| Table of Contents |
| Date & Time | By | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1222 30 December 2011 | daa | Remove all items dealt with in the just-completed Standing Rules update, and purge them from the change log. |
| Remove previously-dealt-with By-Laws updates, and purge them from the change log. | ||
| Add a note about previous mishandling to the item about using the Regular-Member mailing list to provide notice. | ||
| Add a note about previous mishandling to the item about the President's ruling on Skylark voting. | ||
| 2225 1 October 2006 | daa | Update the item regarding using the Regular Members mailing list to provide required notice and move it to the candidates for updates to the By-Laws section. |
| Update the item regarding the President's ruling on Skylark voting. | ||
| 2325 3 May 2006 | daa | Add a vote regarding using the Regular Members mailing list to provide required notice to the candidates for updates to the Standing Rules. |
| More on the issue of division of responsibility between the Web and Computer committees, see also this extract from IM #736. | ||
| 0038 9 February 2006 | daa | Add the President's ruling on Skylark voting to the candidates for By-Laws updates. |
| 1257 6 October 2005 | daa | Add the appointments to the Oxford University Press advisory board to the candidates for updates to the Standing Rules. |
| 0117 15 September 2005 | daa | Add the Oxford University Press motion from the 11 September meeting to the candidates for updates to the Standing Rules. |
| Fix the motion concerning the Finance Committee recommendations. | ||
| 1815 12 September 2005 | daa | Add the Finance Committee recommendations from the 11 September meeting to the candidates for updates to the Standing Rules. |
| 1202 12 September 2005 | daa | Move the items reported to the September 11th Business Meeting (all those marked "Ready") to the "Approved changes not yet integrated" section, and purge any related change log entries. |
| 0126 21 July 2005 | daa | In the item from IM 736, add a bit more information about the division of responsibility between the Computer Committee and the Web Committee. |
| 2200 7 July 2005 | daa | In the item from IM 736, clarify (a bit) what we remember about the division of responsibility between the Computer Committee and the Web Committee. |
| 2330 17 June 2005 | daa | Implement change log |
Candidate items marked "(Ready)" are ready to be reported to a Business Meeting. Those marked "(Active)" are being discussed by the Rules Committee (and perhaps by other interested parties) and will be changed to "(Ready)" when the Rules Committee comes to agreement on them. Unmarked items are waiting for the Rules Committee to begin considering them. Anyone who has constructive comments on any of the "candidate" items should deliver them to the Rules Committee.
[None]
MSP: The membership deems that posting to the Nesfa Regular List to which all Regular Members subscribe to constitute adequate notice in this case.
["This case" is notice of a vote to transfer someone to Regular Membership.]
While this specific motion is about notice (as required by By-Laws section 1.2A) of a vote to transfer a member to Regular Membership there are many other requirements to give notice to members throughout the ByLaws. Since there is no good reason that this case should be handled differently from all of the others, any change should be to the definition of "giving notice" at By-Laws section 10.2(g).
The ByLaws require giving notice to members in By-Laws sections 1.2(c), 1.2A, 1.6, 1.8, 2.4, 3.8, 4.4, 5.7(c), 8.3(c), 8.3(d), 8.4(b), 8.4(d), 8.5, 9.3, and 9.5. Of these 15 instances, 9 are clearly to all members, 2 are to all officers, 2 are to specific affected members, 1 is an implicit reference to other sections, and only 1.2A is unclear (but is evidently intended to refer to all members, and should be fixed to explicitly do so).
Since 1.2A requires notice to all members, the original motion conflicts with the By-Laws and therefore has no effect – notice to only Regular Members is not sufficient. It is still a good idea to explicitly allow electronic notification by adding it to the list in 10.2(g) (it can be useful for notification to individual members, to the E-Board, etc.) though this is not required since 10.2(g) already allows "any other means .... calculated to reach them within a reasonable period of time" – but none of the existing email lists is suitable for general notification since none of them reaches all members.
