[RESULT] Replace the bylaws of Software in the Public Interest

[David Graham]

We may be missing the forest for the trees in this whole discussion...

Resolution 2009-11-04.jmd.1 was specifically designed to avoid the problem of quorum in anticipation of a by-laws referendum based on the renewal process started in January of 2003.

The contributing membership expiry resolution can be found here:

http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2009/2009-11-04.jmd.1/

It defines activity for the purpose of remaining an active contributing member as having voted in the previous annual election, and offers a four-week grace period following a query from the membership committee for those who did not vote but wish to remain members. 

According to the voting results for the 2018 annual election, only 40 votes were cast, so, were our rules followed, only 27 of those people had to support the by-law changes for them to be implemented. However the membership guidelines at http://www.spi-inc.org/membership/guidelines/ were never updated per 2009-11-04.jmd.1 and so have never been applied.

We did this back in 2009 with the express intention, as I recall the discussion, of doing an inactive membership cull prior to a referendum on the bylaws precisely to avoid the current situation. 

My recommendation is that the expiry resolution  be applied to the upcoming annual election, now just over two months away, as the rules require, with appropriate warnings about expiring membership on the vote call. The annual  election should then be followed by a repeat of the referendum in September after the Membership committee has had a chance to downgrade the defined-inactive contributing members to non-contributing.

David Graham aka cdlu
SPI board 2004-2011