The JPL Bicycle Club Bylaws are outdated and need to be updated. Please take a few minutes to review the existing bylaws (see link below) and give your comments below by Sunday, Nov 17, 2013.
A Bylaws Update Committee will summarize comments and recommend bylaw changes at the Nov 21 club meeting. If you would like to help, please indicate your interest with your comments below or contact Gene Wester, committee chair, gwester44+bylaws(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks for your time and comments.
JPL Bicycle Club 
These are all still valid topics, but in my opinion in this day in age, they need to be re-ordered somewhat.
In particular, the issues C-G under Goals should be at the top, and G-H under techniques should be at
the top. Also, we should work with the JPL security, etc to make sure that the rules get followed on
the JPL campus. There are a few people (riding wrong ways, etc) that are ruining it for the majority of
us who follow the rules, whether we like them or not. Thanks for sending this around. –Joe
Article IV
Section 1: Membership – “Active members are those who have paid the current dues” we should remove this or start to collect dues. Collecting dues would be great, but we need to give people a reason to pay the dues. That is, events, etc.
Section 3: Dues – “There shall be a membership fee for all members. This fee is to be set by a majority of the Club Board and may be changed at its discretion. Term of membership is from the first day of January to the last day of December. ” Again, we should set this. And soon if we want to keep the period from January through December.
Section 4: Officers – No treasurer? Seems like we should have a treasurer.
Newsletter editor – This should be optional and based on finding someone really interested and passionate about writing the newsletter. It could be a lot of fun, but if it’s not super fun no one will read it.
Article V: Meetings – D. I like the monthly club meetings with more frequent committee meetings. I would like to put more emphasis on committees to distribute ownership of club activities.
Article VI : Elections
This process creates a lame duck period. The US govt. has proven that this is not especially useful. A one month overlap could be useful as an optional mentoring and training period, but if someone is unwilling to mentor it should not be necessary.
I would rephrase “Newsletter editor” to include the task of webmaster – it’s somewhat more relevant.
Why is the title “JPL BICYCLE EXPERIENCE CLUB” ?
Article 1: I don’t understand the whole home office thing. If somebody sends us a letter to “JPL BICYCLE CLUB” at that address, where will it go?
Article 3: Since the ERC doesn’t exist anymore, do we take this section out?
Article 4: I think we should have due paying members and non-dues paying members. I think we don’t want to discourage people from coming to things or participating by requiring people to pay dues, but if people do want to contribute, they can help out to fund some activities that we might plan in the future. Also, it would be easier to maintain a membership list that way and we keep people on the membership list who actually want to be involved (and thus be willing to pay).
section 4: officiers, actually, I think most of them are OK. I think it makes to combine the secretary and webmaster.
President – calls meetings, interfaces with JPL management, etc
Treasurer – collect dues and handles $
Secretary – records meeting notes, maintains website, and email list
Activities Chairman – coordinates activities and events, maintains club calendar
Technical Chairman – keeps club tools, bike clinics
Article V: I think we can just say we will hold meetings whenever we want, I don’t know why this is even in there
Article VI: Maybe we should put something in there about what we do if an office is not filled. If somebody joins the club in between elections and wants to help in whatever position, or the position becomes vacant (somebody leaves JPL), the president or board could appoint an acting person so we don’t have to do elections again
Article VI: Since we don’t have a club membership so I don’t know how we are going to do that this time. Maybe we can add ” dues paying members ” if we decide to go that route.
General: Revise hierarchical format
Title: Delete “Experience”
Add/update revision line
III: Remove ERC references, and align with Human Resources
Explore independent structure
IV.1 Include retirees
IV.3 Permit fees to be set or waived
IV.4.Vice-President/Treasurer/Membership Chair
H Relax treasurer reporting rqts
Informal report at all Board meetings
Annual written report (delete ERC reference)
IV.4.Secretary
A-F Eliminate Secretary & reassign roles among other offices
E Delete or generalize repro role
IV.4 Change Newsletter Editor to Webmaster
V.A Specify minimum advance meeting notice (one week)
V.B Specify minimum number of members for quorum
e.g., 3 for Board meeting, 7 for General meeting
V.C Retain one month as minimum Board meeting frequency
Delete “special”
VI Assign election role to Vice-President
B/C Revise to permit electronic voting
VII.B Amendments to be passed or rejected by a majority vote of Club members present at a General Meeting