[A previous Rules Committee "handled" this by adding an annotation to By-Laws section 1.2A; this annotation should be removed as it contradicts the text and so has no effect.]
Modify By-Laws section 10.2(g) with insertions and insertions as marked:
Written notice or notification is "given" to persons when it is
published in the newsletter of the Corporation or sent in a notice to Members, or is left with them in person or with persons
living with them, or is mailed to them at their last and usual address as
listed in NESFA's records, or is sent via electronic mail to their email
address as listed in NESFA'a records, or if and when it is sent by
telegraph or other carrier, or if and when it is sent to them by any other
means. Any means enumerated in this subsection and used to give any notice to
any person must be calculated to reach them within a reasonable period of
time.
[Shortened 3/81, omitting "left at their residence or
usual place of work". Then in 1/87 the "published in the newsletter
... sent in a notice" clause was added: cf. Section 1.10. 11/06: added electronic mail to the
list of specifically-allowed techniques.]
Modify By-Laws section 1.2A with insertions and insertions as marked:
Admission to membership, or transfer from one class of membership to
another, is accomplished by vote of the Membership, except as provided in Sections 1.8 and 1.9. One
week's written notice of such a vote will be
given to all members.
[First sentence added 9/75 (the "vote of the
Membership" requirement was previously in an introductory clause to
Section 1.3), revised 4/82 (passage of Section
1.9). A requirement of two weeks' written
notice was added in 9/82, reduced to one week in 4/83. 11/06: clarify
wording – notice must be given to all members.]
The President ruled that the By-Laws governing voting on the Skylark Award which require that the administrator set the deadline at least one month after the ballot is distributed do not restrict the Membership if it chooses to override the administrator. [Note that this action was not reported in Instant Message.]
The second sentence of By-Laws section 11.5(a) already allows the Membership to change the time limits in any way it sees fit (by a 2/3 vote) before the administrator sets the dates, but there is no provision in the By-Laws allowing the Membership to override the administrator.
We should add a general provision allowing the Membership to override any Committee or the holder of any appointed position, similar to the existing one (section 5.3) allowing the Membership to override the EBoard and allowing the Membership or EBoard to override any Officer.
Also, the text of 11.5(a) does not clearly state whether the change is temporary or permanent; since a permanent change would be the equivalent of a By-Laws amendment, only a temporary change is presumably intended – but this should be made explicit.
[A previous Rules Committee "handled" this by adding an annotation to By-Laws section 11.5(a); this annotation should be removed in favor of a proper update.]
Add to By-Laws section 11.5(c) the annotation See also 11.5(a) regarding the length of time nominations must remain open.
Add to By-Laws section 11.5(e) the annotation See also 11.5(a) regarding the length of time voting must remain open.
Add new By-Laws section 6.9:
6.9 Each committee, appointee, or agency created under the authority of By-Laws sections 6.1 or 6.6 or named elsewhere in these By-Laws:
(a) If it reports on its activities at a meeting of the Membership, may have any matter contained in that report voted on by the Membership.
(b) Is bound by any decision voted by the Membership.
(c) May have any decision it has already taken overruled by a majority vote of the Membership.
[11/06: Provide for overrides by the Membership of committees, holders of appointed positions, etc. (Based on the provision for overriding the E-Board or an Officer in By-Laws section 5.3.)]
Modify By-Laws section 11.5(a) with insertions and insertions as marked:
The Administrator shall fix the deadline
for the closing of nominations and for the return of ballots within the time
limits set forth in this section. The Membership may change the nominating or voting
time limits for the current year by two-thirds vote.
[Second sentence added as escape clause in 12/91. Here and in
later subsections, "Administrator" replaced "Boskone
Committee" when subsection (h) was added in 6/81. 11/06: clarify that
any changes by the Membership are temporary.]
[None]
TBD
Tony and Mark have been appointed to the Oxford University post. This is not necessarily the only appointments.
TBD
TBD
MSP Moved that the Membership approve of this report in principle and direct that the Rules and Finance Committees put it into proper language.
