User:Kc8nod/Remote Voting Proposal
Hi All,
As discussed many times before, the membership would generally like to have a mechanism to make decisions and hold votes without having to hold a traditional, physical meeting. The intension is to have this in addition to regular meetings, not as a replacement for regular meetings.
However, it is hoped that in practice, many decisions would be made online since 1. it allows everyone to participate, and 2. it would take a lot of the tedium and acrimony out of the meetings.
The bylaws already allow voting outside of meetings by written ballot. It seems easiest to adapt those rules to apply to some other online method.
Proposal 1. Amend Article 4, Section 8 of the bylaws: (additions are in green)
Section 8. Action by Written or Electronic Ballot
Except as otherwise provided under the articles of incorporation, these bylaws, or provisions of law, any action which may be taken at any regular or special meeting of members may be taken without a meeting if the corporation distributes a written or electronic ballot to each member entitled to vote on the matter. The ballot shall:
- set forth the proposed action;
- provide an opportunity to specify approval or disapproval of each proposal;
- indicate the number of responses needed to meet the quorum requirement and, except for ballots soliciting votes for the election of directors, state the percentage of approvals necessary to pass the measure submitted; and
- shall specify the date by which the ballot must be received by the corporation in order to be counted. The date set shall afford members a reasonable time within which to return the ballots to the corporation.
Ballots shall be mailed or delivered in the manner required for giving notice of membership meetings as specified in these bylaws, or delivered by other method approved by the membership. Approval of action by written ballot shall be valid only when the number of votes cast by ballot within the time period specified equals or exceeds the quorum required to be present at a meeting authorizing the action, and the number of approvals equals or exceeds the number of votes that would be required to approve the action at a meeting at which the total number of votes cast was the same as the number of votes cast by ballot. Directors and officers may be elected by written ballot. Such ballots for the election of directors shall list the persons nominated at the time the ballots are mailed or delivered.
Once that change is made, it looks like we're all set to adopt electronic voting. Therefore, I'll propose the following.
Adopt the following standing rule.
Electronic Voting
Electronic Voting outside of a regular meeting shall be conducted via the google group http://groups.google.com/group/i3Detroit. Motions to vote shall be made by a member in good standing and seconded by a member in good standing. A ballot, as described in Article 4, section 8 of the bylaws shall be posted only by the Secretary. Votes shall be posted to the list and shall contain the full text of the ballot. The Secretary shall decide questions regarding the validity of electronic votes.
I think this is a pretty straightforward system. Only the Secretary will send out ballots for you to vote on. If you don't pay attention to all the mailing list chatter, you can just watch for messages from the Secretary and you'll never miss a vote.
Also, since you are required to copy and paste the text of the ballot in to your vote message, there will be no confusion as to what you are voting on.
