From The Chairman
Everyone on the board has worked hard to do the membership’s business. One of the critical items that has been at the forefront of our board has been member representation and board transparency. We put forth several changes to the voting procedures this year in order to better represent you the members. The major procedural change is this;
After a majority vote on of the board of trustees, starting with the 2019 Election of Trustees, all members in good standing are now allowed to vote across the East and West dividing line as defined by the Mississippi River. Each member now votes for up to four candidates total. Each member can now vote for up to two candidates in the East Region and up to two candidates in the West Region. The candidates that are running for Trustee must be a member in good standing and based on the AHRMA By-laws, each candidate running for Trustee will now represent the entire membership.
Additionally, the following was also approved
- Who is eligible to vote. There are Full members and Associate members. Full members can vote while Associate members cannot as written in the bylaws, however associate members have voted as a practice. A bylaw change is required to enable associate members to be eligible to vote.
- The cutoff date for the 2019 election for new associate member voting eligibility is November 30, 2018.
- The accounting firm that is executing the ballot counts shall not open nor start counting any ballots until the voting deadline has expired.
- No one is allowed to have any conversations with the accounting firm regarding the votes, the number of votes, the regions votes are coming from or any conversation regarding how the vote is progressing, not even the Board Secretary.
- No one except the accounting firm is allowed to examine the ballots for any reason. The accounting firm is limited in its examination to the following; member eligibility, properly filled out official ballot, only one ballot per eligible member, only four votes per member, one vote each for two Western candidates and one vote each for two Eastern candidates.
- No ballots postmarked after the deadline will be counted. The firm will have a week after the close of election to finalize the count.
- All other voting requirements apply. The website will have the 2019 list of candidates that are eligible for the vote. The ballots will be sent in AHRMA MAG and will be available on the website.
- Proxy voting will only be allowed if the voting member provides written approval to be sent along with his/her ballot to the CPA firm administering the program for AHRMA.
For Reference Only
The following are the bylaws are written for membership voting
ARTICLE IV
Trustees
SECTION 3. Election: The initial members of the Board of Trustees shall be appointed in accordance with Section 5 below. Thereafter, Trustees shall be elected by majority vote of the Full Members voting.
Section 5 ( excerpt )
Trustees shall be elected for three-year terms with two trustees from the East, and two Trustees from the West being elected annually at the end of their three-year terms.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR VOTING ( part of Section 7 )
Only Full Members in good standing may vote. Only votes on official ballots will be counted. Mark your official ballot and write or print your name and AHRMA membership number on the ballot. Mail or deliver your ballot to the address printed on the ballot. If you do not include your name on your ballot, your ballot will not be counted.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to another great year of AHRMA racing
I believe that only full competition members should be allowed to vote,as we are the ones that have time and money in owning and racing our vintage machines. I dont believe associate members should be allowed to vote. Also a poll on facebook doesn”t seem to be a very fair way to conduct what should be a democratic process to run an organization.
Wow! Just found this. I’m old and don’t do the electronic well. Don’t believe a Facebook poll works well with our membership.
Everyone needs to be informed by mail or email, or its not real.
Matt you request to be informed by email, so you have access to the Facebook page like 99% of our membership today. Should we contract with carrier pigeons for the few that use them? AHRMA is moving forward, actually that’s not correct AHRMA is trying to catch-up to the current sate of the world. NOTHING should be mailed today, there is no justification to the cost and work involved. We bank online, pay bills online, shop online, book hotels & flights online, buy our groceries online, we use SERIES TRACKER to enter races online.
Wow Mike, on edge much? Matt’s statement about taking a Facebook poll is a viable one as a few online polls suggest that only 40% of the population over the age of 50 uses Facebook or other online instant media pages. The call out for using “Carrier Pigeon” is also a bit low, don’t you think? He made comment about using email as well, I just looked thru my email and never received one regarding a poll or vote on changing voting standards regarding the trustees and I bet you did not as well. Also, your 99% of users have access to Facebook is a bit low. There is only 5,650 follower and I believe AHRMA membership is well north of 10,000. I understand that things get heated over a lot of topics and Trustee Voting can be one, but an individual can be a bit more civil in discussions of this nature and online. I for one do follow the AHRMA Facebook page, but I do not frequent it enough for it to come up on my news feed page. Have another cup of coffee, relax and maybe be more helpful and not so condescending towards others. Especially to an individual that probably has more racing history under his belt than most others West of the Mississippi.
“…I believe AHRMA membership is well north of 10,000. ”
AHRMA’s total membership is in the low 3,000’s. My source for this information is the home page of the website you are reading right now. Click on “home” up there on the top left and scroll to the bar about half way down.
