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Hello (Good) By-Lawsby
Jim Monsonis & Dennis Phayre Members
of Honest Weight Food Co-op, Inc. who have been around awhile will
remember that
in the summer of 2003, under a tent out in the parking lot, we approved
a new
set of by-laws for the Co-op. The old ones had been amended and revised
so many
times that they were unworkable, and the new ones did a fine job of
bringing
the Co-op’s practices up to date. But
even then there were two serious problems with the new by-laws. One was
the
lack of a process by which the by-laws themselves could be amended; the
other was
that a new committee within the Coop, the Governance committee, was not
adequately described either in its function or in its construction.
These two
problems, together, led to substantial conflicts and misunderstandings
over the
next several years. An ad
hoc committee has been working for the past year to remedy the
situation, and
at the June 2007 membership meeting, the Co-op’s members will be asked
to approve
a solution to these two problems. The
ad hoc committee, composed of representatives of the Board of
Directors, the Collective
Management Team, the Governance committee and some members at large, is
proposing a revision of the by-laws whereby a by-laws panel is
appointed. The Board,
management, the Membership committee and the successor to the
Governance committee
will each appoint two people to the Panel. This body shall have the
specific limited
purpose of considering any and all suggestions for by-laws revision,
developing
the proper wording as necessary and proposing any changes to the
membership at
a membership meeting. We will thus have an ordered, systematic means of
considering the inevitable changes to the by-laws that come up from
time to
time. In
addition, the ad hoc committee clarified the function of the current
Governance
committee, henceforth to be renamed the Governance Review Council (GRC)
—
“review,” to make it explicit that its primary function is
responsibility for
making sure that all parts of the Co-op follow the bylaws; “council,”
to
distinguish it from the “committees” of the Co-op, which are usually
appointed
by the Board of Directors. The
GRC is to be a body elected by the members at a membership meeting; the
ad hoc
committee’s proposal specifies size of the council, term of office,
etc., none
of which is present in the current by-laws. The proposal clarifies what
the
relation of the council is to the Board of Directors and what are the
specific
spheres of responsibility of these two elected bodies. The
ad hoc committee will be hosting two public information meetings where
the committee’s
proposal will be discussed and suggestions for possible improvements
may be
made. These meetings will be held at the Co-op on Monday, May 7 and
Tuesday, May
15 from 6:30 to 8 pm. Flyers announcing the times and dates of these
meetings are
posted on the Co-op’s bulletin board. In addition, meeting information
may be
accessed online via the Co-op’s website (www.honestweight.coop) or
in print via the Coop
Scoop’s May
calendar of events. Copies of the committee’s proposed by-laws
changes are
available at the Co-op’s membership desk and may also be viewed online. While
a brief discussion of the proposals will take place at the June
membership meeting,
no changes will be made to proposals at that time; the proposals will
simply be
voted upon “as is,” in an up-down, yesor- no vote. The reason for doing
it this
way is because the by-laws are a complex set of interrelated rules and
regulations that must be carefully written so as to avoid internal
inconsistencies,
violations of the law and poorly defined powers. It is therefore
incumbent upon
all Co-op members to proactively seek out information and discuss these
changes
in advance, and not wait until the June vote to request that changes be
made. The
committee has worked long and hard on developing these mechanisms for
maintaining the working structure of the Co-op, and we hope that
members will
take a good look at the proposals and be prepared to vote upon them at
the June
membership meeting. |
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