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3.1 Order of Business
3.1(1)M The order of business for regular meetings of the Membership shall be as listed below. An item missed or skipped will be in order later in the meeting.
[8/74. The requirement that committees report "in the order mentioned" (in the By-Laws and Standing Rules) was deleted in 8/83. Originally the Executive Board reported immediately after the Treasurer; this was also changed in 8/83, to match the practice that had developed in recent years.]
[The order in which committees are listed in Chapter I largely corresponds to the order of business actually followed at the time of the 1/84 edition of the Standing Rules.]
3.1(1A)F President: The current order of business for "real" committees is: Rules; Membership; Finance; Nominating; Boskone(s); Gaughan Award; Clubhouse; Archivist; Lexicon; Codclave; Sales; NESFA Press; Library; Program; Journal; Fellowship/Banquet; Collator; Press Gang; MCFI Liaison; Worldcon Liaison; Index Production; Insurance; Hotel; Procurement; Skylark; Hymnal/Filksong; Story Contest; T-Shirt. [5/92; 3/95: Book Production renamed NESFA Press]
3.1(2)M WHEREAS, Much of the business of NESFA meetings concerns the reports of Officers and Committees, and
WHEREAS, the Membership is greatly inconvenienced when Officers and Committee chairmen are absent or late at meetings without having made alternative arrangements for the presentation of their reports,
RESOLVED, that it is the opinion of the Membership that the Officers and Committee Chairmen should make every effort to arrive at business meetings on time, or to provide for the timely submission of their reports in their absence.
[12/70. In 11/70 a $1.00 fine for showing up late was passed; this proved unenforceable, and was replaced by the above resolution.]
3.2 Motions
3.2(1)M At any meeting, motions can be made: by the Executive Board; by any Committee; by any Regular Member, if seconded by at least one other Regular Member; by any other Member, if seconded by at least two Regular Members. [7/71*]
3.2(2)M Any motion made and passed with only non-substantive objections shall be denoted as: Moved, Seconded, and Hartered. [8/71, memorializing Mr. Harter's practice of voting against virtually all motions; cf. Section A.15(2).]
3.2(3)M Any motion which is defeated by many votes to one shall be referred to in the minutes as having been Moved, Seconded, and Defeated (Chipped). [5/83, reworded 8/83; in this case memorializing a motion voted for by only Chip Hitchcock.]
3.2(4)M A motion may be presented by a Member of any class by sending it, with supporting material if desired, to the Clerk. The next time that new business is in order, the Clerk shall read the motion and supporting material, or enough thereof to convey the intent of the motion and the main reasons for its presentation. If the motion is then seconded by two Regular Members, it shall be considered. [2/73]
3.2(5)F Clerk: Abbreviations used in the minutes for the disposal of motions:
[Codifying previous practice; 8/83, except as noted.]
3.2(6)M Immediately before any vote is taken, and at other reasonable times when requested by a Member, the motion under consideration shall be read exactly as it is written in the Clerk's notes. The text of the motion as reported in the minutes of the meeting shall exactly match those notes read immediately before the vote on that motion. [7/05. This is intended to ensure that the Clerk is given adequate time to accurately transcribe each motion, to provide an opportunity to discover and correct any transcription errors in a timely manner, and to remind the Membership of precisely what they are debating and voting on.]
3.3 Attendance
3.3(1)M An attendance list shall be made available at every meeting by the Membership Committee for those present to sign, and shall be published as part of the minutes of the meeting. The Membership Committee shall use the list in monitoring attendance at meetings, and need not recognize the attendance of any person who does not sign the list. [1/81. The first attendance list published in IM was in 10/69.]
3.3(2)M Attendance at a business meeting is defined as being present for one hour during the meeting or for half the duration of the meeting, whichever period is shorter. [9/82; 3/93, changed from "the entire duration" to "half the duration"]
3.4 Puns
3.4(1)M Whoever intentionally makes a pun during any meeting of the Membership shall be fined ten cents for the first pun, twenty-five cents for each of the next four puns, and fifty cents for each subsequent pun at the same meeting. [12/68: 1 to 5 cents per pun, by vote of the Membership. 6/71: 5 cents for all puns. 8/79: 10 cents for all puns after the first. 3/82: 10 cents for first, 25 cents for subsequent puns. 11/82: 50-cent clause added (but usually not enforced afterward).]
3.4(2)F President: A pun need not be in words. [8/79: "...and that cost the Clerk a nickel."]
