Brian
I have some comments and observations regarding the comments made by the
New Mexico SM.
Since he's apparently just been elected maybe he can be excused for not
being aware that the ARRL Board meets the 3rd Friday and Saturday EVERY
January and July. I would be very surprised if an Annual or a
Second ARRL Board meeting snuck up on any SM and took them by
surprise.
That having been said, it seems to me if an SM has a particular issue to
bring to the attention of the ARRL Board then they certainly should know
who to contact, i.e. their very own director.
I have to chuckle a little about the comment that "a lot" of
SMs were upset because they didn't get the agenda before the
meeting. SMs have never got the agenda before the meeting!
Maybe they've been upset all these years and didn't say anything.
;)
That's not to say I agree they shouldn't get it. It just hasn't
been done.
If the agenda has something on it related to the Field Organization, it
usually doesn't get as far as the Board meeting without the SMs giving
input.
You might also point out the minutes of all the ARRL Board Meetings that
can be seen on the ARRL web site. As a part of the minutes, the
agenda for the meeting is always set out in general terms. I would
point out to him that the nearly identical pro forma agenda varies very
little from meeting to meeting. That will give him an idea what
will be on the agenda for July.
We talked about Long Range Planning this past meeting including the
original LRPC came up with "cabinet meetings" where the
director gets the SMs and Asst Directors together a couple of times a
year just before the Board meetings to discuss the upcoming meeting and
issues that might arise. I know since the early 80's that's been
going on in the Pacific Division and I think Bob Vallio still does
that. I believe quite a few of the directors do the same.
Sorry if I'm a little testy, I've been stuck indoors for days with
continual rain. I'm getting cabin fever. hi hi
73, Rod W6ROD
p.s. The more I think about it I'm getting upset because I wasn't given
an agenda before the Board meetings when I was an SM.
Damn!
Come to think of it, if I had brought that issue up to my Director when I
was SM he likely would have said, "when we want your input, we'll
ask for it."
At 05:29 PM 1/26/2008, Brian Mileshosky wrote:
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
Rod Stafford W6ROD
Photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/rodstaffordphotography