Central Location, Meetings, and other stuff

mikeforte said:

Is this thread about meetings or wheelin spots???? Kinda got lost IMHO. Dont forget there is one heluva lot of Texas south of San Antonio and also west of it too.

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It's about both....the idea was that if we do have a face to face meeting we'd try and do it somewhere where we could wheel, too.

As far as the rest of Texas, you're absolutely right, but as of right now there are only approximately 3 people outside of the Houston / Dallas / Shreveport region, so thats the reason the Shiloh Ridge area is currently the front-runner for a possible meeting location. it's the closest thing to a mid-point from the majority of the membership.

That said, there appears to be some excellent spots in the west texas region (Trees Ranch, Katemcy Rocks, Satan's Playground) that will likely be part of one event or another eventually.

Kendrik said:

It's about both....the idea was that if we do have a face to face meeting we'd try and do it somewhere where we could wheel, too.

As far as the rest of Texas, you're absolutely right, but as of right now there are only approximately 3 people outside of the Houston / Dallas / Shreveport region, so thats the reason the Shiloh Ridge area is currently the front-runner for a possible meeting location. it's the closest thing to a mid-point from the majority of the membership.

That said, there appears to be some excellent spots in the west texas region (Trees Ranch, Katemcy Rocks, Satan's Playground) that will likely be part of one event or another eventually.

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For the future a meeting spot to wheel when we meet is just fine. Right now I think that the priority should be organizing first, meeting face to face second and wheeling a distant third.
If we don't get this chapter on solid ground before the interest wanes then we wont need steps two or three. I, like everyone on here, want to wheel but it is not my priority at this time. Organizing is. In the future we can do both at the same time but we haven't even established this chapter yet and everyone is ready to indulge their wishes and wants.
I hate to be the parent here but am probably the only one who is thinking this way right now. If, and that could be a big if, we get this chapter on its feet then there will be time for face to faces and partying (wheeling) events.
Baby steps, well thought out baby steps.

mikeforte said:

I hate to be the parent here but am probably the only one who is thinking this way right now. If, and that could be a big if, we get this chapter on its feet then there will be time for face to faces and partying (wheeling) events.
Baby steps, well thought out baby steps.

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Uhh...theres a half-dozen guys who have been working very hard to organize this chapter so I'm pretty sure you're NOT the only guy thinking that way.

We're all loooking forward to having an organized chapter, but the whole POINT of an organized chapter is so we have a bunch of guys to go wheeling with, so if it takes people being excited about hitting new places with new people to get them active with the chapter formation then its positive action.

Kendrik said:

Uhh...theres a half-dozen guys who have been working very hard to organize this chapter so I'm pretty sure you're NOT the only guy thinking that way.

We're all loooking forward to having an organized chapter, but the whole POINT of an organized chapter is so we have a bunch of guys to go wheeling with, so if it takes people being excited about hitting new places with new people to get them active with the chapter formation then its positive action.

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I agree that the partial purpose of the chapter is to have people to wheel with. My point is let's all concentrate on getting the chapter first, then meet and wheel. It can be done seperately. That way everyone is concentrating on the chapter organization first. Once that is established and on its feet, then we can meet and wheel. I also think that the membership roles of this chapter will swell once the organization phase is completed. Right now there seems to be maybe in the neighborhood of a dozen people working on this chapter. There are probably just as many or more who don't know of it yet and an equal or greater number who are sitting back watching to see if it actually materializes. I hope that makes my point a little clearer now.
I think I was unclear on that in my prior post. Sorry Chris

We have an unofficial run in Gilmer texas on the 13th of july. I will be there as will several others. We (the eligiible board members) will be getting together over the next few weeks and hashing out who will hold what positon (since there are only 4 eligible and one is in OK) and move on with chapter business.

The BOD will establish and ratify the bylaws and get us our own official chapter status. I then recommend that we hold full elections in January when a lot more of you who would like to run will be eligible for office.

