Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws

A special meeting of the Gulf Coast Division will be held 7 PM March 21, 2005. At that meeting, as is true at any meeting of the membership of the Division, the Bylaws of the Division may be amended, provided the notice for the meeting includes a "statement as to any proposed amendments to the By-Laws to be voted upon at such meeting".

As of March 6, 2005, the Officers of the Gulf Coast Division were aware of 11 motions to amend the Bylaws which were expected to be offered at the meeting.

Some proposals change the very same areas in the Bylaws or interrelate with each other. However, with two exceptions, it is legal to approve or reject any combination of them.

1. Proposition 1 and Proposition 5 both change exactly the same section in exactly the same way (although they are written differently). If either is adopted, then the other would be null and void because it would describe changing old words which no longer exist. So, if both are passed, the first one passed would apply and the motion to pass the second one would be void. Hence, the two changes cannot be included in a single motion. (And, if only one of them passes, it doesn't matter which one, because the effect the very same change.)
2. Proposition 1 and Proposition 5 both change part of a section which is replaced completely by Proposition 7. If either Proposition 1 or Proposition 5 is passed, then Proposition 7 can still be passed (and will completely replace the section). But, if Proposition 7 is passed, Proposition 1 and Proposition 5 would be null and void because they would describe changing old words which no longer exist.

List of Propositions

• Proposition 1 (concerns proving eligibility to vote)
• Proposition 2 (concerns composition of the Division Board)
• Proposition 3 (concerns the right to merge Secretary and Treasurer)
• Proposition 4 (concerns cleanup of words "office" and "officer")
• Proposition 5 (concerns proving eligibility to vote)
• Proposition 6 (concerns creating an Elections Committee)
• Proposition 7 (concerns changing eligibility to vote)
• Proposition 8 (concerns composition of the Executive Committee)
• Proposition 9 (concerns composition of the Division Board)
• Proposition 10 (concerns members petitioning for meetings)
• Proposition 11 (concerns members petitioning for meetings)

Categorized

March 21 Proposition 1, postponed from March 4th by vote of the membership

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VIII, Section 5, replace part 3 with: "If USFA, INC. requirements specify that a member must act to cause a condition to be satisfied before a specific calendar date during the membership year, and the vote occurs prior to that date, then it shall be sufficient if the member is known to have caused the condition to be satisfied by the time of the vote. However, in such a case, if the specific condition is the communication of certain information to the National Office of USFA, INC, then it shall be sufficient if the member communicates the information instead to the Secretary of the Division."

[Webmaster's note: This concerns eligibility to vote in Division affairs. It produces exactly the same change as Proposition 5 but states it differently. The first sentence is exactly the current text, and only the second sentence is new. Under current circumstances, this would only affect votes occurring prior to February 1st. Specifically, for such votes, current Bylaws require that voters must make the USFA National Office aware that they will be 18 before the time of the vote. However, for members who decline to divulge their actual dates of birth to the National Office, the National Office has a mechanism for tracking being old enough, but that mechanism only tracks whether the member will be old enough, and has delivered such information, by February 1, not the actual earlier date of some Division vote.]

[Webmaster's note: Proposition 1 and the effectively identical Proposition 5 both change part of Section 5. If either passes, passing Proposition 7 will make both of them irrelevant. But, if Proposition 7 passes first, both Proposition 1 and Proposition 5 become null and void because they refer to existing portions of the secton which will no longer exist.]

The Executive Committee recommended voting FOR Proposition 1 (the endorsement was made before the March 4th meeting when this proposition was known as Proposition 4.

[Webmaster's note: The following information is not part of the proposition and was written by and inserted by the Webmaster in the hope of clarifying this proposal and expediting ultimate acceptance or rejection of the proposal. What follows is, within the limits of human subjectivity, completely neutral concerning how to vote on the proposal.]

