Meeting called to order at 1038h by K1DM
A quorum was recognized
K1DM ruled that in view of the principal topic for discussion the meeting would be governed by Roberts Rules and that business would be conducted with controlled debate.
Treasurer was absent but sent a report that the treasury was $487.56.
Contest report moved to the end of meeting.
MOTION: K1SD/NG1G moved (this convention of showing who moved and who seconded will be followed in these minutes for brevity) “CTRI CG will eliminate the sponsorship of all plaques”.
Discussion: Jim then argued against his own motion saying he would like to see sponsorship of plaques expanded if it were not for the shortage of funds.
K3IU: would rather give Members the opportunity to donate sufficient funds by Jan 1 to cover one year’s expenses, if this fails then revisit the issue.
W1XX: surprised by posting by NG1G on website listing the number of plaques we sponsor — we should review which we really need to sponsor.
W1PN: discussion is wandering away from the motion, we should vote before spending more time on a motion that may fail.
Action: K3IU/W1XX call the question.
Motion failed.
Effect: we do not want to stop sponsoring plaques. This raised the issue of how we can reconcile that with no source of funds.
Motion: W1PN/W1AN we should not agree to sponsor any plaque until we have money in hand to pay for it.
Discussion: NG1G argued that we need long term consistency of sponsorship because it works a hardship on contest sponsors to not know what we are going to do from year to year.
The nature of this motion made it obvious to the assembly that to rationally discuss the motion we had to grapple with the issue of how to have “money in hand to pay for it”.
W1PN: In the past we had essentially two sources of revenue: One revolved around Boxboro; the funds from there were returns on a raffle, and contributions from members for the sales of their equipment at the flea market table, the idea being you gave ten percent or more of the selling price, sometimes this happened and sometimes not. The other source, for example if we closed out a ham’s estate it was generally expected that ten percent of the proceeds would go to the club although in the case of the largest estate we received nothing from the heirs. There are no other sources of funds. Both external and internal forces have eliminated Boxboro as a source of funds, and there isn’t anything we can do about the external forces and so far we have failed to do anything about the internal forces. So the only source of funds we have is the commission on the sale of members’ equipment, or of the direct donation of funds by members, or of dues. There are no others, and it is a waste of time to talk about them as if they existed.
KB1RFJ: Is there a group that is violently opposed to dues?
There followed a long, rambling, and sometime impassioned, discussion of the nature of the club and the role that no dues plays in that essence.
- Gentlemen’s club where we get together and help each other out.
- Don’t want dues to govern the club.
- We have always had dues; the dues were paid by the people who were willing to do the work.
- Theme of camaraderie.
- Don’t want to risk endangering camaraderie and sense of cooperation.
At last it became obvious to all of us that none wanted dues, and that all recognized we either had to eliminate all expenses (mostly plaques and website rental) or find another, assured, source of funds.
The chair called for a vote on what he characterized as “the no deficit spending motion”.
Motion passed 5/3
Whereupon Pat made the following motion.
Motion: NG1G/KB1RFJ CTRI CG will remain a no dues club.
Discussion: W1XX objected that is was not necessary since the Constitution provides we are a no dues club.
W1PN: it’s a vacuous motion, therefore there is no penalty for voting either way.
None, except the observations that the motion by Pat was vacuous but not a tautological question.
Motion passed without dissent
Motion: W1PN/KB1RFJ In view of the ongoing financial needs of the club that members be encouraged to make a planned contribution in lieu of dues of $30 to $50 per year.
Discussion: There were comments and questions characterized by:
- What does ‘planned’ mean.
- I am not in favor of specifying an amount. …
which prompted the following:
Motion to amend: W1XX/K3IU moved to amend the motion to omit the dollar amount.
Discussion: The crux of the discussion revolved around recognition that the circumstance of some members in these hard times made it difficult for them to contribute that amount. The rejoinder was that this is a suggested amount not a requirement and that it is informative to the members in that it highlights the approximate cost of operating the club divided by the number of most active members.
Motion to amend passed 5/2/1
Motion to amend: W1XX/KB1RFJ so that the motion shall reflect a date certain of January 1.
Discussion: extensive discussion before wording of the amendment had been established. Issues raised included:
- If no date certain is specified then nothing will happen.
- January 1 is not the right date, it should be in September.
- The date should be decided by the Executive Committee to allow for changing conditions.
- The Executive Committee never meets.
- There is a reason for choosing January 1. The new officers should have an opportunity to affect this and the issue of spending levels.
Motion to amend passed 7/1
Motion as amended: In view of the ongoing financial needs of the club that members be encouraged to make planned contributions by January 1 in lieu of dues.
Motion carried: unanimous.
W1PN made the suggestion that we take a few minutes to discuss the mechanics of implementing the motion that just passed.
W1PN: The motion on its face is not sufficiently explanatory for absent members to grasp what we are doing. A Q & A or exposition of some sort needs to be written that explains the elements of the issue and why we chose this way of approaching it, and how it will be implemented.
K1DM: I absolutely agree with that.
Motion: NG1G/W1XX That the Secretary, as a result of his eloquence, be assigned the task of a) informing the membership of the afore mentioned motion, and b) describing the mechanics of implementation and process of how that will take place, on WA1RR.ORG, and at the next club meeting which will be in November.
Discussion: K1SD objected that the first part was routine business and the Secretary’s responsibility to report.
K3IU: That’s pretty specific direction.
K1SD: The second part is your interpretation (addressing the Secretary, emphasis of speaker) of what the action is and the ramifications and the implementation policy, that is, your interpretation of what we intend to do to raise money. The first part is your job, Secretary Report, that doesn’t need to be a motion. The second part is …
NG1G: Well it is a motion, so we have to vote on it.
K1SD: The second part is, again, your interpretation (emphasis of speaker) of our intent and does that need to come back to an Executive Committee meeting, or is that just your interpretation of what we decided and how we’re gonna do it, and that’s it?
After some additional comments to clarify the meaning of the motion a vote was called.
Motion passed: unanimous
Contest Manager’s Report
See posting for October for details.
Respectfully submitted
Ed Haskell, W1PN, Secretary
Most excellent minutes, Ed. Thank you.
I thank the good Lord we don’t have to go through that kind of meeting very often.
73,
Pat, NG1G
Well done Ed.
The meeting itself was very stimulating. The dynamics were well defined. But the minutes top that! Very well written Ed. I think they very accurately reflect what was discussed and the outcome.
I, personally, think the decision on how to fund the Group is appropriate. Even more, the way the decision was made was an additional testament to this Group’s character. Well done.
73 James K1SD
I was not in attendance at this meeting, but if I had, I would have offered that although
monetary dues were never collected, members were expected to “pay dues” in the form of service
to other members. For example, to serve in work parties to repair, install, remove antenna systems of members. Sweat equity rather than monetary payment was what CTRI always expected from its members. Obviously, not everyone has equivalent physical ability, therefore contributions have always been made by members in a manner suitable to their ability.
73, Bob W1YRC