John, With regard to your Open Meeting motion, I believe there are better ways to accomplish your objectives. Members desire to know not only what resolutions are passed during a Board meeting, but also to understand some of the reasoning and dialog that accompanied the discussion. In fact, many of us as Board members have been frustrated by the sparse nature of the minutes when trying to understand the reasoning of the Board after the fact. Though the current form of the minutes follows the guidance of Robert’s Rules of Order, this format is not serving us well—Board and members. The Committee on Communications has discussed this issue and agreed to propose a change in the form of our Board minutes. Essentially, this would change the “motion-only” format we now use to one which records salient points made during the Board’s discussion, usually with attribution to the person making the comments. This format would provide the reasoning behind motions while avoiding having to accommodate spectators. Most importantly, it would retain the ability of the Board to discuss items in a manner that, while not requiring a committee of the whole, would preserve the Board’s ability to engage in significant give-and-take during the Board meeting. The presence of observers would likely reduce or eliminate some of that dialog. The Committee on Communications will offer a motion to change the Board minutes as described above, including examples contrasting the current format with that proposed. The committee believes that this format will be the least disruptive to Board functioning, while providing useful information to members. I note as well that this change, if adopted, would not require an amendment to the Articles. 73, Greg, K0GW On Monday, December 16, 2019, John Robert Stratton <N5AUS@n5aus.com> wrote:
Ladies, Gentlemen and ARRL Secretary
Enclosed are two motions that I wish to have considered by the Board at the January meeting. The changes appear as underlines.
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John Robert Stratton
N5AUS
Director
West Gulf Division
Office: 512-445-6262
Cell: 512-426-2028
P.O. Box 2232
Austin, Texas 78768-2232
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