The job of the Treasurer has grown over the years so that it is more than one person can handle by themselves. It is therefore a recommendation of the Finance Committee that there be a fundamental change in the Committee's responsibilities. We believe that the Finance Committee should take a more active role in assisting the Treasurers of NESFA and Boskone. Accordingly we propose the following changes:
TBD
TBD
MSP Moved that the Oxford University Press (OUP) project be done under the following rules:
TBD
TBD
The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz is now discountable -- just like all of our other books.
[Fold this into the needed general rewrite of the discount rules.]
[[reorganization of Boskone chart of accounts, etc, referred to Finance committee -- never reported on?]]
[Get the info and add it to section 2.7? Better, add it to the new Treasury/ section of the website.]
Short Story contest (Suford Lewis): I am preparing a few minor changes to
our rules, tightening and modernizing them and publicizing that we send out
readers comments.
1 -- Eligibility: an amateur is a writer who has received less than $100
cumulative total for fiction of any length or genre.
2 -- Requirements: eliminate references to non-proportional fonts and A4 paper.
3 -- Submission: to explicitly allow, even encourage, email submission.
4 -- Privileges: to eliminate publication in PB as part of the winner's
privilege since PB has not been published in a while and if PB becomes a
webzine it could endanger a story's salability.
5 -- Benefits of Entry: to publicize the returned comments of the first readers
as a benefit of entry and to require more strongly that the first readers
produce them, as unbiased critique is both one of our contributions to
improving the writers and the hardest thing for them to find.
[See 1.29(2).]
Moved to amend the By-Laws by suspending section 11.5 for the September 1996
Business Meeting.
MSP (George Flynn) to go into Executive Session.
Minutes of the Executive Session
[This is all intended to be a surprise for Hal Clement who, as a
formerly-active and currently-honorary member of NESFA, receives and reads IM.
Please do not distribute or discuss this in any way that he might hear of
before the award is presented at Boskone.]
[Section 11.5 of the NESFA By-Laws is the section which controls the awarding
of the Skylark.]
Joe Rico yielded the floor to Mark Olson.
Mark Olson said at the last meeting that he proposed to award the Skylark a
second time to Hal Clement. The Skylark is normally only awarded once but there
is nothing in the rules to prohibit doing it a second time. A 2/3 vote will
suspend section 11.5 and then a majority vote will be sufficient. I ask for a
simple show of hands to state if you are comfortable with doing this. If 5 or
more are uncomfortable with it I will drop this and place Hal's name on the
Skylark ballot and hope enough members will vote him first.
Hands were raised, with fewer than 5 against.
MSP (Mark Olson) to award this year's Skylark to Hal Clement. Priscilla added
that the Skylark Administrator, Deb Geisler, knows about this and approves.
MSP (George Flynn) that no other Skylark be awarded this year. George also
noted that the Clerk be directed to send a separate page in IM to Regular
Members only informing them of what occurred in Executive Session and
requesting them not to discuss this as we want it to be a surprise for Hal.
MSP (Tim Szczesuil) to leave Executive Session.
[This should be recorded for posterity someplace, but doesn't seem appropriate for Appendix A. George suggests that a brief account be added as an annotation to section 11.5 of the By-Laws.]
MSP that the Paula rule applies to Tony. For those who came late, you are allowed to make as many puns at a Business Meeting as your wallet can stand. $.10 for the first and $.25 thereafter. One day Paula denied that her statement was a pun and the Membership passed the rule that if you deny making a pun and the membership disagrees with you, you pay double.
[I think I remember the original incident with Paula but can't find any mention of it in the Standing Rules. We should add a section (probably 3.4(8)) for the referenced rule. While most pun-related material belongs in Appendix A, this is an actual rule of ongoing effect.]
MSP to authorize the E-Board in consultation with the Sales Committee to establish special Commercial discounts as needed.
[The entire discount policy needs to be consolidated and brought up to date, probably by rewriting the first half of 4.2(12) and combining 4.2(2), 4.2(3), 4.2(4), 4.2(9)(c) and 4.2(14) into it.]
