QUESTION: Will the upcoming Board of Directors elections be in March or April this year (2017)?

[LisaSelk]

We seem to bounce between March and April for the Board of Directors elections (See: https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors). Since we have a couple of significant upcoming Committee Chairperson changes, I thought it would be nice for everyone to know which month we will be having the Board of Directors elections, so we can plan the semi-annual Committee Chairperson Elections to occur during the Members Meeting just prior to the annual Board of Directors Election meeting. Thanks!

Edit to clarify that I realize that all committee chairperson roles are very important. A better way to phrase it may have been to say that there are (_at least_) a couple of committee chairpersons who have already indicated that they plan on stepping down this spring; and, that those particular roles may prove difficult to fill - especially if we wait until the last minute to work on recruitment of their replacements.

For reference:

Logistics:
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/wanted-logistics-chair/16565?u=lisaselk

Creative Arts:

Fair warning- I will not be running for CA chair in March

I basically been dating DMS for the last two years This announcement isn’t coming out of anger or throwing up my hands at all. In all honesty I’m wanting to now take part in all the joyful avenues that are here. I believe by announcing this early it gives time for people to learn what I do/figure out what they want to do/ come up with an easy transition so things do go crazy aka purchasing/Expensify/online accounts/keys to the executive bathroom

[LisaSelk]

@AlexRhodes @Robert_Davidson
@lukeiamyourfather @ESmith @Lampy

[AlexRhodes]

The election will be April 22nd or 23rd with the first board meeting for the new board to be shortly after that. We haven’t decided which day exactly yet. It was originally going to be the 16th but we’re later informed that was Easter Sunday and could inconvenience people. The meetings to choose committee chairs should happen between the March board meeting and April board meeting.

[John_Marlow]

How is the timing of the election stipulated in our bylaws?

If the “rules” don’t prohibit it, I’d like to propose that in the future the board election should be held before the committee chair “elections”. Success or lack thereof in board elections can impact who runs/doesn’t run for committee chairs. It could also cause someone to suddenly their current committee chair position or become overwhelmed during the overlap period.

[PearceDunlap]

The election is just annual. The committee chair elections aren’t stipulated at all so we could move them to whatever we wanted.

I’d agree with your idea but with the current setup having the board be first, the new board has more interest in choosing chairs that they will have to work closely with over the next year.

If the chairs come first the old board may not look at the chair nominations as critically

[John_Marlow]

If the chairs come first the old board may not look at the chair nominations as critically

That makes sense and I hadn’t thought of that. I was thinking of it from the perspective of potentially not having candidates for the chairs.

[LisaSelk]

The meetings to choose committee chairs should happen between the March board meeting and April board meeting.

@AlexRhodes, is there any reason to not extend the time period for the committees to hold their meetings to vote on their chairperson to include the entire month of March? The reason I ask, is that there are already at least a couple of committee meetings that either have been, or will be, scheduled early in March - before the March Board meeting on March 19th. If that’s not acceptable for any reason, we probably need to reach out to the affected committees ASAP to suggest they either reschedule or plan on having two meetings in March. Thanks!

[LisaSelk]

@AlexRhodes, have you had a chance to think this over?

To be perfectly honest, I actually prefer Chris’ suggestion. It’s something that has been brought up in conversation during previous election cycles…

I’d like to propose that in the future the board election should be held before the committee chair “elections”. Success or lack thereof in board elections can impact who runs/doesn’t run for committee chairs. It could also cause someone to suddenly their current committee chair position or become overwhelmed during the overlap period.

It’s something that actually does come up when members are trying to decide whether they would like to run for a position on the board, or if they would rather run for a chairperson position.

The “issue” is, many members actually consider running for both and have a hard time deciding which one - because if they run for Chairperson and are voted in by the committee; but then also get voted in as a member of the board, then they either end up stepping down as the newly appointed chair - leaving the affected committee in a temporary hardship (needing to go through the process of voting someone else in) or they try to do both roles and get severely burned out (not to mention that many members, including myself, believe it’s best if at all possible that members not be chairs and board member at the same time for various reasons…),

It may be too late in the game to make a change from “committee chair spring votes first, followed by annual board of directors elections” - to what may be a better approach of trying “annual board of directors elections first, followed by the committee chair spring votes”… But, it’s definitely something that I would also support being changed.

Side Note: It would also be nice if we had a specific month set for both the annual board of directors elections and the bi-annual committee chairperson votes - so we will “just know” when to expect them. That’s something that can be discussed after all the spring voting has been done though…

So, I guess my questions at this time are:

• If we are going to hold the committee chairperson votes first, like we usually do, can committees schedule the meetings at any time during the entire month of March through the day before the Board of Directors elections which are currently planned to be in April (instead of “only” scheduled between the March and April Board Meetings…)?

• Alternatively, is there any chance at all that we can push the committee chairperson votes to May this year - to allow members who may be interested in running for the board to do so without putting the committee in a position to have to vote again if the member gets voted in on the board and steps down as the newly voted in chairperson?

Thanks!