Good afternoon!
As discussed at our November meeting, here is a formal posting and reminder of our proposed bylaw amendment of the membership section, as written by our grotto officers & Bylaws Committee. This is in agreement by the officers and was introduced Thursday, November 10th in person where paper copies were distributed. We will be making an official grotto vote on this proposed amendment at our election meeting located at the University of Arkansas Gearhart Hall, (formerly Ozark Hall), Room 017, at 7:30 P.M., Thursday, January 12th.
You can locate the proposed bylaw amendment by navigating to the groups.io file system and locating the file named Motion to Amend BMG Bylaws 10_21_22.doc found in Files>Constitution and Bylaws>Bylaw Amendment Proposals. I have also attached the file to this email. [.pdf of motion]
Please note that this is the same bylaw amendment that was to be voted on in November, however the vote was deferred.
Thanks for your time,
Corey Maize
President, 2022-2023
Boston Mountain Grotto
The following are nominated for the indicated positions, to be elected at the November 10, 2022 BMG Meeting:
President: Corey Maize
Vice-President: Matt Covington
Secretary: William Butler
Treasurer: Michael Schreiber
Membership Officer Britt Hardwick
The following procedures will govern the election:
PROCEDURES FOR ELECTIONS AT NOVEMBER 10 2022 BMG MEETING
You must be "present" (physically, or via jit.si conference, or represented by proxy) to vote in the election of BMG officers for 2023. This voting will be at the November 10, 2022 meeting at the time it comes up in the order of business.
ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE:
You must be a paid-up Full or Associate member of the Boston Mountain Grotto as of the end of the day of November 8, 2022 to be eligible to vote. The Membership Officer will provide the Nominating Committee with an updated roster on November 9, 2022 so they can prepare a roster of eligible voters for use at the meeting.
UNCONTESTED OFFICES:
Where there is only one candidate for any particular office (including the situation where all other candidates for that office on the nomination notice withdrew or were disqualified), that candidate will be certified as elected to that office with no further procedure required.
If there are no candidates for an office, a vacancy will be declared effective January 1, 2023 (if the office is not vacated sooner) and the membership shall appoint a new Nominating Committee with election for that office to be held at the January meeting in accordance with Bylaw 4.
OBJECTIONS:
Any objection to the inclusion or exclusion of a candidate on the notice of the nominated candidates must be made no later than 3 days after notice of that list by a message post to the listserv setting forth the factual basis for such objection with sufficient detail for the Nominating Committee to effectively investigate the validity of the objection. The Nominating Committee shall render and post on the listserv a decision nominating the omitted candidate, removing the included candidate, or denying the relief sought within 3 days of the posting of the objection. The decision of the Nominating Committee shall be final. If a granted objection results in a contested race, the Nominating Committee shall amend these procedures to provide for balloting.
Any motion to amend these procedures, shall be made, debated and voted on when the elections are called on the agenda.
Any other objection to the procedure or outcome of any race shall be made at the appropriate time during the meeting. The chair shall decide the objection subject to appeal to the membership.
CERTIFICATION OF ELECTION:
There being no contested races, the Chair shall certify the sole nominee for each office to fill each position from January 1, 2023 until December 31, 2023.
By the Nominating Committee: John Crochet, Matt Covington
10/27/2022
John Crochet jcrochet@jcrochet.net and Matt Covington speleophysics@gmail.com were appoiinted as the Nominating Committee at the October 13, 2022 BMG meeting.
Any person who is currently qualified for election to an office (a member of both BMG and NSS) or who promises to take the necessary action to become qualified before the close of balloting (for instance by reinstating or applying for BMG or NSS membership), and who notifies at least one member of the Nominating Committee of his desire to run for that office within 7 days of this notice of appointment, shall be nominated.
The list of nominated candidates, and the procedures for the election (which may be amended by the membership voting at the November meeting), will be posted on or before October 27, 2022.
John Crochet, Webmaster and Nominating Committee
10/14/2022
The University requires masks be worn indoors. There is an option to participate online with the following instructions:
Join the meeting:
https://meet.jit.si/bmgsocial
To join by phone instead, dial 1.512.402.2718, and enter code 2023848302#
This month's grotto meeting will be held at the Illinois River Watershed Partnership building in Cave Springs, AR at our usual time of 7:30 P.M. The Executive Committee will be meeting with the director of IRWP prior to the meeting. Normally we would meet on campus this month, however based on request and confirmation from the partnership we have been allowed to meet there for an another month. I suspect our location will transition back to campus in October unless a decision is made for a new location.
Best
Corey Maize
President, 2022
Good morning cavers,
Due to Mike Ross and I both being out of town for business, an increase in Covid cases in NWA and tightening university restrictions, the grotto Executive Committee has decided it would be in our best interest to move this month’s meeting to our regular Jitsi application. We certainly understand any frustration in our meeting location and ability to meet in person, so this would be a great time to gauge potential locations to look at moving away from the hustle and bustle of campus as we’ve considered in the past.
We do have a number of both trip reports and upcoming trips, 2022 grotto expeditions to consider, and a new BMG t-shirt and polypro order to look at, with a goal of having it in by February (the additional polypro designs have delayed it from our New Years goal). We as a grotto are entering 2022 with most of our prior 2021 business settled, so this is a great clean slate for us to see what needs the grotto and caving community have and a great year to plan some truly epic trips.
I hope to see you online tonight, at our usual 7:30 P.M. start time via the link below.
https://meet.jit.si/BMGsocial
To join by phone instead, tap this: +1.512.402.2718,,2023848302#
Thanks for everything each and every one of you do for the grotto,
Best,
Corey Maize
BMG President 2022