MSP (Priscilla) to name the 5325 "Mr. Gestetner"
????
A committee was established on behalf of Mr. Gestetner to find Ms. Gestetner.
????
MSP to declare this meeting a virtual Codclave. (The Clerk notes that Codclave was originally scheduled to draw the snowstorms away from Boskone.) We had our first nasty snowstorm the Saturday before the BM.
????
The Membership bypassed the Membership Committee to consider a new person
for Subscribing membership. It was noted that he reads IM before even most
Regular members see it. While he cannot afford dues, the membership noted that
it could waive the dues for services rendered. Joe Ross then made some racist
remark the Clerk did not like. Believing in free speech, the Clerk will
never-the-less censor it. Pam noted that he attends all meetings, is clearly
recognized as a hard-working person who has never shirked his duty, and has an
interest in the Club. Suford noted that he never speaks at meetings.
MSP to approve Mr. Gestetner as a subscribing member.
????
Fan Production (?) Redux: Kenneth Knabbe announced that Mr. Gestetner wants to be serviced really soon. The Clerk as head of the Press Gang should do something about this. Unfortunately the Clerk was laughing too hard at all the resulting ribald remarks and puns, but the President asked Ted as head of Procurement to make an appointment for Mr. G.
????
George Flynn announced that he felt it was time to create a theological
argument.
MS (George Flynn) that we use Arabic numerals rather than Roman numerals to
refer to all future Boskones.
Pam Fremon said, while preparing the history exhibit for Boskone, she observed
inconsistency in using Roman and Arabic numerals.
MS (Priscilla Olson) that we use Arabic numerals up through Boskone 49 and then
reconsider (as "Boskone L" would be cool). Accepted by George as a
friendly amendment.
MS (Tony Lewis) to refer to committee.
Mark Olson asked to which committee did Tony refer? The Computer Committee
would urge the use of binary numbers, the Finance Committee would use dollar
signs, the Building Committee would advocate fractions. Suford thought the
Esthetics Committee, already encumbered with the thorny problem of deciding a
paint color for the main room, was the proper group to take on George's
theological argument.
MSP (Rick Katze) to postpone debate on the motion to refer to committee until
the next meeting.
MSP (Gay Ellen Dennett) to postpone all discussion of Boskone numbering to
another moment in time.
Moved (Mark Olson) to bring the matter up now as this was another moment in
time.
The President ruled Mark's motion out of order; the issue will be discussed
next month.
????
MS (Tony Lewis) to establish a committee to figure out each month what Mr.
Harter's middle name will be, and that Tony Lewis is not on this committee.
MSP (Mark Olson) to amend by striking the second part. Tony said that he
regarded this amendment as unfriendly.
MSP (Mark Olson) to further amend that only Tony be on the committee.
The motion as amended was enthusiastically passed, and Tony announced that Mr.
Harter's middle name for the month of November 1997 would be
"Winthrop".
????
Paula Lieberman mentioned that the arrangement of chairs in the main meeting
room makes it difficult to get to the books behind them.
Moved, no second (Priscilla) to overthrow the chairs.
????
Question for the Rules Committee --
What is the legal effect on a vote where the proxy votes cause a motion to be
passed (or defeated) where the issuers of the proxies have died before the vote
is taken. These deaths were unknown to the assembly at the time of the vote.
Ted Atwood, Rules Committee chairman, was called in from the Blue Room. His
answer to Tony's query: there is a legal effect only if the death reported
before the proxy is read.
????
