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Bylaws changes
Download full text of the Cascade Bicycle Club's Bylaws (PDF)
09/21/2012: Two proposed bylaw revisions. Members, download your ballot here.
Proposal No. 1 - This bylaw change is to update Article VI Section 7 of the bylaws. The contents of this section were deleted by membership approval as part of the 2001 changes. Proposed change is to add:
ARTICLE VI SECTION 7. Any business at any membership meeting that requires voting by the membership must be balloted ahead of the meeting. Unless specified otherwise in these bylaws (such as for director or recall elections), ballots for items to be voted on at the meeting shall be provided along with the written announcement of the meeting and electronic voting shall be an option for completing a ballot.
Rationale: This change reflects that the as allowed by current bylaw club now has circa 14,000 members, and that allowing club business to be decided by 25 members is not good policy. With mandatory balloting, members can only bring issues before the entire membership by either asking or formally petitioning the board to convene an Article V Section 3 Special Business Meeting with a clear agenda and the precise issues to be decided.
Proposal No. 2 - A recommendation to strike Article V Section 2 in its entirety:
ARTICLE V SECTION 2. An Extraordinary Business Meeting may be called by the Board by giving at least thirty (30) days written notice of such a meeting to members. Any item of business may be considered and acted on at such a meeting. Non-receipt of a notice by any member shall not invalidate the proceedings of any Extraordinary Business Meeting.
Rationale: "Extraordinary Business Meetings" allowed for any business to be conducted, which mandatory balloting explicitly prevents. Extraordinary business meetings, which allow for an open agenda (e.g., motions to put before the membership could be proposed by the membership then and there), had been designed as the venue for the board to handle business that it wanted discussed by, and decided upon, by the membership itself. But the bylaws make no requirement that the meeting’s agenda be either announced or fixed ahead of the meeting, which could lead to poor governance. Mandatory balloting requires the board to give the entire membership, and not just those few who attend a meeting, a say in club business that the board has put before the membership. To put issues it wants the membership to decide before the membership, the board will have to call an Article V Section 3 Special Business Meeting, which requires all business to be conducted at the meeting to be announced along with the meeting.
06/20/2012: Bylaw change to allow online voting approved by members.
10/01/2011: Bylaw changes were announced on page three of the October 2011 Cascade Courier newsletter
9/20/2011: Read our FAQ about the proposed bylaw revisions
8/11/2011: Board announces proposed revisions to Cascade's bylaws
Cascade's Board of Directors is in the process of revising the club's bylaws. The bylaws were written for a much smaller club in an age before the internet; procedures that worked then, like bringing the membership together in a room to conduct club business, no longer make sense.
The board is proposing bylaw revisions in three areas:
1) The process for director recall;
2) The terms of board-appointed interim directors; and
3) The quorum required for the board to conduct club business.
You can read the full text of the proposed changes here. Members will be asked to vote on these proposed changes during the October 2011 election; they will appear collectively on the ballot along with this year's candidates for the board of directors. Ratifying the proposed changes will require a two-thirds majority vote.
10/01/2008: Download Cascade Bicycle Club's Bylaws (PDF) as amended through October 2008
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