When I was on the board of directors for a credit union it was common to have only a small fraction of the credit union's membership attend the annual meeting. It was rather amazing that 5 or 10% or less of the membership would vote on and approve (or not) important things such as bylaws, board members, board officers, and annual budgets. I wondered (but not worried) what would happen if a large number of members with their own agenda showed up.
Well, I saw just that happen this past Sunday. It wasn't a credit union but the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library (FSPL). There are about 2,300 members of the Friends in a library system with 630,000 library card holders. But those 2,300 account for between $200,000 and $300,000 in annual gifts to the library system. Not too shabby! It's a little more complicated because under the umbrella organization of FSPL (System Friends) there are 28 branches - one for each branch library. There is also a Library Foundation which raises considerably more than that through major fundraisers and capital campaigns. Because of the potential and actual overlap of activities, a committee has been working for the past two years to assign duties and responsibilities to the various entities. It has not been an easy task and there has been some differences of opinion. We just had no idea how strong those differences were.
Sunday afternoon, at our usual annual meeting where attendance is usually 40 or 50, we were surprised that it was more like 100 to 120. We were also surprised that when nominations from the floor were called for instead of a moment of silence, people rose to nominate 4 board members and an alternate candidate for President. It was all perfectly legal but totally unexpected by at least half the crowd. Printed ballots appeared on cue followed by the main speaker while the votes were counted. Following the meeting, three of us board members resigned because either (1) we felt we could not work with the new president, (2) we could not work with a coalition which seized power by stealth, or (3) were committed to the slate proposed by the nominating committee.
It was over with almost before it began. I had planned to serve another year but now find myself with several free hours each month that I hadn't planned on.
Moral of the story: read your bylaws carefully.
Did all of this have something to do with Gov. Brown's withdrawing state funding for libraries?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a movie a saw as a kid while in Portland--I was in the 7th grade I think. Some stockholders were upset with the board of their company and couldn't get anywhere with them. So when when notice of the annual meeting came, along with proxies, one found out what was required to run for the Board, and did--she made a mass mailing to other stockholders.I think other stockholders also ran--like your Library thing. Management got changed and stockholders got happy. This was in the 50's.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
To Jessica: No it doesn't. The state funding of our library system is negligible. It has more to do with people getting their nose out of shape.
ReplyDeleteTo Marilyn: I've seen a movie like that and I always thought we were supposed to root for the takeover but now I'm not so sure.