• USFA background information
  1. In the USFA, members vote at three different levels. We vote in national-level matters, section-level matters, and division-level matters.
  2. It is a widespread but inaccurate belief that the USFA Bylaws specify eligibility requirements for all voting in the USFA. They do not. They specify only eligibility requirements for voting in national-level matters.
  3. Even though the USFA does not specify eligibility requirements for division-level votes, many divisions intentionally follow the USFA national-level requirements for division-level votes. However, this is voluntary by the divisions, not required by the USFA.
  4. At this moment, the USFA requirements for voting in national-level matters are three:
     1. Member before February 1.
     2. 18 years old before February 1.
     3. Before February 1, make the National Office aware you will be 18 years old before February 1.
  5. The USFA has NO requirement that you actually divulge your specific date of birth! But, it is quite specific about establishing before February 1 that everything is in order.
  6. From time to time, the USFA changes the Bylaws about voting eligibility requirements at the national level. The most recent such change was to add to the age requirement a timeliness requirement for making the National Office aware of the adequacy of the age of the member.
• Gulf Coast Division background information
  1. Until very recently, the Gulf Coast Division had no rules about eligibility for division-level votes.
  2. In general, the Division has assumed that the requirements in the USFA Bylaws applied to the division as well, or else simply followed them even though they weren't binding because there was nothing else to follow.
  3. Last April, the Division finally put voting eligibility requirements in its Bylaws.
  4. By July, a technical problem was discovered in the new Bylaw change concerning votes held early in a fencing year. However, in the interest of full disclosure, it required a mathematician/computer programmer to discover the problem.
• Drafting of the Gulf Coast Division voting eligibility Bylaw text
  1. Last April, the Division finally put voting eligibility requirements in its Bylaws. Some choices had to be made when the proposal was drafted.
  2. The first question:
     1. Continue the tradition already in place (that USFA national-level voting eligibility would be used for division-level voting eligibility).
     2. Establish different requirements which differed from tradition.
  3. The decision was made to take the first of the two answers. The current tradition may or may not have been the perfect answer. But, it was pressing to write some sort of rules, even if later they were changed. It was efficient to codify the status quo and argue about changes change it later rather than to try to change the status quo at the same time as codifying voting requirements for the first time.
  4. Given the decision that the Division doing what the USFA does is a good idea (for now), there were two ways to write this in a Bylaw.
     1. Say "we do what the USFA does". (The "recipe" approach.)
     2. Say "we do ... (list of exactly what the USFA was doing as of April 2004)". (The "laundry list" approach.)
  5. The decision was made to take the "recipe" approach. This made the Bylaw harder to read. This was done because of WHY the Division traditionally followed what the USFA did. The Division did the same as the USFA NOT BECAUSE the Division independently thought the same ideas were good. The Division did the same as the USFA ONLY BECAUSE it was what the USFA does. Extending this logic, if the USFA revises what it does, then the Division would want to match the changes.
  6. Just doing what the USFA does has a problem. USFA Bylaws are specifically adapted to national-level votes in the spring and summer. Their current rules specifically mention February 1st as a deadline in three different ways. Their rules end up as complete nonsense if the USFA ever holds a vote in the fall. The chance of the USFA holding a vote in the fall is zero, but the chance of the Division holding a vote in the fall (not elections, but probably Bylaw changes) is much, much higher. So, the Bylaw was drafted to contain special provisions about how to modify the rules copied from the USFA if the Division has a vote early in the year. The "recipe" was made more complicated.
  7. Writing rules about how to adapt, automatically, USFA requirements when the vote is in a season the USFA never anticipated was a challenge. The easiest way was to write two different paragraphs dealing with two classes of USFA conditions.
     1. Things which would or would not be true as an immutable fact about the world ("inherently satisfy a condition") (like things involving dates of birth).
     2. Things which require a member actually to do something ("act to cause a condition to be satisfied") (like joining the USFA and like making Colorado Springs aware that one is old enough to vote).
• Current Gulf Coast Division voting eligibility Bylaw text in simplified language
  1. If the USFA tells us what to do (for division-level voting), we obey. Otherwise:
  2. We steal what the USFA says about national-level voting and say that's our rules for division-level voting. But this falls apart when the USFA rules talk about deadlines which come AFTER when the Division has a vote. So, for early-season votes fiddle with what gets stolen from the USFA as described in (3) and (4).
  3. If stealing USFA national-level rules makes a member have to DO SOMETHING by a date which is still in the future when the Division needs to vote, then instead require the member to DO the very same thing by the date of the vote instead.
  4. If stealing USFA national-level rules makes a member have to BE SOMETHING by a date which is still in the future when the Division needs to vote, then instead require the member to BE that very same thing by the date of the vote instead.
  5. Unless the USFA orders it, never allow someone to vote if he's not 18.
• What the current Gulf Coast Division voting eligibility Bylaw text creates for Spring voting requirments
  1. Member before February 1.
  2. 18 years old before February 1.
  3. Before February 1, make the National Office aware you will be 18 years old before February 1.
• What the current Gulf Coast Division voting eligibility Bylaw text creates for Fall voting requirments
  1. Member before the vote.
  2. 18 years old before the vote.
  3. Before the vote, make the National Office aware you will be 18 years old before the vote.
• The problem and the proposed correction for the problem
  1. The "recipe" in the Gulf Coast Bylaws, when used given current USFA national-level vote requirements, creates a division level requirement of: "Before the vote, make the National Office aware you will be 18 years old before the vote."
  2. The National Office has a system for keeping track of people before February 1st making the National Office aware before February 1st that they will be 18 years old before February 1st. They do NOT have a system for doing this for any other date of the year.
  3. This can be fixed by adding (to the section about members needing to do things by deadlines to be able to vote): "However, in such a case, if the specific condition is the communication of certain information to the National Office of USFA, INC, then it shall be sufficient if the member communicates the information instead to the Secretary of the Division."
  4. In simpler and less accurate words, this means that if the "recipe" in the Bylaws forces a member to TELL COLORADO SPRINGS SOMETHING BEFORE A DATE, then the Division allows the member instead FOR FALL AND WINTER VOTES to instead tell the Secretary.
  5. Given the "recipe" in the Bylaws and current USFA national-level requirements, this ONLY changes the requirement "tell Colorado Springs in a timely fashion that you are old enough" to "tell Colorado Springs or the Secretary in a timely fashion that you are old enough" -- and this applies only to votes occurring before February 1. NOTE: If the USFA changes its national-level rules, this could apply to other matters too, or cease applying to anything.
  6. Under current circumstances, this correction would:
     1. Only affect votes occurring prior to February 1st.
     2. Only change a requirement that voters must make the USFA National Office aware before the vote that they will be 18 before the time of the vote.
     3. Change that requirement to allow the member instead to make the Secretary aware before the vote that he will be 18 before the time of the vote.
• The proposed correction for the problem compared to alternatives
  1. Keep the status quo, including the flaw. Problem: Someone can actually satisfy the requirments to vote in the Fall but the Division has no power to know this.
  2. Adopt the proposed solution, so the Bylaw stays a "recipe" but prevents any situation requiring a member to tell Colorado Springs something but the Division can't tell that it was done. Problem: The Bylaw involved stays very hard to read. Actually, not true, it gets even harder to read.
  3. Change the "recipe" into a fixed list of requirements. Problem: The Division may gradually drift apart from the USFA concerning voting requirements because the Division Bylaws will no longer have an automatic adjustment mechanism. (For example, completely replace the requirements with the requirement that a person just be a member over 18 years old at the time of the vote.)

