Upcoming Elections

[rcphotog]

Since I can not reply to the official anouncement. One way post in that forum, so I'll post my coment here.
Curtis stated that nominations begin in August and run through the end of September.
Since Mitch only posted that "official Chairman's notice" 6 days ago (on the 24th of September), I'd like to propose that we extend the nomination period through to the end of the "official statement period" ending in November.
I see no reason not to extend the nomination period since we only just became aware of it last week. And I don't know about anyone else but, I did not receive an email notice about the upcoming elections. Very poor communications.
Ken.

[Mitchell Baker]

Sorry Ken,
I was not informed of your USSMA membership so your access was not updated.  It is now.  Just a question, when you logged in on the front page were you getting the notice in red that if you were a USSMA member and reading the red text you should contact the webmaster to have your access updated? It was working when I tested with my other account not set as a USSMA member.
Just FYI, my post was just a reminder post of what Curtis had posted on Aug 3rd in the National Chair Announcements and was also posted on the frontpage on Aug 8th in his Champs Update article.  Could the title have been a little better to indicate election information was there, yes. But the post on the front page was viewed over 300 times and the original post was viewed over 140 times. 

I think I have fixed most of the issues you have been having, if not, let me know.  I want to address any issues folks might be having with the site. 

See-ya
Mitch

[Roly]

Hello,
As a USSMA member I have not received any notification of a election. According to the Bylaws, I believe, that using this website for notifying the membership is not per the Bylaws.
The last time I saw anything on the website, last week, about the election was Mitch's post and there were 30 views.
Sure hope something is proper done to fix the situation.
I'm very sorry to see this.
Scincerely, Roly

[Mitchell Baker]

Just to clarify, there is no requirement in the by-laws to announce the start of the nomination process.  Only who has been nominated 6? days before elections.  As was said before.  We know we goofed and are trying to get things back on track  --Mitch

P.S sorry for the typo, I fixed it... "there is NO requirement"  --Mitch

[rcphotog]

Mitch,
According to the only version of the By-Laws listed on this site published in February of 2010....(maybe you and the BoD are using another more recent version)

page 3 - Article VIII, Elections paragraphs 8.1 through 8.7:
para 8.4
"Nominations will be open the first Tuesday in March and close the last Monday in May. Written notice of said nominations will be provided to the members at least 60 days prior to election of officers."
para 8.5
"Balloting shall begin on the 2nd Tuesday of August and close on the 4th Tuesday in August."

So, maybe you can see our confusion.
Since our National Chairman chose to post the first "official notice of upcoming elections" inside his (unrelated) comment regarding the then upcoming 2014 Champs, I consider your post on the 24th of September to be the first "official" notification to the members. I beleive that you posted the notice correctly by starting a new discussion thread. However, it was posted only 6 days before the close of the Official Nominating period ending on October 1st. I made no mention of 6 days before the election.
If you have a newer version of the USSMA By-Laws, please share.
Ken.
ps; let me see if I can post an image file of page 3----

[Mitchell Baker]

You are correct.. notification of the nominations have to be made 60 days prior to election...  Not the nomination process.. Should it be that way? No,
There is a newer version being verified by the board, but does not effect the election process.
So, no member read the 2014 Championship Update article, which was posted on the site, in the center of the front page on Aug 8th?  Should something else have been posted, obviously yes....   Stay tuned the BoD has been in email conference much of the day to see about modifying things to help the situation.   --Mitch

P.S. BTW I love the discussion... I just wish someone had said something the second Wednesday of March.. Then we would not be having any of this discussion.  As Dir of Admin it was my job to keep up with that and it just slipped by me.

[rcphotog]

I'm very, very disappointed and discouraged by the feckless management from the Board this past year. You guys sure fumbled the ball alot this year. Starting with membership renewals. It took how many months to get those membership packets out in the mail. In some cases it took more than 9 months from when people made their payments. Shamefull.
For my first year (to receive full membership benefits and access) it was extremely frustrating to be granted (by our President / Chairman) honorary membership into one of the most prestigious Model Airplane Associations / elite club in the Counrty, only to have to wait four months to receive my membership packet (including: hat,name tag,membership card,decal and a collector pin) for which I believe only happened because I complained on an open discussion forum on this website. Then to be given membership access to the "perks" on the website just days ago only to find that election nominations are already in progress and about to be closed. I hope you can see why I'm fustrated.
I poor my heart and soul into my support for this National organization and to be recently treated so shabbily by this current board over your request for an ad design for rcscalebuilder's website.You can bet that I won't offer any help in the future.

As for the By-Laws:
You guys appearently don't even know when your membership year begins and ends. According the current By-Laws:
page 1 article III Membership:
3.1 "Annual membership runs from November 1st through October 31st each year."
page 3 article VIII Elections:
8.1 "All officers shall hold office for three years commencing October 1st of the election year."

So, something doesn't make sense here. When does the membership year start and end. You say you are on track for the elections, but.....
The first thing a newly elected officer of the board should do is become familar with the club's / association's By-Laws. It's only 4 pages. There's absolutely no excuse for the entire Board to not know when elections come due. This, and my previous mention of the delayed mailing of the membership packets, is unacceptable from a NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. This is not some local club that can absorb such ineptness.

So when can I expect to be stripped of my honorary membership? ....Oct 31st? or Nov 1st? or Dec 31st?

[Curtis Kitteringham]

Ken
As always over the years your help has been more than welcome and hope it is still going to be there when asked. As for your membership items, yes it has been a long road to getting a working list together so we would know who is a member and what we owned them in membership items. I apologize for any inconvenience or hard  feelings this has caused to you and our fellow members.
Curtis Kitteringham 

[Roly]

Hello Ken,

I think that finally there are "Winds of Change" in Scale Master which we will all benefit from. Thanks to people like yourself having persistence.

The Program is excellent and the people who are responsible for administering and providing direction are listening and trying their best.

We all need to work for the betterment of the Program. For Scale Aero-Modeling I believe it's the best there is.

Thanks,
             Roly