Awards Banquet in April, Annual Meeting in May

Posted on HASnotes in May 2015
Written to the Board  in May 2013

I propose that we split our current May meeting into two parts: an 
Awards Banquet in April and an Annual Meeting in May.

The Awards Meeting would be everything we have have been doing in May 
except for the financial reporting and elections required by the bylaws 
to be in a May Annual Meeting. It would also have the Nominating 
Committee report required for April by the bylaws.

In addition to the financial reporting and elections the Annual Meeting 
would have a free hour or so for the Officers, other Board Members and 
Members to work together to improve Hartford Audubon. My goal is for 
this session to go far beyond a general discussion of complaints and 
suggestions.

Ideas can and should be developed and staffing requirements planned. My 
great hope is that people who come to feel strongly about the need for 
some activity will feel compelled to be part of the solution.

Every topic does not need to be discussed every year. The bylaws give 
the President sole responsibility for meeting agendas and rules so the 
format of the Annual Meeting can be quite flexible.  The President will 
be able tailor the meeting to very specific issues when that seems 
appropriate.  A bit of year to year variety would be a big plus.

Even if nobody ever volunteers for anything, the working together 
session should at least lessen the rather common belief that the Board 
is detached from the membership. I think it is also true that many 
members do not care at all what the Board does. The Board/Member divide 
is a serious problem we need to address.

This plan also totally solves two problems with the current May meeting: 
members will not have to buy dinner to vote and the banquet will not be 
in the prime travel season for migrating birds.

Finally, everything I have suggested here is completely consistent with 
our current bylaws. No bylaws changes are needed.

Please consider this proposal at the June Board meeting. A favorable 
decision then would allow the changes to be in the 2013-2014 Program Book.

Fred

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Ideas List

From the January 2010 issue of The Crest   One of my biggest pleasures in 2009 was seeing that the more information you give members the more they do. In particular, I have in mind Larry Lunden leading the Land Team, Sam Fried researching and documenting our legal and ethical situation with regard to the Niederwerfer house, Chris Fisher building access paths in our East Granby sanctuary and Arnie Cantor bringing a public-address system to our monthly meetings. Another response to new information is members regularly tell me “Hartford Audubon ought to do...……". The result I really like, though, is when a member sees a situation and decides "I can do this, it will be fun, I am going to do it". This presented a challenge – how to change "ought to" comments into "doing it" actions. As I thought about this, and it remains a worthy goal, it occurred to me that we should consider the"ought to" comments to be a valuable resource in their ...
Read more

Keeping Our Word

Posted on HASnotes in March 2011 After struggling with solving the Niederwerfer house problem for two years I have concluded that the way someone implements ethical standards into their decision making process is far and away the most significant influence on the decision they will make. The ethical concern with the disposition of the house centers on the promise we made to the Niederwerfers. More specifically, it is about the importance we attach to keeping our word. The difficulty is that “importance” has a range of possible values. It is not a simple on or off proposition. The good part, though, is that endpoints of the range are easy to identify. Here are the endpoints:  We will not make any decision that we know to be unethical, and  We will only make decisions we know to be ethical. The first endpoint is flexible and relaxed. It grants the freedom to choose from the largest number of options. There is no need to prove what you want to do is ethical. All...
Read more

Looking Toward the Hartford Audubon Future: Ideas to Consider, Revise and Expand

Posted on HASnotes in May 2016 I recently heard someone say we need to develop a plan for disposing of our sanctuaries because if we cannot get someone to be president next year we will be forced to shut down Hartford Audubon. That comment has led me to think about what can be done to make HAS a stronger organization by increasing the pool of people willing to serve as vice president. This is important because traditionally the vice president moves up to president after two years. There are two broad areas we can address: ·        Reduce the vice president’s work load, ·        Increase the number of active participating members. When I was asked to be vice president in February 2007, the first thing I asked is what would I have to do. Since the only thing I knew about the vice president was that they introduced speakers at the meetings, I was bit shocked to hear that I would also have to obtain the speakers, make the r...
Read more