March 21 Proposition 2

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VI, replace Section 4 with: "Quorum: a quorum shall consist of representatives of over one-half (1/2) of the clubs which have selected either an eligible representative or an eligible alternate, or four clubs, whichever is greater. Any club which does not select either a representative or an alternate during the first month of its membership in USFA, INC. during a membership year shall not be entitled to select representatives for the rest of the membership year and shall not be counted when determining the size of a quorum."

[Webmaster's note: This concerns the quorum for a meeting of the Division Board. At the request of members of the Division Board, it is written as a complete replacement for Section 4, although it is actually just the insertion of the phrase "which have selected either an eligible representative or an eligible alternate" in the first sentence.]

The Division Board "recommends and endorses the membership of the Division amending the Bylaws so that any club entitled to representation on the Division Board but without designated representation not be counted for purposes of quorum."

The Executive Committee recommended voting FOR the Proposition 3 presented at the March 4th meeting, and this proposition makes exactly the same change as that proposition.

March 21 Proposition 3

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article IV, delete Section 5.

[Webmaster's note: This section is the one empowering the election meeting to merge the offices of Secretary and Treasurer for one year.]

The Division Board recommends voting FOR Proposition 3.

The Executive Committee recommended voting FOR the Proposition 13 presented at the March 4th meeting, which was an attempt to repair damage done by another proposition to the mechanism for using this section. This may or may not mean that the Executive Committee wishes this section to be presered. The Executive Committee has not had any opportunity to endorse voting either way for Proposition 3.

