Again...I am trying to stay relatively far away from all things BFW...but I do
feel some responsibility to the members who have questions to post some
thoughts.
You can take my opinions with a grain of salt if you like. It was an
organization that I was fully prepared to dedicate the majority of my adult
career to and for which I have very strong feelings. I still believe that BFW
can be a good organization doing good work and making great progress towards
improving bicycling conditions in Wisconsin and increasing the number of people
bicycling. The staff (past and present) and the members and volunteers feel
like an extended family to me and I want the best for all of them.
Many people seem troubled by the events of the last nine months, though. So I
offer my reflections as someone who has been closer to the actions of the board
over the last five years than anyone, and someone who has worked closely with
several of the current board members and board candidates (endorsed and
non-endorsed).
I've glanced a bit at the new BFW bylaws and I have a few comments:
1. It mentions that (in the future) the Executive Director may be fired without
cause by a vote of the majority of the board. I'm not saying this is good or
bad. It would be interesting to know whether or not the personnel policy,
which indicates that employees will receive three written warnings before being
fired, has been amended as well. If someone is fired and the policies do not
match or are unclear, it would be very easy for a disgruntled former employee
to sue the organization if they wanted to.
2. The powers and duties of the Chairman of the Board are no better defined
than they were in the previous ByLaws. Conversely, the powers and duties of
the Treasurer and Secretary are outlined in relative detail. Perhaps it has
all long since been resolved, but at least from summer of 2006 through January
2007 BFW staff had serious concerns and questions about chain of command and
what authority that the Board President (now Chairman of the Board) had.
3. The section on committees says that the board can appoint committees and can
designate the powers of those committees within the resolution that creates the
committee. In effect, this means that the board can designate a three person
committee that may be allowed to take action in the absence of the full board's
approval. I'll note that only four board members made the decision that
resulted in the firing of the most recent Executive Director. These bylaws
leave open the possibility that a small number of board members can make
dramatic decisions for the entire board without consulting the entire board.
4. The idea of an annual membership meeting is nice and all...but takes quite a
bit of staff time to organize...and you have to find a location, pay for the
location...and at least give the members coffee or something. Potentially it
could cost a lot of money and staff time. As far as I know, this isn't
something that the membership was clamoring for...and since BFW is a statewide
organization, a majority of the members probably wouldn't even be able to
attend. To write something like this into the bylaws...which should be a
relatively stagnant document that shouldn't be changed all the time depending
on whether or not people feel like organizing a membership meeting...seems
weird to me. It is a set up to fail and to be called out on it. In the age of
the internet, it would seem to me that the most efficient and cost effective
way to keep members informed is to post things (like the bylaws or board
candidate statements) on the web...or to simply answer their phone calls
and emails when they ask questions.
I'll note that, Thunderhead Alliance, a national organization who has helped
120 other bicycle/pedestrian organizations, has a great deal of resources on
bylaws (not all of which do I personally agree with either, but the resources
are there). I do not believe that their help was ever sought out on this
document. I could be wrong.
That's all for now.
-Dar
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