Topic: May 4, 2009 General Meeting
A general meeting of the membership will be held on Monday, May 4th, at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT in the AIM chatroom ASFAR. This general meeting will be for the purpose of conducting extensive bylaw revision in order to remedy the anti-democratic modifications made by ex-member la Rose without providing sufficient notification to other members, as well as nominating and appointing a new director to fill the spot left by the resignation of la Rose lackey Kelvin Oliver. The most important and critical revision is the proposed addition of a clause called the "Application of the Principle of Contextual Adaptability," which, as its name indicates, seeks to avoid future entanglement in the "letter of the law" by instead focusing on the "spirit of the law." This doctrine obviously stands in direct contrast to the proclamation of my predecessor that "[t]he letter of the law and the spirit of the law are never in conflict." My administration will instead focus on the ends as opposed to rigid adherence to previously utilized means that ultimately inhibit those ends.
So if you have your copy of the ASFAR Bylaws handy, you'll want to refer back to it if you want to examine the proposed changes we'll be making at the meeting. Without further ado, here is the agenda:
1. Whether http://asfar.nfshost.com shall be adopted as a temporary substitute for the ASFAR web site, in response to suspended member Svag la Rose’s seizure of control over the former website as retaliation against his removal from the Board of Directors by the general membership.
2. Whether a clause shall be added to the ASFAR bylaws titled “Application of the Principle of Contextual Adaptability,” and comprised of the text “In consideration of the situational exigencies that warrant occasional deviation from the rigidity of impersonal and unwaveringly strict application of and adherence to the bylaw articles contained herein, the application of a principle of contextual adaptability shall govern the interpretation of said articles, thus permitting deviation from technical components that would have the relatively indisputable effect of inhibiting the objects of the corporation.”
3. Whether Article 1 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “and mailing address” and replacing with “[comma] immediate means of contact such as electronic mailing address, and state of residence.”
4. Whether Article 5 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by adding “or engaging in actions sufficiently contrary to furthering the objects of the corporation. Reinstatement of members expelled by the Board may be conducted through another 2/3 vote of the Board or a 2/3 vote of the general membership in accordance with Article 13 of the ASFAR bylaws.”
5. Whether article 6 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “on the ballot for the annual meeting” and replacing with “at a general meeting of the membership. Reinstatement of members expelled by the general membership may be conducted through another ¾ vote of the general membership. The Board may not reverse a general membership decision to expel a member, in accordance with Article 35 of the ASFAR bylaws.”
6. Whether Article 7 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “fifteenth and thirty-first day of January” and replacing with “twenty-fifth day of January and tenth day of February.”
7. Whether Article 11 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking Section C, “if a director becomes bankrupt or suspends payment or compounds with his creditors.”
8. Whether Article 12 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by adding “A member shall possess the right to be allotted a minimum of fifteen minutes of debate time on any issue, as measured by a direct countdown of a block of time from the period that the member begins his or her address. At the point at which this fifteen minutes has expired, a motion to silence the member via a 2/3 majority vote may be introduced.”
9. Whether Article 19 of the ASFAR bylaws (“Proxies Forbidden”) shall be struck and replaced with a new article entitled, "Proxies permitted for Board of Directors meetings. Directors may vote by proxy on any question determined by live vote. Directors voting by proxy shall be considered present only for purposes of determining quorum and vote count."
10. Whether Article 21 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “In no case shall the board consist of fewer than six or more than twelve directors.”
11. Whether Article 22 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “No person shall be elected or appointed a director who shall not have been a member of the corporation for ninety (90) calendar days.”
12. Whether Article 29 of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by adding “A director shall possess the right to be allotted a minimum of fifteen minutes of debate time on any issue, as measured by a direct countdown of a block of time from the period that the member begins his or her address. At the point at which this fifteen minutes has expired, a motion to silence the director via a 2/3 majority vote may be introduced.”
13. Whether Article 37, Section B (Appointment of Officers) of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking “The board of directors shall appoint the regular officers by resolution at the first meeting of the board of directors after the annual meeting,” and replacing with “The regular officers shall be elected annually by members of the corporation at a meeting of that body to be held two weeks after the election of the Board of Directors at the annual meeting. Resolutions to remove regular officers shall be implemented through a 2/3 affirmative vote at a meeting of the general membership.”
14. Whether Article 54, Section B of the ASFAR bylaws shall be amended by striking "The question of whether the proposed amendment shall be adopted shall appear on the same ballot as the election of directors."
15. Nomination and appointment of ASFAR member to fill vacant Board of Directors position.
Please feel free to post comments regarding this agenda here, as well as any stated intents to seek the nomination to the ASFAR Board in order to fill the currently vacant seat. Regarding attendance, I'm hoping there will be some crossover from the NYRA informal chat scheduled at approximately the same time. 
