BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council Board of Directors is composed of local stakeholders who represent the diverse interests of the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed. Each of them lives, works and/or plays in the basin. (Board members pictured above, from left to right: Austin Larson, Don Bennett, John DeLuca, Greg Barrowcliff, Chandra LeGue, Jesse Jones, Nathan Keffer, Jeremy Light, Justin Overdevest, Barb Hazen.)
Board Bylaws Vote
It is time to revise the MFWWC’s Bylaws to bring us into the Virtual Age and into compliance with revised laws. The proposed changes have been reviewed and approved by our attorney. On Mar 23 the BOD voted to recommend them to the membership for approval. A summary of the proposed changes is below. Electronic copies of the old and new Bylaws are linked here so you can compare them.
The biggest change is that in voting for these Bylaws you will make this the last vote of the membership as the new Bylaws eliminate voting members. We have noticed that over the past 10 or so years you have voted with your feet, attending work parties, field trips and other events and that participation in actual votes has declined to a very precious few participants. In addition, the only thing we have voted on recently besides Bylaw amendments is the election of BOD members. Eliminating voting members and having the BOD take on the decisions the members used to vote on will save us the time and money spent on elections. We will have non-voting members and those who wish to influence what we are doing can still contact BOD members or perhaps join the BOD themselves.
The next big change is that we can no longer have non-voting Directors on the BOD. We want to have representatives of our partner agencies whose jobs prohibit a voting membership on the BOD remain in their valued roles. These Bylaws establish a Board of Advisors which meets concurrently with the BOD.
There are several changes which bring the BOD into the Virtual Age. Gone are the telephonic conferences and paper ballots which are replaced by virtual meetings and electronic votes. Consensus minus one remains the BOD’s standard for decision making in every situation except the removal of BOD or Executive Committee members which only requires a 2/3 majority or majority vote of the BOD depending on the circumstances. The responsibilities of the BOD and Officers were updated to align with our practices.
Finally, we clarify the financial oversight, delineating 3 different layers of responsibility in everyday operations and giving the BOD discretion as to whether we have an audit or a review and when we do it.
The BOD respectfully requests a “Yes” vote to adopt the new Bylaws.