Blog of G. Scott Owen
This blog contains topics of general interest.
14 April 2007
Bylaws question
Leo,
Excellent points. For 1. you are correct in "the intention was that the
change in the number of Directors-at-Large becomes effective as of the
next election (for increases) or when current Directors' terms expire
(for decreases). " We should add this to the document.
For 2. I think the implicit assumption was that an appointed Director
would have voting powers. Maybe we could add to 6.2 the statement: "The
appointed Director would have the full set of rights and
responsibilities as the Director being replaced." or something like that.
Unfortunately, even though these are minor edits for clarification, I
don't think we can make them now. But, assuming these bylaws are
approved, we can make them then.
Thanks,
Scott
Leo Hourvitz wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> I was just reading the proposed bylaw changes, very interesting. I
> remember when some of these ideas first came up, it's good to see them
> getting to this stage.
>
> I had a question about the new bylaws, though (sorry if I missed
> somewhere to post these publicly -- I'm only emailing because I
> couldn't find a "discuss" button anywhere).
>
> 1. In Article 4.3, it says the the number of Directors-at-Large can be
> set by the EC via supermajority vote. However, it doesn't specify
> anything about when that would be effective. Is it effective
> immediately? Whatever your intent is, I think as a guiding document it
> would be much better if it was spelled out in the document. For
> instance, I assume that the intention was that the change in the
> number of Directors-at-Large becomes effective as of the next election
> (for increases) or when current Directors' terms expire (for
> decreases). Because changing the number of directors changes the
> voting members of the EC, it's kind of an important governance issue.
>
> 2. I think I understand the intent of the changes w.r.t. only elected
> members of the EC voting, which is awesome. However, I think there's a
> unintended consequence of the definitions. It says in Article 2.4 that
> only Directors vote, and it says in Article 2.2 that Directors are
> elected members of the EC. Therefore, I think that per these Bylaws,
> if there's a vacancy on the EC, and someone is appointed to fill out
> the term of the departed member, the newly appointed member of EC
> cannot vote (because they weren't elected, and therefore per Article
> 2.2 are not a "Director"). I'm guessing that wasn't the intention, but
> it seems like that's the implication of the current text?
>
> Thanks for all your work drafting and proposing these. I'm hoping
> (like you) that they'll make for an even more effective organization
> in the future!
>
> Leo
>
>
24 March 2007
Bylaws Discussion
This is a discussion of the proposed bylaws changes for Spring 2007.