Report from the Grand Council: January 1998

To the Directors, Greetings.

During the last quarter the Grand Council continued detailed discussion and revision of the report on election mechanics prepared by subcommittee. We have one request for information related to that report.

1. Items Requiring Board Action

Earlier, E. F. Morrill asked the Council to investigate the cost of having ballots counted by an independent body, it the directors were to be elected by vote of the membership. One of the Council investigated, and was told that some banks offer this service. It seems reasonable to begin by asking the Society's bank if they do this, and failing that, inquire of other banks convenient to the corporate office.

This could probably be done best by someone in the area of the corporate office, preferably someone who deals with people at whatever bank the Society uses. Could the directors have this task assigned to someone, and have them get back to you (and us) with the results?

2. Detailed Status Report: Other Work Done by Council:

Election Proposal

The GC is still working on the election proposal. So far, it still looks a lot like the proposal Greg Rose sent to the Board earlier. Significant changes from the last version sent up include provision for the Board to appoint interim directors to replace those that do not complete their term, and replacement of the proposal's original lifetime two term limit with a restriction on serving more than six years out of nine.

Many of us wanted to include a method onto the ballot besides gathering a petition, although there is currently no clear consensus as to whether including this extra route onto the ballot would be more or less desirable than nomination by petition only. We will probably at least include some sort of nominating committee alternative as an option in our final report.

There are some other details not yet resolved, such as possibly including some sort of yes/no voting system. It doesn't look like these issues will affect election cost much, if at all.

E. F. Morrill asked us to examine qualification requirements, such as real world or Society administrative experience. We didn't feel that an objective standard for a rigid requirement on this was practical, and couldn't think of any similar organizations that used this kind of standard successfully.

3. Summary

The Grand Council reported that it is continuing work on the potential mechanics and costs of electing directors by the membership. It noted that if independent tabulation by an outside body is desired, this service might be available from some banks. It suggested that inquiries begin with the bank the corporation uses.

Respectfully submitted

Will McLean (Galleron de Cressy)
29 Sam Hill Rd,
Malvern, PA 19355
(610) 827-1360 mclean1382@aol.com
Secretary, GC.