March 21 Proposition 4

To correct inconsistencies and ambiguities within the Bylaws and inconsistencies with conventional usage by the members of the Division of the terms "office" and "officer", in the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, make the following changes: 1) In Article IV, in the first paragraph, change "All officers shall take office the first of August next following their election" to "All Officers, and any other positions required by these Bylaws to be elected unless otherwise specified in these Bylaws, shall take office the first of August next following their election", and in Section 1 Sub-Section A part 3 change "fill by appointment any of the offices of the executive committee which are vacated by abandonment or dereliction" to "fill by appointment the office of any Officer of THE DIVISION or other member of the Executive Committee which is vacated by abandonment or dereliction". 2) In Article VI, in Section 2, change "who is not an officer of THE DIVISION" to "who is not an Officer of THE DIVISION or other member of the Executive Committee", in Section 8, change "except officer of THE DIVISION" to "except Officer of THE DIVISION or other member of the Executive Committee". 3) In Article VIII, in Section 1 part 1, change "to elect and qualify new officers" to "to elect and qualify new Officers and any other positions required to be elected", and in. Section 3 change "the officers to be filled" to "the offices to be filled". 4) Change all remaining occurrences of "officer" to "Officer".

March 21 Proposition 5

Whereas, The Bylaws currently specify how to determine Gulf Coast voting requirements using a procedure based on whatever may be the national voting requirements specified by the USFA in its Bylaws at any given time;

Whereas, The procedure in the Bylaws for determining Gulf Coast voting eligibility currently produces for votes prior to February 1 in any fencing year a requirement which is reasonable for a voter to attempt to satisfy but extremely difficult or impossible for the Division to determine, i.e., a requirement that the member have notified the USFA National Office of the sufficiency of his age as of a date concerning which the National Office has no interest and that the notification occur by a date for which the National Office has no means to record having made the notification sufficiently early; and

Whereas, the change proposed below would have no effect on the number of people who could satisfy the requirements to vote but would have an effect on the ability of the Division to determine if any given person does satisfy those requirements; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VIII, Section 5, part 3, which now ends "satisfied by the time of the vote.", there shall be appended the sentence "However, in such a case, if the specific condition is the communication of certain information to the National Office of USFA, INC, then it shall be sufficient if the member communicates the information instead to the Secretary of the Division."

[Webmaster's note: This concerns eligibility to vote in Division affairs. It produces exactly the same change as Proposition 1 but states it differently. Under current circumstances, this would only affect votes occurring prior to February 1st. Specifically, for such votes, current Bylaws require that voters must make the USFA National Office aware that they will be 18 before the time of the vote. However, for members who decline to divulge their actual dates of birth to the National Office, the National Office has a mechanism for tracking being old enough, but that mechanism only tracks whether the member will be old enough, and has delivered such information, by February 1, not the actual earlier date of some Division vote.]

[Webmaster's note: Proposition 5 and the effectively identical Proposition 1 both change part of Section 5. If either passes, passing Proposition 7 will make both of them irrelevant. But, if Proposition 7 passes first, both Proposition 5 and Proposition 1 become null and void because they refer to existing portions of the secton which will no longer exist.]

The Division Board does not recommend voting either way for this proposition, but the Division Board did request that it be written.

March 21 Proposition 6

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VII, replace the preamble with "There shall be five (5) standing committees of The Division whose chairman, except Elections Committee, shall be appointed by the Chairman of the Division. With the exception of the bout committee and the Elections Committee any other committee shall be optional at the discretion of the Executive Committee." and add a new Section 5 reading: "Divisional Elections Committee: The Chairman of the Divisional Elections Committee shall be nominated and elected by simple majority from the floor as the first order of business at the Annual Meeting. This chairman shall appoint members from no fewer than four Division clubs to serve for the duration of one year. The Divisional Elections Committee shall aid the Executive Committee by collecting and tallying votes taken at the Annual Meeting, recording of vote totals, informing the floor as to the final vote tallies for each individual election, and verifying the validity of proxies. Proxy validation shall be a process which may continue throughout the year at the will of the committee. Proxy forms shall include a current telephone number, email or post office address of the voter appointing the proxy, where the validity of proxy forms shall be determined by the committee. If valid contact information is not submitted for each proxy, those proxies will be deemed by the elections committee Elections Committee to be invalid. Should the committee discover that proxy forms were invalid or fraudulent, all votes identifiable with those proxy forms will be removed from that candidates total and a re-count shall be taken. Any identifiable vote counted from an invalid proxy, shall be subtracted from vote totals for the candidate to which it was cast. Any change in election outcome due to re-count shall be reported to the Division Secretary as soon as possible who will be responsible for reporting election result changes to the Division membership via the most efficient means possible. Those election result changes shall take effect immediately upon being reported to the Division Secretary. Requests for determination of the validity of proxy forms must be completed by the committee."

