Conversation with Tom Rothwell - LA Alumni Chapter

[Andrew Muehlfeld (Alpha - UIUC)]

I had a lengthy conversation with Tom Rothwell over the phone today.
Mr. Rothwell is leading merger opposition from the Los Angeles Alumni
Chapter, as well as opposition from HKN elders around the country.

I learned several interesting things during our phone conversation:

1) Mr. Rothwell is on the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, and has
been since 1962. He has heard nothing from the Board of Governors
about determining what fraction of approval is required for the
merger. He was startled when I told him Dr. Eisenstein planned to
move forward with 1/2. He affirmed that the merger clearly requires
3/4. I forwarded him all the emails Alpha and Beta sent to nationals
regarding the 1/2 v. 3/4 debate, all of which have been ignored by the
BoG. He said he would look into it.

2) Further, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee submitted items to
be ratified in student voting, regarding limits on how much chapters
can charge for induction fees. The content of the submission is
irrelevant. The Board of Governors ignored the Constitution and
Bylaws Committee, and seems to be disinterested in the contributions
and opinions of HKN's committee members who are not on the Board of
Governors.

3) In addition to serving on the Constitution and Bylaws Committee,
Mr. Rothwell chairs the Rituals Committee and Student Award
Committee. None of the HKN committee members were asked for their
thoughts on the merger. Furthermore, the Board of Governors did not
even notify committee members, except for the same emails sent to
students.

4) Mr. Rothwell wanted to ensure that all students know Dr. Eisenstein
was once President of IEEE. Dr. Eisenstein did mention this fact at
our March 7th meeting. I then brought it to his attention that both
Dr. Eisenstein and Dr. Moshe Kam, who is leading IEEE's merger
committee, are at Drexel University. His already high suspicion
jumped several levels, since it seems this merger is being pushed
through by a very small, tight-knight group of people.

5) Mr. Rothwell talked about the strength of LA's alumni chapter. It
was inspiring, and made me wish all big cities had an alumni chapter.
Hopefully he will elaborate for everyone when he contacts us (keep
reading).

6) Through discussion with Mr. Rothwell, and my own observations, the
BoG is in violation of our bylaws in two cases. Although
disappointing, decide for yourself how substantial these are.

6a) Title VII, Section 3: "The most recent version of the Constitution
and Bylaws shall be made available electronically to all members of
The Association." I have been unable to find the bylaws online, and
only have them because Mr. Rothwell sent them to me.

6b) Title II, Section 4, Item K: "The Executive Director shall arrange
and pay for an annual audit of the Association's accounts, shall mail
a copy to each Board member, and shall publish a summary of the audit
in the next issue of THE BRIDGE." The accountants made it clear that
they performed a "review" which is far less in depth than an "audit."
It seems that HKN is not auditing itself. According to Mr. Rothwell,
no summary of financial statements has been provided in the Bridge for
several years.

7) The LA Alumni Chapter plans to send a mass email to all chapters.
I provided Mr. Rothwell with our compiled list of contacts, so that
they do not need to start from scratch. You can expect to hear from
him in the next week or two.

Aaron posted an email from Mr. Rothwell which mentioned a package of
information. I have uploaded this three page document. The document
more or less coincides with all of the concerns that we have discussed
on the forum and at the meeting.

http://hknieeemerger.googlegroups.com/web/LA.Stance.doc?gda=MWjgYz4AAACBufWmrwRzIV3K4ZzdQaTH4BB9ahmPmV2t-JEX6LFhZmG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDQFtb31CU6PYIHJ_I0EsvTB

[Andrew Muehlfeld (Alpha - UIUC)]

I knew I would forget something:

The ECE Department Heads Association met for their annual conference
last week. The Board of Governors held its semi-annual meeting at the
same time, in the same place, since they would be there anyway.
According to the ECEDHA Agenda, there was no discussion of the
merger. President Irwin gave a presentation on something else, and
was obviously highly involved in the meeting. The Board of Governors
did not attempt (or tried and failed) to bring the merger to the
attention of department heads. Certainly a drastic change to most ECE
departments' two most prominent student organizations would be of
interest to department heads. Although Mr. Rothwell did not attend
most of the conference, he was there just before it ended to present
HKN awards at the awards ceremony. Mr. Rothwell spoke with UIUC's
department head briefly, and our department head had not heard of the
merger.

[dav...@gmail.com]

About point 6a, the constitution can be found online here:
http://hkn.org/about/governance.html

Whether it is the latest version or not, I am not sure, but I would
assume it to be.



On Mar 21, 10:23 pm, "Andrew Muehlfeld (Alpha - UIUC)"

> http://hknieeemerger.googlegroups.com/web/LA.Stance.doc?gda=MWjgYz4AA...

[Daniel Aguiar]

The issue is actually about the Bylaws. The BoG abides by a set of
bylaws, which are nowhere online. I had to specifically request them
from Nationals, and it appears that even those Bylaws were not the
most recent version. They look really similar, and I have to be
honest when I say I haven't looked at them in detail to find
differences, but the fact that I was given an old version is slightly
disturbing. I don't believe this or the fact that the Bylaws are not
available in general are signs of malicious intent on the part of the
BoG, but such oversights do not instill great degrees of confidence in
their managerial skills or attention to detail. These sorts of things
aren't at all necessary to well execute a complex agreement, like a
merger with another organization, or anything . . . oh wait . . .