3.4(3)M Pun fines must be paid in cash, not from advance accounts. [pre-1974]
3.4(4)M At the Annual Meeting, a "Punster of the Year" will be elected with an extra fine levied on that person of $5.00. [8/73, with $1.00 fine; raised to $5.00 3/82. In recent years this has often been omitted for lack of interest. On the other hand, it is traditional (but not mandatory) to double pun fines at the Annual Meeting.]
3.4(5)M All pun fines collected shall be credited to the Clubhouse Kitty. [3/82, assigned pun fines to the Building Fund; 5/92, repealed – that fund no longer exists; 10/04, assign pun fines to the Clubhouse Kitty.]
3.4(6)M The Treasurer shall report the total pun fines collected during each meeting. [11/82]
3.4(7)M Any person whose beeper or alarm watch goes off during a meeting of the Membership shall be fined in accordance with the schedule of pun fines in effect at the meeting during which the incident occurs. [9/85]
3.5 Scheduling
[See By-Laws: Sections 2.1 (regular
meetings), 2.2 (Annual Meeting), 2.3 (special meetings).]
3.5(1)M An "Other Meeting" is not a meeting of the Membership as defined in the By-Laws, but simply a gathering for committee meetings, apa collation, and other activities. NESFA's ordinary (but not mandatory) practice is to hold a business meeting in the first half of each month, and an Other Meeting in the second half of the month. Both business meetings and Other Meetings are ordinarily held on Sunday afternoons.
[8/83. Originally there were two business meetings every month. (Reportedly the meeting day was set as Sunday because Star Trek was on TV Friday nights.) In 10/70 the Executive Board voted to experiment with having the second meeting of a month be a "program activities meeting"; the first was held in 12/70, but it was a while before they became regular. The term "Other Meeting" seems to have been first used in 4/71. From 3/71 to 2/73 there was a rule setting the dates of business meetings and Other Meetings as the second and fourth Sundays respectively. In 1/73 a special meeting voted to have three meetings a month (Business, Other, and Program); it was tried a couple of times, but didn't really work.]
3.5(2)F Clerk: Committee heads or Officers who would like to schedule things at an Other Meeting should contact the Clerk as early as possible. This means before the Instant Message previous to the meeting. [pre-1974]
3.5(3)M No meetings will be held in Members' houses without their permission. [6/73]
3.5(4)M The Membership approves in principle the renting of meeting space. [9/71]
[Until 9/71 virtually all meetings had been held in Members' homes (as Other Meetings still are). Starting in 3/72, meeting space was intermittently rented in a number of hotels and other locations; the Sheraton-Commander in Cambridge came to predominate, and was the site of all meetings from 9/74 to 3/76. From 4/76 to 5/80, nearly all meetings were held at the Belmont Lions' Club. In 1980-81 Members' homes (especially that of Bill Carton and Kath Horne) and other sites were used again, but from 11/81 on the Belmont Lions' Club was once more the regular meeting site (occasionally replaced by St. Eulalia's Church) until the acquisition of the Clubhouse. With one exception, all meetings since 6/86 have been held in the Clubhouse.]
3.5(5)M When a meeting is cancelled or rescheduled in case of emergency, the decision should be made after consultation with Members, by the Executive Board if possible or otherwise by the President. As many Regular Members as possible should be notified of the decision. Written notice may be waived for such a rescheduled meeting. [4/93, after the 3/93 meeting was postponed because of a blizzard. A challenge to the legality of the rescheduled meeting, because of the lack of written notice (cf. By-Laws Section 2.4), was rejected on the basis of the emergency situation; a motion to overturn this ruling received no second.]
3.6 Miscellaneous
3.6(1)M There shall be an office of Parliamentarian of NESFA, as described in Robert's Rules. [11/80, with Membership approval required; simplified 8/83.]
3.6(2)M RESOLVED, that people who wish to smoke at NESFA meetings take into consideration the physical conditions of the meeting place and the comfort of other Members. (It was felt that it would be better to handle this first on the level of courtesy and politeness and then as a point of personal privilege rather than a hard-and-fast rule.) [12/70, replacing a flat prohibition of smoking voted in 11/70.]
3.6(3)E It was the consensus of the Board that NESFA Members should not have to pay a fee for special NESFA parties but non-Members attending these should. [11/71]
3.6(4)M A motion to overrule the Chair and disallow the transfer of a proxy at the will of the assigned recipient failed, confirming the right of a proxy holder to further transfer the proxy unless otherwise provided in the proxy. [5/86]
3.6(5)F Rules Committee: A proxy may be transmitted by electronic mail, but must still be presented in written form during the meeting for which it is valid. [1/93]
3.6(6)M A precedent was set that a pun may be auctioned off. [8/93, with the proceeds going to the pun fund]
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