Minutes for the SNOW Coordinating Committee

Date: Mon. June 9, 2003

Attending: Jay Gerring, John Bito, Ellen Buvarnik, Mike Yarrow, Will Rose, Jean Buskin, Brenda Collier.
Guests: Adam Klepper, Burt Sachs

• Burt Sachs gave a brief overview of the visit of Cathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, who will be in Seattle area June 10-14. CC voted to ENDORSE her speaking events, where she will be talking about Iraq: Before, During, and After the war. Burt is still looking for a venue for her Sunday evening event.
• Brenda gave a financial overview and handed around a report. Brought the CC up to date on the non-profit registration process and tax ID application. Howard Gale, as the original signer of the registration, has signed a new form with Articles of Registration, and Brenda requested some help in determining whose names to include on the new document as officers; also there will be an issue of who may sign bank and other financial documents, which will be discussed at another meeting.
• Adam Klepper was introduced: an FOR summer intern from Grinnell College. He will be helping out in the FOR office and will be helpful in various ways with SNOW as well.
• Draft bylaws: Will R. provided an overview of the draft bylaws he had drawn up. A point-by-point discussion followed:
  • John B. began by asking for a general discussion and clarification of why this issue is before us at this time. Neighborhoods groups in John's area wish for more involvement in decision-making. This should be taken into account in finalizing bylaws. Some discussion of how this might be accomplished:
    • more support and encouragement to liaisons, plus finalizing additional 2 liaison positions.
    • Better communication channels.
    • Integration with work of the organizer.
    • invite more participation on the website.
    • hold an "expanded" CC meeting on the outreach theme and invite members to attend.
  • Brenda asked that the bylaws be simplified greatly, and not deal with the question of membership now at all.
  • Ellen B. recommended draft version be edited vastly, and Jay suggested portions of it edited be saved and put out to general membership as proposals for consideration. John B. added that some of his neighborhoods have requested a general vote on bylaws.
  • Mike Y. raised the question of whether the CC is taking too much on itself, and Jean offered that we might leave the entire bylaws till after a general discussion.
  • Will R. defended the need for at least some protections in the current bylaws to protect the organization from any kind of "hostile takeover".
  • Ellen B. reiterated the need for a procedure for putting out invitations to everyone to attend the general meetings. There has been a precedent of pro-active participation in meetings, with the CC following recommendations from the general membership. The role of CC vis-à-vis membership needs to be clarified.
• Membership - this proved to be one of the thornier points: include any mention of it or not?
  • The CC agrees that SNOW is a membership organization and that a process is yet to be determined for establishing the criteria.
  • Initial membership exists de facto, but a specific proposal for criteria is needed anyway.
  • Mike Y. suggests include a brief description of what constitutes membership in the Membership section.
  • It was suggested that the section be dropped altogether, but that elsewhere SNOW be referred to as a "membership organization" in order to establish that fact in the bylaws without further elaboration.
  • Jean proposes a simple statement indicating that membership consists of a group having agreed to the Points of Agreement.
  • Ellen B. insists that SNOW will automatically "lose" a lot of groups who are currently active without having formally agreed to the points.
  • Jean read a statement as a proposal that would not exclude anyone, but remain affiliated. This was voted on and REJECTED, 4-3.
  • A motion was made and vote held to simply drop all mention of membership in the current bylaws pending further discussion in general meeting: PASSED 6-1.
• Remaining points in bylaws were edited with relatively little disagreement
  • It was decided not to specify roles of officers at this time and the descriptions were removed. It is AGREED that the treasurer need not be a board member. The treasurer will make a monthly report to the board.
  • Supermajority was chosen as the term to designate how votes will be decided, and this is understood to be 75% of quorum.
  • There was an attempt to nominate individuals for officers of the board, or at least one such officer so that the application could be finished for the tax ID, which would enable Brenda to complete the process and file only one W-2 form for webmaster Spencer Sundell. It was felt the hour was too late to make this decision on short notice, and Brenda graciously agreed to go ahead and make initial payroll to Spencer under FOR, then later under SNOW.
• Ellen B. reported on process of finding a replacement for her on CC - person who had agreed to take over withdrew, and Ellen asked for assistance in how to proceed.

• Hiring Committee reported no answer had come from the person selected who had been offered the position of organizer - will report more next week.

• Action Committee - draft message and actions made available to committee for discussion at next meeting.

• Location of next meeting: still TBA - Ruth will let CC know as soon as this is determined

Minutes by Will Rose