Unofficial Ground Rules

[Bro.Said]

This is a formal committee (Roberts Rules calls it a Committee of the Whole) with no official chairman. We can be informal, but we can keep proposed amendments uniform by following a certain procedure. The way this forum works I think it will keep down confusion if we discuss or debate issues concerning each article in it's own thread. Can we keep it that way, please? Let's not create a "Discussion of Article One" thread.  Let's try not to discuss an article at length outside of it's thread. And if you want to make amendments, that is , if you want to alter, strike, or make additions of words, phrases, clauses, or whole paragraphs  - can we make and keep our purposes clear?

For example, if you want to alter Article One:
1. Quote it 

ARTICLE I
Location
The principal executive office of the corporation in the State of Illinois shall be located in the City of Berwyn and County of Cook. The corporation may have such other offices, either within or without the State of Illinois, as the Executive Council may from time to time determine or the business of the corporation may require.
 
 

2. Then state your purpose: MOVE TO STRIKE "state of Illinois"

ARTICLE I
Location
The principal executive office of the corporation in the State of Illinois shall be located in the City of Berwyn and County of Cook. The corporation may have such other offices, either within or without the State of Illinois, as the Executive Council may from time to time determine or the business of the corporation may require.
 
 

3. Or: move to ALTER all occurences of "Executive Council" to the " High Poetry Slam Command". 

4. Or: move to ADD "or whatever" after every occurence of corporation:

The principal executive office of the corporation or whatever in the State of Illinois shall be located in the City of Berwyn and County of Cook. The corporation or whatever may have such other offices, either within or without the State of Illinois, as the Executive Council may from time to time determine or the business of the corporation or whatever may require.

5. THEN let the discussion ensue. This way people know exactly  what they are discussing and can keep discussions focused.

I've purposely used somewhat humourous or ridiculous examples above. I don't mean to imply that we all play around with the bylaws. I hope we all try to keep proposals serious and keep debate respectful.


[Topic Stickied -hellslam]

[Delrica]

To Quote, simply press the quote button within the thread and then type either above the [ quote ] or below the [ / quote ].

Just adding on here, Said. I noticed folks tend to go inside and then...well, you get the point.

Thanks for starting us out with the starter threads.

[Bro.Said]

You're welcome, Del. Glad to see you participating already!

[Delrica]

Leadership starts at the top, does it not?

[Scott Woods]

An excellent addition to the forums, sir.

[Delrica]

Sorry, one more thing...

The procedural order of how a change to the bylaws takes place is:

Change to bylaw gets proposed to EC. If EC approves change, then recommended change is put to approval by SM council at either the spring or summer meeting. Once it passes the SM council, it is then put to vote at the annual Slam Family (SF) meeting.

Even though this forum is currently set up for discussion and suggestion of changes to bylaws, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew how it works so that when they don't see the changes to bylaws happening for a year there is no question as to why that is.

[Steve]

Actually, the approval process can happen in any order, but all three have to approve. Some past bylaws proposals have passed one or two bodies and failed to pass the third, thus, they do not get adopted.

[Bro.Said]

Just a reminder: the bylaws here are NOT up to date. I've been meaning to update them to reflect the most up to date version.

But when I downloaded a copy of the most up to date bylaws from the online store, they were in PDF format, so I couldn't copy and paste the text of the up to date bylaws here. I didn't have the time or patience to figure out why. Adobe has a "convert to text" application, but it wasn't working for me.

If somebody among the powers that be here would update the bylaws here, it would be much appreciated.

[Steve]

Here they are in the most recent version. I am not clear on Article III, Sec 4. Have all bodies passed an amendment to make replacement of EC members automatic?

[Bro.Said]

Don't know about the amendment. But thanks for the download.