Changes to By-laws
Kurt Striegel
Board:
Our By-Laws call for teaching football, wrestling, and cheerleading as noted below. According to 10.1 below there is a little more to changing the By-Laws by separating wrestling into a separate or sub organization within the club. It has to be voted on by the general membership, they have to all be notified of the proposed changes and the subsequent voting date. We also have to notify the general membership to vote on changing the by-laws. In other words, it is not just our vote. It has to be the vote of all general members to amend the By-Laws if we want to propose a change that we are no longer going to be teaching wrestling.
The question that needs to be asked is what is the motivation behind separating wrestling in some way from the rest of the club? After tonight’s meeting it appears that there were two reasons: Jennifer was upset with certain items in the wrestling budget and some issues unrelated to wrestling which have no logical bearing on this discussion.
If everyone noticed tonight we hammered out a budget that made sense based on the fact that it is no greater than what we project to have in revenues. We also provided to put money back into the club to help fund our general expenses. This is all wrestling or any sport should need and I think we all agree it should have been done long ago according to the By-Laws.
Highlights of By-Laws
Purpose
2.1. The specific purpose of the program is to familiarize all youth regardless of race, creed or national origin with the fundamentals of football, cheerleading, and wrestling; to provide and equal opportunity to participate in youth sports in a supervised, organized and safety orientated manner; to keep the welfare of the participants free of any adult ambition and personal glory; to emphasize fun, teamwork, charity and sportsmanship; to promote espirit de corp in the cCity of O’Fallon.
10.1. These Bylaws may be amended after approval of the general membership present at a Club meeting, by a simple majority. at any Club meeting by a vote of two-thirds of those eligible Club members present and voting and effective only after the date of said approval, provided that any such amendments are published previously at two (2) regular monthly meetings and that all the general membership was notified of the proposed change and subsequent voting date.
Kurt
Jennifer Dockins
All, there are a lot of issues here and I am in the process of having myself, my attorney and another corporate paralegal review the bylaws because I disagree with Kurt's assessment of the by-laws. If we are going by the books then we MUST for everything. With this being said, I want to put out a few proposals.
Todd S./John, please add my motion to renew the letter to remove Kurt as Wresting Director. I would like this issue to be addressed at our closed meeting. I understand we need a 2/3 vote to remove Kurt. Kurt has been given his letter and the issue was never voted on, therefore, we are still within our power to re-visit the motion. I didn't want to blindside Kurt so I am putting out my intentions and asking for it to be added to the agenda.
Also, according to the by-laws we must have 3 bids for any expenses over $1000, therefore, I am requesting that the singlets not be ordered until we have 3 bids for the singlets and have the opportunity to vote on them at the next board meeting.
The by-laws also state that head coaches must be approved by the Board. I am requesting that wrestling one head coach (according to Section 8.2) be brought up before the Board to be approved.
According to 8.2 there is allowed to be 4 assistants and one statistician. Therefore, accordingly to the by-laws I am requesting that only 6 coaches cards be paid for by the Board. Anything else would be out of line with our bylaws.
According to 8.7 I would also like a copy of the signed Coaches Code of Ethics at our next board meeting. Has background checks been ran as wrestling practices have already begun.
3.2 gives members the right to attend the Club general membership meetings and vote in the general election of Officers and Directors. This is the only voting rights according to 3.2.
4.6.1 Candidates shall be approved by a simple majority by the BOD prior to the placement on the official ballot. This means we need to hold a meeting after 11/15 for the BOD to vote on who should be allowed to be run on the ballot for each position except for VP.
6.6 All matters concerning the policy of the Club, unless otherwise stated in these bylaws, shall be decided by a vote of the BOD. A simply majority of those Directors present is required to pass a motion. Again, this gives the BOD the ability to sever a program if we deem its necessary.
10.1 - I am disputing Kurt's interpretation. My bylaws are a bit screwed up so before I give my analysis I am requesting a new copy of the Section 10.1. I think there is a loop hole here but will refrain from speaking until I have another copy from John or Todd S.
Jennifer Dockins
Cheerleading Director, Little Panthers
--- On Wed, 10/29/08, Kurt Striegel <kaps...@charter.net> wrote: |
Jennifer Dockins
After reviewing said By-laws there is no where in our Bylaws or with the Roberts Rules of Order that says we can't make a motion to severe a program. This Motion does NOT require changes to the bylaws so I think that issue needs to be taken off of the table. No one is asking for the bylaws to be changed because the bylaws doesn't address this issue. Again, we are dictated by 6.6 "all matters concerning the policy of the Club, unless otherwise stated in these Bylaws, shall be decided by a vote of the Board of Directors. A simply majority of those Directors present is required to pass a motion" Again, the Motion to Severe Wrestling is a matter concerning the Club, it is NOT otherwise stated in the Bylaws and it SHOULD be decided by a vote of the BOD.