David Aldana is actually a very experienced pigeon racer — if you would like to pursue this information-delivery idea, his contact information is on this website and in every issue of Vintage Views. Hopefully he can help.
Hi Matt James…..
To address your concern. I am a member in good standings with AHRMA, have been for nearly 20 years now, and I agree with your concern. I am also a race promoter myself. I deal with all ages/types of racers and I will tell you that I do not rely on Facebook alone. I do all sources of marketing, for all the different types of folks that come to my events. May it be email blast, snail-mail, Facebook advertising, Internet marketing, flyers at local shops, calls to old riders, etc. I do what it takes to make sure everyone is informed. A well-round marketing campaign will always produces well attend functions. No one is left out that way, especially the older vintage guys/gals who are not techo-savy! It’s just the way it is.
There was a well attended discussion on this topic on the AHRMA Members Only Facebook page. As Kevin Burns has pointed out, this Facebook page has more AHRMA members signed up than typically participate in AHRMA elections. A poll conducted on that Facebook page was in favor of this change by a huge margin, 6 to 1 or 7 to 1. 150 people participated in that poll, vastly more than the attendance at any town hall meeting or open comment session AHRMA has ever conducted, and, while we’re at it, more discussion than any topic ever covered on the website you are reading right now. The assertion “zero warning to or input from the membership” is not true.
There are more than a few members who do not think the previous voting system was giving them adequate representation, and do not think that all trustees do an adequate job of representing all members. By making all trustees answerable to the voting of all members this problem can be corrected.
I agree that there was not enough time for potential candidates to decide if they want to run given the timing of this change of procedure, the deadline should be pushed back a week.
Bob Burns
1. The whole survey and poll were done on a private Facebook page with no official connection to AHRMA, AHRMA has their own official Facebook page, so why wasn’t that one used? 2. When posting the survey and poll, Kevin stated on several occasional that both the survey and poll were not official and would not be used by the EB to make any decisions on changes to voting procedures. That was obviously an outright lie.
3. Isn’t there a process in place where proposed changes to AHRMA rules are submitted, then voted upon by all Trustees twice during the year, and then enacted at the beginning of the following year. Why was this procedure not followed?
4. Concerning the inflammatory comments made by one of the current Trustee candidates made in his statement against several other Trustees and officers, that person should be removed as a candidate! The reason I say this is because in today’s corporate world, actions such as this would be grounds for dismissal at most, or withdrawal from consideration for election to whatever post for which he is running in the election. This request for removal is based on the oft-repeated phrase that ‘AHRMA is moving forward into the modern world’.
Please explain why we have Western and Eastern Trustees give that we can now vote in both regions? What then is the purpose of having Eastern and Western Trustees?
Given that we have an election coming up please identify who on the Board voted to allow associated members to vote, and who voted to allow members to vote four time and in both regions?
Also, I assume the Board voted to not follow the Bylaws regarding associate members voting so please identify how each Trustee voted on that issue.
Thanks for that Matt!
My worry is the attitude and direction AHRMA is headed, I see it taking a nosedive… it surely isn’t what it was when WE created it. The road racing has gone in the tank for numerous reason, mainly too many classes thus watering down the original ones to near nothing. I’ll most likely be racing at Laguna Seca in July, AHRMA wont be. 🙂
This change should have had member input and should not have been announced so late in the Trustee election process.
Also, your notice above says,”Full members can vote while ASSOCIATE MEMBERS CANNOT AS WRITTEN IN THE BYLAWS, however associate members have voted as a practice. A bylaw change is required to enable associate members to be eligible to vote.”
My question is then why were associate members allow to vote, and why should they be allowed to vote? Also, the notice does not say when or if the Bylaws have been or will be changed. Does the current Board believe that the bylaws do not control what that Board can do? Shouldn’t the full members who are actually allowed to vote have the opportunity to provide input to a change in the Bylaws?
Such dramatic changes could possibly influence a person’s decision whether or not to run for the position of Trustee. However, this decision/announcement has been made – with zero warning to or input from the membership – *after* the deadline for submitting candidate statements, eliminating the possibility of that person getting on the ballot.
It would not be reasonable to publish on the website a “list of candidates that are eligible for the vote” unless the write-in option will also be eliminated without notice. All current members in good standing are eligible.
Since day one, Trustees have always represented the entire membership, so that is not a change. More specifically: For the vast majority of those who have served, it wouldn’t be a change…
Will the breakdown of the trustee votes be published?