As of today, I think you have more than 4 that are eligable now.

I certainly hope that you plan to run the proposed bylaws by the general membership a few times before establishing and ratifing them? I have been waiting for someone to post up a set of proposed bylaws here so I could have some fun.:jester:

goodburbon said:

We have an unofficial run in Gilmer texas on the 13th of july. I will be there as will several others. We (the eligiible board members) will be getting together over the next few weeks and hashing out who will hold what positon (since there are only 4 eligible and one is in OK) and move on with chapter business.

The BOD will establish and ratify the bylaws and get us our own official chapter status. I then recommend that we hold full elections in January when a lot more of you who would like to run will be eligible for office.

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How far away in time are we from a proposed set of bylaws? Are the membership going to be able to vote on them? How do you propose to set that up so you know everyone has had a chance to review them before a vote is taken? Who are those members who are allowed to vote on such an important set of rules? Will there be a list of chapter members so the secretary can PM them when something important is about to take place? Can we use the names on the post "Where is your 20"?
Lots of questions and I'm unsure who to direct them to.

lots of good questions, I'm in agreement with mikeforte on this, lets use the "20" thread as a starting point for who is who

I will try and answer some of these questions. So far the national guys and the new Arizona chapter have already offered us some guidance on writing our bylaws and there has been some limited public discussion here, but I have not seen anyone post a proposed set of bylaws yet.

The bylaws subject has its own thread already, and has had its own thread for nearly 2 weeks or more (I think), with out a lot of serious input from most of the membership yet. I am pretty sure once one of us gets the ball rolling with a proposed set of bylaws and posts it here, that it will get plenty of comment and discussion here.

I think goodburbon had just come to the conclusion it was something the rest of us did not want to be bothered with (details). Sometimes a comment like his can be quite useful at waking people up, which it seems to have done.

On the members issue, we have all pretty much already agreed that only paying national members of can vote. You can tell who they are by the color of their name/title being in red. The others (black or blue depending on browser settings) are non-dues paying forum members only, who can voice their opions here, but can vote unless they pay national dues and join as members of .

I think goodburbon is expecting that it might be easier and more expedicious to have a the BOD creat the bylaws, to speed things up. One of my thoughts is we should discuss how the bylaws get amended, the process that is, as it can be determined and added to the bylaws right now. Do want the BOD to handle the amendments by a majority vote of the BOD or do we want a general membership election to be required to modify the bylaws. This should be one of the key elements, and decisions we make about the bylaws. Also we should decide how a new bylaw gets proposed.

Aslo, if you read all the prior threads here, we have all pretty much agreed that the guys in Oklahoma, near the Texas boarder, and the guys in Loisiana (especially those close to Texas) can be voting members of this chapter. So far three of best officer candidates are not even in Texas currently, but they have been doing a lot of the work so far to get this chapter going, and they have been paid members for at least 12 months.

Where is your 20 is the current list of new chapter members, that is what it was set up for as I recall. Also Kendrick has been doing a great job of updating a google earth map of those "What is your 20 members" that have checked in for roll call there.

Kendrick,

does the google map include non-paid members?
I am guessing not, but I have not downloaded and installed google earth yet, so I can not view it yet.

mikeforte said:

How far away in time are we from a proposed set of bylaws? Are the membership going to be able to vote on them? How do you propose to set that up so you know everyone has had a chance to review them before a vote is taken? Who are those members who are allowed to vote on such an important set of rules? Will there be a list of chapter members so the secretary can PM them when something important is about to take place? Can we use the names on the post "Where is your 20"?
Lots of questions and I'm unsure who to direct them to.

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yes the map includes non members but there is a distinction made between the two I think.