Also, another issue for consideration (now that I had to spend an hour on Westlaw) is whether Kurt can even vote on the Motion to Severe Wrestling. According to Robert's Rules of Order, Section 46 "Voting", "It states it is a general rule that no one can vote on a question in which he has a direct personal or pecuniary interest."
I am available for any questions regarding the research that I have done. |
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Jennifer Dockins
Cheerleading Director, Little Panthers
--- On Wed, 10/29/08, Kurt Striegel <kaps...@charter.net> wrote: |
From: Kurt Striegel <kaps...@charter.net> |
Kurt Striegel
It does require a change to the By-Laws because the club would no longer be required to teach wrestling which is stated in our purpose. 6.6 doesn’t apply because the teaching of wrestling is otherwise stated in the By-Laws as part of our purpose just as teaching football or cheerleading is part of our purpose.
We all need to ask ourselves if we are losing our focus again. This is about the kids. I don’t care if I am wrestling director but wrestling is part of our club and we need to make sure we have capable people directing it just as with the other sports. If you do want to remove me, make sure that I have violated some legitimate policy too that was detrimental to the successful operation of the sports in this club. The fact of the matter is that nothing I have done has negatively impacted one football game, one cheering event, or the sale of a single hot dog. If you really want to get legalistic about removing people for violating By-Laws you might as well as recommend all of us for removal because we didn’t have budgets prepared by March 31st of 2008. If you do get a new wrestling Director make sure you find someone who is bronze or copper certified to do it, wants to deal with all the paperwork involved with wrestling, and get up about 5:00 AM every Saturday or Sunday morning to be the first one at the tournaments to register teams, etc. It is a great deal of work and quite frankly I do it because no one else wants to do it. I would rather just coach but someone has to handle the administrative side of things.
We voted on a budget last night folks for wrestling which has been the source of contention. We are now past that. We have three good sports that are part of this club. Let’s move on, see how smoothly things go from here on out now that we have a spending plan in place, and stop wasting our time. Jennifer, I don’t know why you want to waste everyone’s time on this stuff. What profit is there for the club to engage in all this visceral activity which you seem to want to take the lead on? Some of you are no longer going to be on the board next year. Please help leave the club in a state of harmony.
Kurt
Tim Dockins
Kurt,
If you think Jennifer is the only one who has a problem with what we discussed at the meeting you are wrong! She is only one of them. We are all tired of the constant emails back and fourth between you and whoever you are bickering with at that time. If it's not one person, then it's another! I would have thought after lastnights meeting you might chill out with the comments and all, but I guess I was wrong. It never stops with you! You just keep on going and going. Then you wonder why we would want to seperate the wrestling program. I think the answer to that should be clear!!!!
Tim |
From: Kurt Striegel <kaps...@charter.net> |
Jennifer Dockins
| Thanks babe! I have Kim looking at the paperwork tonight and also Jeff Millar is reviewing for me this weekend. If necessary I planned on bringing in Dale Funk (our original attorney) to review the documents and possibly attending Wednesday night's board meeting. |
Jennifer Dockins
Cheerleading Director, Little Panthers
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| --- On Thu, 10/30/08, Tim Dockins <cowboys...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
Kurt Striegel
Sent from my iPhone
Kurt Striegel
Meetings are closed after the first 30 minutes with no one allowed in the room except the board. Actually, unless the attorney is a member of the club he is not allowed to come to the general membership meeting since he/she isn’t a member. Bringing an attorney into our meeting is ridiculous anyway. I don’t think we need to have an attorney interpret By-Laws as they are pretty clear. This isn’t some complex legal document and we aren’t holding court. Besides, your attorney’s opinion will be biased as you are the one bringing him in anyway.
Common sense should tell anyone that if you are planning on dropping a sport which is named in the By-Laws of the club and it states that the general membership needs to vote on changing the By-Laws then that means we have to inform the general membership and then have them vote on it. Remember, the members have expectations of what sports our club provides and we can’t simply ambush them one day by telling them that we no longer offer wrestling. This is a big deal. We aren’t deciding to eliminate air fresheners in the bathrooms.
I think some in the wrestling community may actually want to be more independent but we need to do it the right way and follow the rules. However, the focus at the present time needs to be on wrestling as it is a part of our club. We approved a budget which needs to be executed this season for the sport.