March 21 Proposition 7

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VIII, replace Section 5 with: "Eligibility: A member of THE DIVISION is entitled to vote, and is counted toward a quorum on the day of, or after his or her eighteenth (18th) birthday. Submission of proof of age shall be incumbent upon the member wishing to vote, if that member is not listed as at least 18 years of age by USFA records. A valid driver's license, copy of birth certificate, passport or other suitable proof shall be shown to the Division Secretary on the day of the vote."

[Webmaster's note: Proposition 1 and the effectively identical Proposition 5 both change part of Section 5. If either passes, passing this will make that irrelevant. But, if this passes first, both of those propositions become null and void because they refer to existing portions of the secton which will no longer exist.]

The Division Board does not recommend voting either way for this proposition, or voting either way for Proposition 5, but the Division Board did request that Proposition 5 be written, and this proposition would prevent Proposition 5 from being able to be adopted.

March 21 Proposition 8

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article IV, add a new consecutively numbered section reading: "No club may have more than one member serve as an Executive Committee member. For this purpose, club membership shall mean the club which a member represents, according to USFA, INC. records. Elections for positions on the Executive Committee shall be held in the order the Offices are described in these Bylaws followed by any additional members, where the results of one election shall cause any nominees from the same club for elections later in the order of elections no longer to be eligible to receive votes. The procedure of the election of additional members so as to have no more than one member from a club is described elsewhere in these Bylaws.", and in Article V Section 1 replace part 1 with "If the election of members of the Executive Committee requires no information about what candidates exist for what office prior to the annual meeting, then the decision to elect any additional members and, if so, how many, shall be made at the annual meeting by those eligible to vote for the additional members. To assure that no club may have more than one member as an Executive Committee member, as is required elsewhere in these Bylaws, if more than one position is filled, then the positions must be filled one at a time and the clubs of members who have already been elected to any position on the Executive Committee shall affect who may be nominated and receive votes." and replace part 2 with "If the election of members of the Executive Committee requires information about what candidates exist for what office prior to the annual meeting, including but not limited to a requirement for nomination prior to the annual meeting or the printing of ballots which can be cast prior to the meeting, then the additional members shall be elected by considering there to be six numbered positions for which the elections will be held in numerical order, for which a nomination applies to only one position, and where a member can be a nominee for only one of the positions at a time. To assure that no club may have more than one member as an Executive Committee member, as is required elsewhere in these Bylaws, the clubs of members who have already been elected to any position on the Executive Committee shall affect who may be nominated and receive votes, but where ballots or votes with a vote for no candidate will be included in determining the number of votes required to win, and any position may remain unfilled if a majority of ballots or votes are for no candidate. and if fewer than six candidates receive at least a majority of votes then offices will be left unfilled."

March 21 Proposition 9

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VI Section 9, replace "For purposes of representation on the Division Board, including the size of a quorum, any two or more clubs which individually are eligible for representation on the Division Board, but which have identical ownership, shall be treated as if they are a single club." with "For purposes of representation on the Division Board, including the size of a quorum, in a case where any individual or family owns, manages, serves as president of, operates, or is head coach of multiple clubs in THE DIVISION, these clubs shall be treated as if they are a single club. The Division Board will review and determine membership eligibility when the matter of multiple club ownership, management, operation etc. is in question."

March 21 Proposition 10

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VIII Section 2, immediately following "relative convenience for the membership of the Division." insert a new sentence reading: "When the Chairman receives a proper request from the membership to hold a called meeting, the Chairman must set and announce to the general membership the date, time and location of that requested called meeting within one (1) week of receiving the request."

[Webmaster's note: Although Proposition 10 and Proposition 11 concern the same topic and both change Section 2, they are written so either or both of them can be passed. And, the ideas in them are separate -- the first concerns how soon certain meetings must be announced and the second concerns how soon the same meetings must actually occur.]

March 21 Proposition 11

In the Gulf Coast Division Bylaws, in Article VIII Section 2, append a new sentence reading: "When the Chairman receives a proper request from the membership to hold a called meeting, the date for that meeting must be no later than three (3) weeks from the date that the Chairman receives the request for the called meeting."

[Webmaster's note: Although Proposition 10 and Proposition 11 concern the same topic and both change Section 2, they are written so either or both of them can be passed. And, the ideas in them are separate -- the first concerns how soon certain meetings must be announced and the second concerns how soon the same meetings must actually occur.]

The Division Board recommends voting AGAINST Proposition 11. The Division Board "recommends the membership of the Division not amend the Bylaws to establish a specific time limit by which the Chairman of the Division must convene a special meeting requested in writing by five Division members."