. This could be done in many ways even if the member is unable to attend many meetings. Being part of a committee is a good way to help out and fulfill the requirement. The officers will review the contributions of each member at the end of each membership year and they have the authority to terminate membership at their discretion.
- Membership We discussed all sorts of ideas including having Associate Members who wouldn’t be required to attend a set number of meetings, but we kept coming back to the problem of fitting everyone into a meeting room in the event everyone showed up for some special meeting. We want to have more programs (lectures, demos, hands-on lessons) and we have to be in someone’s studio or home where there is a longarm to do some of these things; most of us can’t fit in more than 20-25 people, and that will be a real stretch. It’s possible to transport a machine w/table to a larger building but it just isn’t something that we visualize doing. Some suggested, after the meeting was over, that we should have a rule against having children in attendance, so I added the 18-year-old minimum age. We did discuss having Vendor Partners. They would pay dues, participate on-line but have NO voting privleges and NOT be included in our 40 member guild limit. Who are they? Shop owners, teachers, suppliers, etc. They might offer us discounts or special privledges and we can promote their business on our website and in a newsletter (if that eventually happens).
- Voting on Website I changed the advance notice given for By-Law changes and Dissolution to 20 days (down from 4 weeks) so that the webmaster would have a few days to get the change notice on the website before the next meeting.