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Annual Meeting HISTORY - Printable Version

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Annual Meeting HISTORY - WA1TRY - 11-11-2022

Just to clear up confusion regarding our normal December business meetings.  We have almost always had an official meeting in December ever since I can remember.   The area of misconception is that we DON'T have official meetings in December.  That is not true.

 There are multiple references in our club constitution and bylaws to our "Annual Meeting".  In short that is the meeting where we actually elect our officers. It is often referred to as the last business meeting of the year.    

In article VI - Meetings under Section 3 it's clearly defined.  "The last REGULAR business meeting of the CALENDAR year which is held in November shall be the annual meeting."

HOWEVER the preceding Article VI reference to the annual meeting is simply defining ONE special meeting out of a total of 12.  People are mistakenly taking that to mean there were to be NO OTHER meetings until the next calendar year.  THIS IS NOT CORRECT. We have historically had MANY official December meetings.

The BYLAWS state:  Regular meetings shall be held twice each month on alternate Thursday Evenings...  That is EACH MONTH folks.  

Last I heard there were 12 months in the calendar year.  

You'll find references to MARC business meetings going back to 1948.  A few I pulled out of the archives:  1949-12-10, 1950-12-16, 1956-12-18, 1969-12-15, 1975-12-15 and many more that document official meetings that where held in December.

I believe some time about 30 or more years ago we decided to make our "normal December meetings” part of a holiday party.  That continued thru out the years for the most part.  Please note there are MANY references in Key Klix and our club secretary minutes and other media showing a formal meeting called and run in DECEMBER for many years before and after we decided to combine our regular December meeting to be part of our holiday celebration party.   

We have historically introduced our newly elected officers at each DECEMBER meeting.  The reference to our "annual meeting" was only about that special NOVEMBER meeting.  We have historically had a meeting almost every MONTH for 12 months EVERY year.   There WERE a few years where we cancelled the summer activity meetings.

I've been an "active" member continuously for 47 years next month.  I remember when our outgoing President would call to the order each December meeting and introduce new members and the newly elected officers and the secretary would record the minutes.   The December business meeting was always an abbreviated one, originally called to order  to introduce honored guests and welcome any new members and finally introduce the newly elected officers.  The "official" meeting was then adjourned and the entertainment committee then began handing out the awards and certificates of merit, ending with the Ham of the Year and Elmer award.  In the old days we often had a small awards committee that worked to provide additional awards and certificates of merit but the HOY and Elmer were always the "only" award voted on by the members.   

Of course the President can cancel or reschedule any meeting.  And meetings have been cancelled for various reasons over the years. But this club has a recorded history of having meetings every month, including the month of December. Dig up just about any January issue of Key Klix and you’ll often SEE the secretary’s minutes for DECEMBER there.

So we seem have forgotten that the decades of Christmas Parties historically were in the beginning just regular December meetings until we decided to add food and drink and yes even exchange presents and make it a meeting AND party.     

73, WA1TRY - MARC Club Historian


RE: Annual Meeting HISTORY - N1API - 11-11-2022

Absolutely true.   And the December meeting was usually a brief one to introduce the new officers, and vote in new members.  We did away with the things all the committee reports, old business, new business, discussions so we could get down to partying.   But there was always an official opening and closing of the meeting.