Thanks for the note, Joel. I sent him an email explaining how things work (via committees, reports and presentations) and he was appreciative. We sit on the board of the Division's largest ham club (660 members) and have very, very specific agendas. For a small group (with respect to ARRL) that's easy to generate and work under. I think he was expecting the same sort of thing with ARRL. He certainly wasn't confrontational; I think just an honest question fueled by some discussion he had with other opinionated SMs. Nonetheless, we've got it squared away. Thanks for everybody's input. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division On Mon, 28 Jan 2008, Joel Harrison wrote:
Brian,
One other note. I know many of the Directors hold "cabinet meetings" with the SM's and other selected individuals in the Division or call the SM's on the phone a week or two prior to the board meeting to advise them of things we know are coming up and to also find out what is on their minds, etc.
You may want to discuss this with a few of the directors for some ideas for the future. Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that "a lot" of the SM's were angry about not knowing what was on the agenda. Maybe he was speaking about the Rocky Mountain Division SM's, but in any event I'm confident you can relieve any concerns or issues he may have.
73 Joel W5ZN
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From: Brian Mileshosky [mailto:n5zgt@swcp.com] Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 7:29 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: Board meeting agenda, SM question
All -
First, does anyone have an agenda for the last board meeting in electronic format? If so, can someone please send it to me?
We had a swapfest today and I was talking with New Mexico's newly elected Section Manager. He commented that 'a lot' of Section Managers were angry that they didn't know what was on the agenda for the board meeting in advance so they could provide input.
I explained that the agenda is pretty general, and the meeting is predominantly committee and officer reports, which then result in motions depending on the discussion that takes place. I don't know of a single motion (at least in my time on the board) that have been prepared in advance of the meeting, much less specific topics of discussion (outside of committee reports) such as the regulation by bandwidth topic - which was promoted as being a topic of the board meeting in advance. After offering this explanation his comment was to the effect of "that's not a good way to run a board meeting." Now, he's a great guy, brand new to the section manager job, not aware of how board meetings are conducted, and probably getting opinions from other opinionated section managers.
As for his "that's not a good way" comment, I don't know any better way to conduct our meetings unless we have a separate pre-meeting to cast things in concrete before we have the real board meeting.
Does anybody have a better explanation I can provide him? I'd like to share our agenda with him so he sees how general it is, with nearly nothing on it for advanced discussion other than the scheduled discussion of reports.
On a separate note, I think offering the SMs a summary of board decisions was a wise move, and we should consider giving them a heads up of what's to occur at future board meetings - as is appropriate, depending on the topic, and depending on if we ODVers know what's to be put on the table - so they don't feel isolated.
Thanks and 73,
Brian N5ZGT
ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division Rocky Mountain Division website: http://www.tribcsp.com/~arrlrm