RHNA Bylaws Suggestions

SUGGESTIONS to OCEAN REGARDING ITS BYLAWS
Robertson Hill Neighborhood Association

The Robertson Hill Neighborhood Association discussed the bylaws at the April 13, 2008, meeting. Following are the general recommendations from our group. We also will be giving copies of the bylaws with some minor editorial comments to the person at OCEAN in charge of the bylaws.

If one of the main purposes of OCEAN involves the East Austin Neighborhood Plan, then it should be provided to new members, possibly as some sort of packet indicating that their membership application had been received and that they could be a voting member.

Also, the plan is outdated (the plan itself says it is good for 4-6 years, and it was created in 2002), and if one of the main purposes of OCEAN is to uphold the plan there should be some discussion of updating it.

In order to prevent a few people from making a decision that has a large, area-wide impact, the quorum required for voting on a motion should be higher when the issue is a very large one involving ALL of the neighborhoods in OCEAN .

Section 4.03 It seems that not attending meetings for the last 6 months is too long.
Suggestion: “A member who has not attended any meetings in 4 months will be dropped from the roll and must reapply for membership. Consideration will be given to anyone who communicates about expected absenc es.”

It needs to be made clear somehow that a person is a member and who can vote at any particular meeting. Suggestions:
- Some sort of indication (a packet of info including the neighborhood plan) be given to new members so that they are aware that they are now members.
- Creating a sign-in with checklist that has names of members printed on the list; if someone is NOT on the checklist, they would have to enter all of their information (name, address, phone, email). Easy to scan and see how many members are at a meeting to see if vote is appropriate.