On 7/5/2020 07:50, Clint Bradford via AMSAT-BB wrote:
Last time I read their bylaws, “monthly” meetings were not required.
Clint Bradford K6LCS
Can someone please explain why there are no monthly board meeting being held.??
Rick WA9JBQ
I see that, as is the norm today whenever there is an election, some of the "facts" of the issue presented in the form of what certain individuals said are grossly out of context.
Over a year ago, March or April 2019 to the best of my recollection, I put forth the idea during the monthly telephone gathering of Directors as well as in an email to the Board of Directors. At that time and for some time these monthly "strategic planning" meetings had become very much a report by the President on current activities of themselves and the Officers as to their current and wholly expected/normal activities. These meetings began to run an hour or more with discussion of minutiae in the normal execution of those duties which, in my opinion, had nothing to do with Board of Directors level strategic planning for the Corporation. Officers were invited and while not required to attend, often participated in the discussions. Were it in fact a meeting with a Board level strategic planning item, that strategic discussion was in my opinion, dragged out and dragged down by these reports which would limit the strategic discussions often due to time and as well, due to interjection by officers where their input should and could have been requested in a more formal way as an agenda item for further discussion of whatever strategic ideas the Board discussed during the Board of Directors Strategic Planning meeting.
The same discussions and minutiae of the Officers expected/normal activities were then discussed again two weeks later on the Officers "tactical planning" meetings, by the officers, with the Directors being invited and while not required to attend, often were more or less expected to be there to hear the same thing they heard two weeks prior. In fact this was a norm with the AMSAT leadership for some time and even prior to my becoming an Officer and later, Director.
There was a time that these things worked as such and the discussions/agenda were separate and confined to the purpose and attendees (Board or Officers as designated) however that became this homogeneous wash-rinse-repeat cycle that led to my bringing up the thought, not a motion or otherwise general claim of lack of productivity, that we consider having Board of Directors Strategic Planning meetings only as/when corporate strategic planning discussions were of the urgency or maturity to require the Board of Directors to gather beyond discussions we had been having via email, in order to further the strategy and vote on it. In the meantime, the need for input from Officers in order to exercise proper oversight and management of the execution of the Corporation's business could easily be done via email, either by a report to the Board from the President (preferably) containing the same information as was presented at the "strategic planning" meeting without the need to be on the phone for over an hour or by individual Senior Officers emailing their monthly report to the Board of Directors with that information. It should be noted and it was an important part of my pitch to the Board that the activities being reported and in fact the state of the activities generally did and to an extent still often do not change at a pace that required monthly, much less bi-weekly, meetings and repetitions of the reports/activities. That fact too would even make the email reports rather simple and not a burden to create or read, as they are often a repeat of status quo except during implementation, completion, or anomalies in any of the specific activities of the Officers.
At that time, the Board did not respond with any desire to further the suggestion. And so we carried on "as usual".
Since my suggestion and the choice not to pursue it at the time were not documented further than the Board of Directors mailing list where I believe I posted it in addition to the mention on the call, I am sure that the subject came as a surprise to all but the Directors involved in those emails/discussion when I brought it up again at the annual Board of Directors meeting in Arlington. At that time I simply re-stated a summary of what I had said six (or so) months prior to the annual meeting when we briefly discussed the item. It was in that discussion as well as when I presented my thought to the other Directors in 2019 that I said, in my opinion, that the meetings were unproductive IN TERMS OF THE INTENTION THAT THEY BE ABOUT STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE CORPORATION, BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SUCH STRATEGY DISCUSSIONS HAPPENING ON A MONTHLY BASIS AND THE REPORTS ON OFFICER ACTIVITY COULD BE HANDLED OTHERWISE. Emphasis added to bring back the context that was conveniently missing from other statements of this case.
The outcome at the annual meeting was in agreement with looking at the frequency and necessity of online/telephonic Board of Director meetings rather than the regularly scheduled (and in my opinion) essentially group gathering of everybody who showed up to rehash current activities. To the best of my recollection, it was never said at the annual meeting that Board of Director Strategic Planning meetings could not or should not happen. Nor, to the best of my recollection, was it said in that discussion of my point about the meetings that they were meaningless or a waste of time beyond the implication of such in the specific sense of the meeting purpose because of the lack of strategy to discuss.
Since then, the Directors have chosen to go with the guidance that meetings called by the mechanism in our bylaws is what determines the frequency of the Board of Directors online/telephonic meetings. The President is charged with determining the need and frequency of Senior Officer meetings and that has always been the case as far back as my tenure as an Officer, and I do not take any exception to that as a Director nor do I feel compelled to push the President to have such meetings either as a Director or an Officer. I stand by my thoughts of a year ago and at the annual meeting as far as email reports to the Board of Directors.
I hope this clears things up in regard to the history of the idea for the frequency and purpose of Board of Directors gatherings and the perception that they are or should be held monthly. It is solely up to the President and the Board of Directors to determine that as I am sure was done in the past and is being done now.
On another note, I also expressed strong support for the AREx program during the March meeting. It's funny how what I say or do is conveniently added, altered, or omitted when it serves the personal interest of individuals. Part of being a "public figure" I guess. And so it goes...
Jerry Buxton, NØJY