ENCORE

Exploring New Concepts Of Retirement Education


May 25: General Membership Meeting (cont)

From our Director, Marjie Spence:

We are planning for an important general membership meeting of ENCORE in May. Our Bylaws committee has made some suggestions for changes to our current Bylaws. These changes were discussed and approved by your Board, but must be voted on by the membership.

One suggested change is to have the Annual General Membership meeting in May. The term of office for Board members would become June 1 to May 31. This would allow time during the summer months for planning by the officers. Our membership year will still begin September 1.

You will receive a copy of the proposed by-laws changes prior to the Annual General Membership meeting. Also at the May meeting we will be honoring our instructors without whom we would not have the excellent academic input that is critical to our purpose of being a dynamic learning-in-retirement organization.


From the Chair of the Bylaws Ad Hoc Committee, Helen McDaniel:

The most important change the committee suggested refers to the annual membership meeting. It has been held in September of every year since ENCORE was established. This being the case, the new board members are always confronted with plans already in place for the Fall quarter classes, and possibly Winter plans, already in place. There is very little time for a retreat to discuss goals and challenges facing the current year. Most of these issues will have been addressed by the previous board by that time.

So we have made the suggestion to change the annual meeting and the time for election of board officers to the month of May. Although classes will still be in operation at that time, all decisions for that school year will have been made. The new board can then avail itself of the summer months to get organized for the coming year. It will give new officers a chance to interact with the outgoing officers, thus assuring a smoother transition. All in all it should make for less hectic planning for all ENCORE activities and events.

The committee also did some "housekeeping" changes to the bylaws. For example, it suggested the position of "Director" be changed to "President" and “Vice Director” to become “Vice President” to conform better with the common practice of other organizations. We also corrected awkward wording here and there, but left the more important items, such as membership terms, intact.

The ENCORE Board approved the committee's suggestions as presented at the January 2012 Board meeting. All current members of ENCORE will receive a copy of the Bylaws with the proposed changes before the membership meeting in May 2012. At that time there will be a discussion and the members will be asked to vote on whether to approve the changes.

Should anyone want any information prior to the May meeting, committee chair Helen McDaniel will be available to answer any questions at (503) 325-8933.