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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Reminder: Board Meeting - 11/8/09

There will be a board meeting tomorrow at the Atheneum, Saints Office, at 12:30 pm. It is requested that observers send an e-mail to the President prior to attending. There has still been no agenda distributed to the board members.

This site will continue to be available for comments from observers, board members, or members who have questions or concerns.

Recently, a motion was passed that approved minutes will be posted for member viewing on the Saints website five business days after they are approved. This means that if the minutes are approved at the meeting tomorrow, you should be able to view the minutes of the October meeting on November 13.

Preliminary review of the October minutes indicates that only motions and "decisions" made by the board are included - extensive discussions or concerns are not even referenced. You may need to continue coming to this blog or attending board meetings to know what is truly going on.

We have made progress but we have a long way to go before information is as accessible and complete as it needs to be.

It is time to start thinking about the next election and finding qualified candidates who are willing to speak up.

Stay tuned...

3 comments:

  1. I was there as an observer. All in all a typical Saints' Board meeting [note: that's not a compliment]. A couple of key observations:

    Approval of October minutes: One member had a change/correction to last month's minutes, but WAS OUTVOTED!!!! - The minutes were approved by a 4 to 2 vote, without that correction. In all my years involved with Boards, I've never seen minutes approved by majority vote. Minutes are now supposed to be posted on the website within 5 days of approval (by next Friday), but what good does that do if they're not accurate?

    Before the meeting adjourned, B.J. was kind enough - as he has done in the past - to allow the observers to speak. I asked about the request from the Bylaws Working Group for a copy of the current Standing Rules. [They're referred to in the bylaws but we've never been given a copy of what they are.] It became obvious that the Board doesn't even agree on what they are nor is there a single document listing them all. Novertheless Andy Lingras, Secretary, agreed to send the Working Group a copy of the Standing Rules, allowing for the fact that the list he sends may not be accurate.

    Another observer expressed concern that no Financial Statement has been published to the membership in two years. Again it became obvious that the current Board seems to be ignoring this issue. It wasn't an agenda item nor was it discussed. The current treasurer claims responsibility only for the current year and that such responsibility excludes issuing a Financial Statement that includes anything prior to this past June. The observer who asked the question originally stated the opinion that this should be a prime concern of the Board. Nobody thinks there are any shenanigans going on, but accurate Financial reporting is required by the government and shouldn't be ignored.

    If you've never sat in on a Board meeting, you really should.

    -Marvin

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  2. I sat in...it was an eye opener...others should also.

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  3. Please note - the Minutes of the October 2009 Board of Directors meeting are found, after logging into the SaintsChicago.org website under DOCUMENTS - MEMBERSHIP.

    Please address comments / questions to all board members, which can be easily done by going to COMMITTEES - Board of Directors and selecting "Send Email to Members."

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