Yes of course I recomend a public viewing and comment period before we ratify the Bylaws. The trouble with a vote though is that usually voter turnout is very low and we could spend weeks waiting for some members to check in and vote. Even then we are left with a yay or nay vote and if it is nay we are back at the drawing board with no chapter yet. Having a public review and comment time period would allow the membership their say in what should and should not be in the bylaws. The actual actual creation of the chapter should be an action of the BOD. The bylaws can be changed if need be and are not written in stone.

Ecomike said:

I will try and answer some of these questions. So far the national guys and the new Arizona chapter have already offered us some guidance on writing our bylaws and there has been some limited public discussion here, but I have not seen anyone post a proposed set of bylaws yet.

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Right on. The thread can be found here. There has been some input, and one vote on membership times as it pertains to BOD, but in general the consensus appeared to be that it should be mostly a copy of the national bylaws. If you have suggestions, then post them in that thread.

Ecomike said:

The bylaws subject has its own thread already, and has had its own thread for nearly 2 weeks or more (I think), with out a lot of serious input from most of the membership yet. I am pretty sure once one of us gets the ball rolling with a proposed set of bylaws and posts it here, that it will get plenty of comment and discussion here.

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There was a proposed set posted...sort of. It was just the national by-laws with some minor changes.

Ecomike said:

I think goodburbon is expecting that it might be easier and more expedicious to have a the BOD creat the bylaws, to speed things up.

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It was probably also related to the complete lack of participation in the Bylaw thread. I can't speak for him, but I simply assumed that no one wanted any major changes from the National By-laws because no one ASKED for any changes.

Ecomike said:

Where is your 20 is the current list of new chapter members, that is what it was set up for as I recall. Also Kendrick has been doing a great job of updating a google earth map of those "What is your 20 members" that have checked in for roll call there.

Kendrick,

does the google map include non-paid members?
I am guessing not, but I have not downloaded and installed google earth yet, so I can not view it yet.

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I'm glad you guys like the map. Yes, it does include non-paid members, but I "Red-named" the paid guys on the map so we could see who's who.

mikeforte said:

Will there be a list of chapter members so the secretary can PM them when something important is about to take place? Lots of questions and I'm unsure who to direct them to.

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We discussed having a REAL list of chapter members, including full contact information (Name, Address, Phone numbers, Email, etc.) to allow for offline contact for notification of important events.

As of right now, those sorts of questions are best directed to the membership at large as we still don't officially exist as a chapter. In other words, we all need to decide the answers to these questions as part of the formation and anyone who doesn't share their opinion is assumed to be in agreement. As my boss likes to say, "Silence equals consent".

Kendrik said:

We discussed having a REAL list of chapter members, including full contact information (Name, Address, Phone numbers, Email, etc.) to allow for offline contact for notification of important events.

As of right now, those sorts of questions are best directed to the membership at large as we still don't officially exist as a chapter. In other words, we all need to decide the answers to these questions as part of the formation and anyone who doesn't share their opinion is assumed to be in agreement. As my boss likes to say, "Silence equals consent".

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I agree with your boss so here goes. I propose that the secretary have all the above information on each member so that any kind of offline notification can be accomplished as needed for chapter business.
I further propose that paid members be allowed to vote on any topic which affects the chapters members and that a time limit be set on those members to get their votes in. Time limits to be determined by the BOD.
Last proposal, for now at least, Elections for BOD be held on the 10th of July to be voted on by the members by the 15th of July. Those wishing to hold office and are elgible to hold that office declare your selves by the 5th of July.

I've put a few questions out there for the eligible members, Once those are sorted we can decide wether or not the situation warrants a full election. There may only be 3 willing candidates and 3 positions, leaving us with only the decision of who is going to do what.

goodburbon said:

I've put a few questions out there for the eligible members, Once those are sorted we can decide wether or not the situation warrants a full election. There may only be 3 willing candidates and 3 positions, leaving us with only the decision of who is going to do what.

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Ecomike is saying we have at least 4 who are elgible to be candidates. Where can I find the questions you have posed for the members?