Rod,
In addition to your comments, the most
significant thing about one of our agendas is that it doesn’t typically
contain the detail of any topic that will be considered. We as well paste them
on the walls of restrooms all over the country. This would really confuse
everyone. Ya can’t tell the players (actual topics) without a program
(the reports). I like it this way, myself. J
In all sincerity and goodwill I will now
tell you to “go dry up.”
73,
Jim
Jim Weaver, K8JE,
Director
ARRL
E-mail: k8je@arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142
ARRL -
The Reason Amateur Radio Is!
Members -
The Reason ARRL Is!
From: Rod Stafford W6R
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008
10:19 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:16405] Re:Board
meeting agenda, SM question
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 W6R
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
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
Thanks and 73,
Brian N5ZGT
Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/rodstaffordphotography