Name Committee: Suford read an e-mail message to Tony from Mr. Harter [Hi, June!]:
To: Anthony Lewis <arl@digilab.com> From: Richard Harter <cri@tiac.net> Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 03:52:00 -0500 Subject: Re: Middle Name At 08:50 AM 11/10/97 -0500, you wrote: >Sir, >at the 9 November Business Meeting of the New >England Science Fiction Association, Inc., it was >voted that Mr. Harter's middle name shall be set at >each NESFA Business Meeting to last until the next >Business Meeting. In addition, a committee, >consisting of Tony Lewis, was established to select >the name. For your convenience, your mensual >middle name will be published in Instant Message. >Be advised that, until the 14 December 1997 >Business Meeting, your middle name is Winthrop. >Your suggestions will be welcomed. >Sincerely, >Anthony Lewis >Mr. Harter's Middle Name Committee >NESFA Dear Sir, I wish hereby to formally express those thanks which your efforts deserve. If I am to have a middle name (and apparently I have no choice in the matter) then "Winthrop" is indeed a happy choice, one that reflects what I like to think of as my maturity and solidity of character. (The fact that no one else has detected these attributes in my character is irrelevant.) I have no specific suggestions. It may be presumptuous of me to do so but I would like to suggest a few general guidelines. I would prefer not to see names which are often used in derision, e.g. Herkimer, or names regularly associated with people with distinct character faults, e.g. Ebeneezer or Adolf. Then again names with exaggeratedly medievalist connotations are not quite my thing, e.g. Peregrine of Ethelbert. While it is true that I have a rural background I should not like sobriquets of persons often found loafing in front of the Courthouse, e.g. Bert and Clem. Due account should be taken of the claims of euphony. The names "Richard" and "Harter" are both trochees; due consideration should be made that the chosen name scans properly. Thus the name "Theodore" should not be used, although it would be quite good if my last name were "McElsee". At this point in reading the message, Mark Olson seconded the implicit motion to change Mr. Harter's name to Mr. Richard Theodore McElsee. Needless to say (but I shall say it anyway) an utterly ordinary name will not do - I am not commonplace even if it would be an improvement if I were. Upon reflection I have to assign some small blame to my parents in this matter. If they had thought the matter out carefully they would have given me the first name of "Mister" and I would be quite properly named as "Mister Richard Harter". Perhaps it is too late to make this change formally - the name "Richard Harter" is on so many documents, e.g. arrest warrants - but it occurs to me that NESFA is not so constrained. May I suggest that the organization take the view that I have always had a middle name, to wit "Richard", and that I have unfortunately been missing a first name all of these years - my middle name having merely been used in lieu of a non-existent first name. Since I have some small attachment to it and since there is precedent for its use by the best elements of society, I request that the club hereby establish "Mister" as my first name. Respectfully submitted, (Mister) Richard Harter
Since there was already a motion on the floor, Mr. Harter's explicit motion
would normally be considered out of order. To avoid this unfairness, it was
instead treated as a motion to amend by replacement. Rick Katze objected to
consideration on the grounds that this was a slanderous attack on Mr. Harter's
mother [a NESFA member!]; this objection prevailed 14 to 6, after which Mark
Olson noted that Rick's objection was out of order since it cannot be applied
to an amendment. Deb Geisler asked that Mr. Olson be suspended. The Chair ruled
Mark's objection to be out of order.
The amendment having been disposed of, the implied motion was passed. Mr.
Harter's name is Mr. Richard Theodore McElsee until the January Business
Meeting.
Priscilla requested that his IM label use his correct-for-the-next-month
name.
????
[After a long discussion on humanely removing the resident skunk:]
Moved (and failed to get a second but did get the biggest laugh of the meeting)
by Rich Ferree to budget $500 to trap the lawyers in the clubhouse.
Priscilla chanted "Save the skunk! Save the skunk!"
The President declared just about everybody to be out of order.
Rick Katze' motion failed.
"Point of odor" said the Clerk, and was punfined.
????
MSP (Joyce Carroll Grace) to appropriate $95 to purchase a Magic Maze for
Space Cadets.
MSP (Gay Ellen) to name the maze "The Skunkworks".
????
Clerk (Claire Anderson): To answer inquiries from IM subscribers who are
unable to smell the evidence in person -- yes, the skunk is still in residence,
favoring us with a low-key blast every few days. [And, no, I don't know whether
the skunk had a successful mating season.]
