[Genealib] Genealogy society question

[Peggy Tegel]

Sometimes common sense has to prevail. Whatever your bylaws may say, in
an emergency like this, of course rescheduling is the best option. It
would involve notifying your members, but you can save on costs by using
the emails of those you have (perhaps with an instruction for them to
reply with a simple "Got it!" so you know they did), and mailing to the
rest.
 
Then over the next year, you can work on amending your bylaws to provide
parameters for rescheduling in case of extreme emergencies. It's also
good to have provisions for the calling of a special meeting by either
the Board or by the membership, which usually occurs only when something
controversial is going on but could also be an additional cover in
emergency situations.
 
Here's a personal opinion that comes from working with a number of
different types of genealogical societies, both local and national: As
far as paper ballots, if you're going to work on your bylaws, you might
consider instituting those anyway. It's more fair for all the members to
be able to vote on officers and bylaws amendments rather than only those
who are able to come to the Annual Meeting. I don't know how extensive
your reports are, but the important ones (President, Treasurer,
Nominating) could be included as part of the newsletter that goes out
just prior to the meeting. 
 
Peggy Tegel
Oswego Public Library District
Oswego, Illinois
 

________________________________

From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Judy Riffel
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 8:57 AM
To: genealib
Subject: [Genealib] Genealogy society question


This may not be the proper mailing list to ask this question, but I
believe many of you work closely with your local genealogical societies
and may be able to give me some advice.  We're here in South Louisiana
and have had to cancel our annual meeting because of Hurricanes Gustav
and Ike.  When our bylaws were drawn up over 30 years ago, apparently
hurricane season did not occur to anyone.  As a result, we have few
alternatives.
 
We plan to amend our bylaws to deal with this.  Some alternatives I've
thought of are to simply let the current officers serve another year
(the easiest and cheapest), allow for rescheduling, or mail out reports
and paper ballots.  The last two involve additional mailing expenses
that we'd rather avoid.  A little more than half of our nearly 600
members have e-mail, so we cannot reach them all electronically.
 
Thanks for any suggestions and advice you can give me.
 
Judy Riffel
Le Comite des Archives de la Louisiane, Inc.
Baton Rouge, LA (happy to have her electricity back)
 
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