MSP (Davey Snyder) to appoint a committee to investigate the possibility of
scratch 'n sniff IMs. Nomi helpfully advised that she's seen scratch 'n sniff
skunk stickers for sale. Gay Ellen said the committee will be headed by Davey
Snyder assisted by Michael Burstein.
????
STILL MORE NEW BUSINESS: George said that inasmuch as we have an "interlocking directorate" at SFWA, we should undertake a covert operation to take over sf publishing. A stunned Michael Burstein asked for a point of personal privilege. Deb G. informed him that that could be used only if his ass was on fire. MLO proposed a friendly amendment (which was accepted by George) to specify the takeover as _publishing_ (in general). The motion was seconded, and passed, to much merriment (and one SFWA officer's dissent).
????
Clerk: Also, we received another postcard from Teddy Harvia protesting our
levied punfines. At our Readercon sales table Irene Harrison proposed a
diabolical idea for dealing with Teddy's punfines at Boskone. I promised her
I'd personally implement her plan with the cooperation of the Art Show and
perhaps some construction mavens. The President said Irene had also talked to
her. Chair Deb Geisler said she knew about it.
MSP (Michael Burstein) to go into Committee of the Whole to discuss Irene
Harrison's idea for dealing with Teddy Harvia's punfines.
MSP (Gay Ellen Dennett) to exit Committee of the Whole with the recommendation
that we approve Michael Bursteins's alternate suggestion for tormenting Teddy.
MSP to adopt the recommendation of the Committee of the Whole [which the Claire
Anderson, with a cast of thousands, will implement in the Art Show]. [Also,
Teddy is warned that NESFA's Official Bounty Hunters, the Hertels, who are
designated to collect his punfines, are now 3 in number.]
????
MSP (Claire Anderson) to appropriate up to $20 to purchase a black & white
(or color, if necessary) disposable flash instamatic camera to keep at the
clubhouse to photograph the skunk family. The camera will be known as the
skunk-a-matic.
Davey Snyder ended the discussion by declaring she would give Treasurer Tony
Lewis $3 for 3 Family Dependency memberships. Tony was reminded that he must
now name the new Family Dependency members. Priscilla said skunk babies are
called "kits", the plural of which Deb Geisler said was
"kitch." Nomi was also punfined for advising Tony to name one of the
kits "Eartha."
????
Name Committee (Tony Lewis): Mr. Harter's middle name for the next month is
Stribling. Ted Atwood, as Rules Committee chair, inquired if the naming of the
baby skunks should be referred to the Name Committee; Tony instantly replied:
Stink, Stank, and Stunk. Sharon Sbarsky added that if there is a fourth sibling
its name should be D'Artagnan.
[[create a complete list of Mr. Harter's assigned middle names? in a section
for the 'name committee'?]]
????
MS (Joe Ross) to double the Bursteins' punfines for the remainder of the
meeting.
MS (Chip Hitchcock) to amend to make Joe Ross pay their doubled punfines.
Moved, no second (Joe Ross) to adjourn.
Tony asked if Joe's motion applied to those Bursteins at this meeting or to all
of them everywhere. Davey suggested "Burstein" as a middle name for
Mr. Harter. Mark Olson recommended making Mr. Skunk an honorary Burstein.
Michael Burstein protested that only he and his brothers can create honorary
Bursteins. Ted Atwood, the Rules Committee chair, was called upon to clarify
several Objections to Consideration.
MSF (Deb Geisler) to adjourn.
The chaos was finally curtailed:
MSP (George Flynn) to call all pending questions.
All pending questions were defeated.
????
MSP: to appoint Liana Hertel as the official NESFA Bounty Hunter to collect Teddy's punfines at Boskone (her parents having failed in this duty at ConCept).
????
MS (Deb) to name the Ricoh copier "Joe". Mark Olson inquired if
Joe Rico would be punfined each time the copier was used during a meeting.
MSP (Priscilla) to amend to name the copier "Mr. Joe".
The motion as amended passed.
????
| NESFA | NESFA Press | Boskone | Contact Us | ||||
| Clubhouse | Calendar | Reading Lists | Awards |